going back further then 1831

[NORMANTHEDOG]

we have traced our family back to the early 1830s,but seem to come to a halt,any tips on how we can get any further back to the 1700s,many thanks.

[dot.hawkes]

you have many more sources than ater 1831 but they are not always as accessible and they may not always contain records of your ancestors.
The first thing you have to do is find out what records they are likely to have appeared in.
they should all be in the Parish Registers for baptism, marriage and burial, and that is a common starting point.
They may have left Wills or letters of administration of they didn;t have a will, Wills before 1858 were dealt with by the Ecclesiastical courts and the country was divided up into church courts at various levels, and depending on where you owned property the wills could be in any court up. people with even the meagrest of posessions may have had a will written for them by the pariosh Clerk. The records of wills extant will be at the relevant County record Office,
the records of the Quarter Session courts are likely to contain records related to the rich and poor alike, the rich may have been church wardens or overseers of the poor and the poor may have been brought before the local parish churchwardens for vagrancy, illegitimate children, deserting a family, falling on hard times in another parish not their parish of settlement or for a tyoe of public order or petty crime, these also will be found at your county record office.
Occupational records are varied but many apprenticeship bonds from masters or the Poor law survive, again at the CRO.
It is a case of visiting your local CRO, even if your ancestors are from another county, and obtaining a readers ticket, which are free with usually 2 forms of id including address, and getting to know what indexes and records are there.

[pedantic]

In general, how amenable are the clergy in helping to see the church records? I can't go any further back in my history without seeing parish births, marriges and deaths.

I need to go to the churches in Bath.

[jocon]

For a good listing of genealogy research sites on the internet look up Cyndi's List.

Most of these sites let you make some sort of preliminary search to start you off.

Good luck.