----- Original Message ----- From: gordon crooks To: PAFRANKL-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Tuesday, December 26, 2006 8:47 AM Subject: Traceing ancestors I have been in contact with a friend in Antrim, N, Ireland on the subject of how hard it is to trace of ancestors. This is part of his answer: "About the only folk that I know of who have successfully traced their roots back to Scotland and Ireland are the "great and the good" of here. I mean those who held more than a tenant farmers plot of land, they would have left wills and records of land deals, They also would have fine grave monuments of basalt or granite as opposed to sandstone which weathers within 50 years. Most of those of the sub-tenant farmer class would have had no grave headstones. In addition to which almost all townland and parish records from 1400-1700 do not exist." So unlike here in the USA wills and such were not generally written. This friend has been able to trace about 50% of his early ancestors in Ireland and have been totally unable to trace them back to Scotland. Gordon Crooks