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The LDS records are mixed. I hate to criticize them for all the good intent of their valuable work. It is not the Church that is at fault, but their effort is only as accurate as the effort to document the submissions. Those which come directly from Official records are the most reliable. I am sure it is their intent to have the best and most accurate records available, but they are let down by careless, inaccurate or motivated submissions and unreliable sources. The LDS used to have a Medieval unit which was recording information from the Visitations and other sources. However, this unit was disbanded and private submission were accepted into the Ancestral File. From there on the record is very spotty. I have one ancestor shown as born in 1469. Her grandfather is shown as born in 1474! Unfortunately someone deliberately fudged this relationship in order to gain a Royal Descent for my ancestor which she does not have through this link. The man who is shown as her grandfather is actually her brother.
The Beckwith descent from Odin is a fabrication. There are a number of other Descents from Antiquity (known as DFA's) which are equally fabulous. Where so many pedigrees fall apart is grafting the gateway immigrant on to a family of the same name in England or elsewhere. Many 1800's family histories are extremely faulty or fabrications of early ancestry.
It may be that some of the information you found is from _The Beckwiths_ by Paul Beckwith (Albany: Joel Munsell's Sons Publishers, 1891). This is a very flawed work. Just one example is the complete fabrication of making the immigrant Matthew Beckwith to Connecticut, a son of Marmaduke Beckwith. Matthew's ancestry is unknown.
As to your query about surviving records, there are numerous records: Pipe, Plea, Calendar Rolls, Cartularies, etc. going back hundreds of years. Many of the British ones are held by the British Musuem or the PRO (http://www.pro.gov.uk/catalogues/).The PRO has over 9 million records. Although very few are permitted to see the originals, there are published extracts available. I imagine you would be surprised at how very many medieval documents survive.
The best forum for the Medieval period is soc.genealogy.medieval where some of the best scholars hang out. However, there are also some fragile egos and malcontents so a strong stomach is necessary to survive some of the flame wars. However, there is much to be learned as well. The link for more information and FAQ is at:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~medieval/
Good luck.
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