Information about the Database

Target audience
STIRNET GENEALOGY is targeted at all people who have any English, Scottish, Irish or Welsh blood in them and who are researching their ancestry, whatever their reasons for doing so.

Scope of the databaseTop of page
The Families Database is divided into 3 sections:
Section I - Ancient & Mythical
Section II - Continental Families - Medieval & Renaissance
Section III - British Families - Medieval, Renaissance & Modern.

For this purpose, 'British' includes all families in the British Isles which comprise Great Britain (England, Scotland & Wales), Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man. With only a few exceptions, we include only British families & their ancestors and we do not come more forward in time than generations where the eldest was born by 1800. In practice this often takes the database well into the Victorian era. We normally include non-British families only for the following:
- ancestors of the Kings & Queens of England & Ireland down to Elizabeth I (d 1603).
- ancestors of the Kings & Queens of Scotland down to Mary (deposed 1567, d 1587).
- ancestors of the Kings & Queens of England, Scotland & Ireland down to James II / VII (deposed 1689, d 1701).
The ancestral lines letterings will help you trace back the ancestries of many of these royals.

With no exceptions, we shall not include a family in the database until we have found a connection between that family and another family that is already in the database.

Reliability of the database's contents
Internet-based genealogical databases are renowned for their inaccuracy and unreliability. We are trying to make our database as accurate, reliable & secure as is reasonably possible but we know that complete reliability is simply not possible. This is because many of the sources we are obliged to use are not themselves fully reliable. We deal with this problem, and draw your attention to it, as well as we can. See the caveat on Introduction to the Database which leads you to Occasionally Asked Questions for further comment on this tricky matter.

Screen settingTop of page
The site has been designed to be viewed with monitors set at 1024 x 768 pixels. Monitors set differently (eg. widescreen) may display strange results. If you are not sure what this means then, if the display seems OK, just ignore this note. Otherwise, it may be worth your while to check & amend your monitor settings. The site has been developed using 17" and 19" monitors but should display without major problems on smaller or bigger monitors.

If you have reduced the size of the site display (the part of the screen that is used to display this web site), perhaps by using part of the screen to display the Favourites or History information recorded by your browser or perhaps by not having the site display at maximum size, you may cause some of the pages to look strangely (eg by having text, links, or pictures wrapped in ways they were not designed for). To get the best view of the pages in this site we suggest that you turn off the display of Favourites or History (or similar) information or otherwise maximise the site display whilst you are looking through the site. The same thing applies to almost every web site that you visit.

Throughout most of the site we have used a font size that should be easy for most users to read but don't forget that many browsers have a Text Size function (often within the View menu) that enables you to enlarge or shrink text. The site has been designed with a Medium text size setting in mind.

Printing out
Most of the pages in the site are designed to be printed out with the paper orientated 'Portrait' (tall rather than wide) but with some printers and/or some browsers you may find that 'Landscape' mode (wide rather than tall) works better.

If you want to print out a page in the Families Database, be careful to ensure that you do not by mistake ask your printer to print out the whole database! That can happen, and could freeze your computer as it struggles to print about 3,000 pages, if you have set your printer to 'Print all linked documents' (an option provided by Internet Explorer within the Options tab of the Print instruction).

Moving about the database Top of page
(a) Don't forget that you can use the back & forward arrows provided by your browser. However, if your browser is Microsoft's Internet Explorer, you may lose page positions if you scroll on a page before using those arrows.
(b) If you click on an inter-family link on one of the Family List pages in the Families Database then it should take you to just above the named person within that person's own family. This "just above" will vary from being immediately above to being several lines above but the name should always be visible on the page displayed (unless you are viewing this on a very small screen in which case you might have to scroll down a little). It can happen that, if you go back to the same page in the database more than once in a few days, your browser's memory might send you back to the same part of the page that was relevant last time you went there rather than to the part of the page you want to go to this time. This is a version of the 'memory cache' problem mentioned in (d) below. The same remedies apply.
(c) Near the top-right corner of each page in the Families Database are two Index links:
- pages in Section I only
Lead : this takes you to the top of the Database's lead index page.
Section : this takes you to the index page for this section.
- pages in Sections II and III
Lead : this takes you to the top of the Database's lead index page.
Letter : this takes you to the section's index page for the first letter of the family's name.
(d) We try to ensure that all of our links work properly and apologise in advance for any errors. If you have been to the site before and find that a link that used to work no longer does so, it may be that there has been a change in the site but the 'memory cache' in your computer is trying to direct you to a page that has been moved or deleted. This can normally be remedied simply by clicking on your browser's 'Refresh' button. If you experience this problem frequently, or find that refreshing the page does not work, we suggest that either, from time to time, you clear your browser's memory of your visits around the Internet or you reduce your browser's memory settings.
Please note that refreshing a page (online) whilst in the database area (the database itself plus its support pages) will take you back to the database's Lead Index Page rather than to the page you were at within that area. This is because the whole of that area is treated online as being 'wrapped' within one page which is led by the Lead Index Page.

