I’ve found some family documentary evidence back to around 1520, but nothing beyond that. Yep, 500 years is the wall.
The earliest record we can find is just a few years after that in Alt Bork. Its surprising how many records remain from that time. No one has found any going further back yet. I dont know that they will. My sir names supposed meaning and this location has me suspecting that our branch may have changed/adopted a new one at that time.
There is a weird family story that has been passed along for a long time and no one knows where it started or how long its been passed along. We suspected it was from the mid 1700s but I have to wonder if its really possible that this story goes back further. It would fit what we know and match locations and records of relatives quite well in both mid 1500 and 1700s.
Oral traditions can last thousands of years, I wonder what my kids farming some distant planet will think.
I’ve heard tell that, due to the longtime surname changing convention in Iceland, meticulous records have been kept for more than five centuries to limit consanguinity. But hardly anyone has Icelandic ancestry unless they live there. :^)