The Pickering family trees on the following pages are named and dated after the first known member and are shown in their complete form. They are colour coded according to branch to distinguish them from other branches and so that their moves can be traced over the various Yorkshire parishes and beyond (see maps: East Riding, North Riding, West Riding, Other Counties, Overseas).
The trees have been built on data derived from as wide a range as possible of documentary evidence. Some connections are inevitably based on circumstantial evidence, educated guesses and common sense, and where there is room for doubt the name appears in black.
For the sake of consistency, the birth / baptism, marriage and death / burial dates are all shown according to the Gregorian calendar. The latter was adopted in the catholic countries of Europe in either 1582 or within the following decade. However, the protestant countries, rebelling against any directive emanating from Rome, maintained the Julian calendar, which is slightly shorter. But they eventually realised the wisdom of the reform, with Great Britain and its possessions finally adopting the Gregorian calendar in 1752. All events on the following pages that took place before 25 March in a given year up to and including 1752 are therefore counted in the following year.