Bookmarks / Favourite URLsTop of page
If you want to bookmark or otherwise record a page in this site as a Favourite URL, we suggest that you bookmark the Home Page of the site using the site's basic URL (www.stirnet.com). This is because:
1. The Home Page will always be accessible as long as this site is maintained. Other pages may be changed from time to time.
2. You will see what other services & products are offered by this site.

File types and sizes
We are aware that some people still use telecom-modems that are not quick at downloading large files. File sizes of most of the pages in the site, those that contain the Family Lists within the Families Database, are given on the relevant subsidiary (alphabetical) index pages. All file sizes shown are approximate only. Except where reported otherwise, all pages are in HTM, HTML, ASP or PHP format which are the standard formats used by the Internet so, if you can read this, you will not require any additional software. All of the Database's pages are in HTM or HTML which are normally quite efficient with ordinary text but all of the Family List pages contain table formatting instructions (for controlling the layout of the names) that do increase the file sizes a bit. [The fact that the data on the Family List pages are contained within tables is the reason why there can be a small delay until that data is uploaded. The data does not appear until all of the relevant table has been fully uploaded.] The pages also include links to other pages which also increase the file size a bit. There is no easy answer to this for the whole point of the database is to provide access to a lot of data and to show how families interconnect. We will keep the matter under review and, if we see some files becoming too big, may split them into two or more parts. However, there is a compromise to be made between having files that are too large and having too many files. If your modem just can't cope then perhaps you should consider buying a CD that contains our database.

Listings and their colouring systemTop of page
(a) The Family Lists pages list family members and their descendants. However, to avoid repetition, descendants through female lines are normally shown under the families of the husbands/partners.
(b) Siblings are normally listed in order of their date of birth (if known) except that boys are normally listed before girls. Originally no precedence was given to boys over girls but we have moved to that as standard procedure simply in order to maintain consistency firstly between our database and most of the sources we use and secondly within our database.
(c) The standard/default colour for the names on the Family Lists pages is black unless the individual is linked to another place, either on the same page or on another Family List page, in which case it is in the standard blue link colour. Descendants shown through female lines are shown in a pinkish colour.
(d) If a name is given in bold on a Family List page then that shows that in due course (if not already):
- if it is at the top of the page or section, clicking on it will lead to another page that shows that person's ancestors.
- if it is not at the top of the page or section, clicking on it will lead to another page that shows that person's descendants.
If the name (in bold) is already shown underlined and in a link colour then connection to that other page is already available. If a name is not in bold that does not mean that the site will not eventually show that person's ancestors/descendants, only that there are no present plans to do so.

Referencing and abbreviationsTop of page
The Database is structured using a staggered system of 1. A. i. a. (1) (A) (i) (a) ((1)) ((A)) ((i)) ((a)) (((1))) (((A))) etc. to differentiate between the different generations. Dates are structured in the 'simple British way' with (for example) 10.06.1456 representing the 10th June 1456 and 06.1456 representing June 1456. The traditional method (for genealogical databases) of using Roman numerals for months (ie. 10.VI.1456 for 10th June 1456) has not been followed simply to speed up the typing of uploading the database.

Abbreviations used within the Family Lists themselves are explained on the Occasionally Asked Questions page. Abbreviations used within the 'Main sources' notes at the bottom of the Family List pages are explained on the Sources and Acknowledgements page.

Individuals in the Family Lists that are accessible from the Selected Individuals page (Section IV of the Database) are accompanied by the sign § which, if clicked on, will take you to the top of the relevant section on that page. Individuals shown with §P§ have been made the subject of a Pen Profile within Stirnet Histories. Individuals shown with §R§ are ancestors of Princes William & Harry, the sons of Charles Windsor, the present Prince of Wales, who are mentioned on the Royals01 tree. Individuals shown with §T§ are mentioned on the Genealogy Traps page as someone whose genealogy is often misrepresented in other web sites. Clicking on such a sign will take you to the relevant page.

Where letters (from EGHJRSWY) are shown on the right of a page in the database (normally only where there is a link either to a continuation page for a son or to the husband's family of a daughter), this means that the person identified is part of an Ancestral Line.

SpellingTop of page
Please do not get concerned about the spelling of certain names (eg. Ogilvy or Ogilvie; Cunningham or Cunynghame or Cuninghame; Bethune or Beaton). Spelling was not important until recent times so, in the past, you often find the same person spelling his name in different ways. Similar problems arose with place names although, as such affected more people and it was often important to distinguish the places clearly to avoid confusion, they tended to settle to an agreed spelling more quickly than family names. With place names we have generally followed the spelling used in the relevant source. With family names, we have tried to be consistent within families but even that is not always possible. It was not just the family names that varied but also the given names. For example: Jean & Joan were interchangeable and sometimes were mixed up also with Jane and hence Janet, Jonet & Jennet; Helen, Ellen, Ela, Eleanor & Alianore also formed a set of interchangeble names.

One interesting spelling difference is between Stewart and Stuart. The basic family name was Stewart but when Matthew Stewart, 2nd Earl of Lennox, went to live in France he found that the French were unused to the 'w' in the middle of his name and preferred to spell it as Stuart. His family carried on with this. Hence when Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots, married Lord Darnley, eldest son of the 4th Earl of Lennox, the name of the Royal Family changed from Stewart to Stuart and her son, James (VI of Scotland, I of England and Ireland), was a Stuart rather than a Stewart. However, just to confuse the issue, after that James came to the throne it became fashionable for several Stewart families to spell their name as Stuart or Steuart.

We are probably making all sorts of mistakes with the spelling of non-British family names so, for such families, you should be cautious about relying on what is shown in our database should you be using it for any 'formal' purpose. Sometimes we mix up English with French or another language (eg Count de XXX). Although we try to avoid obvious mistakes, the Database is not pretending to be technically correct on titles (or spellings) so please do not complain on this issue unless the 'mistake' leads to confusion between named individuals.

DatesTop of page

Dates are shown in the order day.month.year so that 07.06.2003 means 7th June 2003 (not 6th July 2003). In some cases, the day is omitted (eg. 06.2003 means June 2003). Where the year is given in only 2 digits it is in the 21st century. We would have liked to follow the convention of identifying more clearly the month, perhaps in abbreviated form (eg. Sep or Sept for September or using Roman numerals), but decided not to in order to speed up the typing. Dates given in blue have been found in a source which is not named on the relevant page.

Where "Early" is given for the date on which a list in the database was uploaded, that means that the page was uploaded before 20.09.02.

We would love to be able to give reliable birth, date & marriage dates for all of the people named in our database but that is simply not possible. Often our sources disagree with each other so that, in frustration, we sometimes don't give any dates at all. Whilst many of the dates we show are certain, we recommend that you view all of the dates in this database (and almost every other database that deals with generations more than 200 years ago) as guideline rather than definitive. Early on we gave up trying to be consistent with different conventions (eg 1638-9 instead of 1638/9) as we thought that such would suggest that our dates are more reliable than we think they are. We apologise for any unease this may give to those for whom this is 'an offence' but we think it best not to pretend to be able to deliver certainty when we think certainty is not achievable. [The Genealogy Research section of Stirnet Genealogies contains an article ('Dates in databases') on why those conventions exist.]

Dates are often useful for helping to sort out the generations but even then one has to be careful as there is often generational overlap. We tend to avoid popular tips such as 30 years a generation (or 100 years for 3 generations), and 2 year gaps between children, but accept that they can sometimes be useful when applied with common sense.

Where a date is given in the format "after DD.MM.YYYY", it may appear reasonable to suppose that we are normally thinking in terms of no more than a few weeks after the given date (if "after MM.YYYY" is given, then the range could be a few months; if "after YYYY", a few years). However, sometimes the 'after date' given for a death is the date given on a will so we may not know if the individual concerned lived for days or years after making the will. Similarly, a 'before date' for a death may refer to a date when a will was proved (after death) or a successor's title to a property was confirmed. In either case such could sometimes take just a few days but other times take a few years. Remember also that marriage contracts, though normally dated before the marriage, were sometimes dated after. You may by now realise why we do not always spend much time filling in dates in our database. Whilst it is of course true that they can add much interest and use to a database, they can sometimes lead to over-confidence & unmerited assumption and thence to mistakes. Our primary focus for the Families Database is on getting the family connections right and so we place less emphasis on dates than many other database compilers do. As should be clear in the database, we don't hold back too much from including them when we think it reasonable or useful to do so but please remember that, particularly for early generations, we think of the dates that are shown as of 'guideline use' rather than as definitive.

Lords, lairds and squiresTop of page
Early records can sometimes be confusing in the way that they refer to people as already being a "lord of" some place and then being appointed as a Lord. The prime distinction is between feudal lordship and parliamentary Lordship. In the early days, of course, there was no Parliament. A feudal lord was someone recognised by the authorities as having feudal rights of ownership over an area, normally called a 'barony'. A parliamentary Lord was what we would nowadays view as a 'real' lord. In England, parliamentary lords were called Barons whilst non-parliamentary feudal and other local lords became known as 'squires' although that title was also widely used for anyone who had a property that was significant in the region. Although some can still call themselves 'lord of the manor', squires are not permitted to call themselves Lord So-and-so. In Scotland, the title remained the same but the tradition evolved of using the English word Lord for a parliamentary Lord and the Scots word laird for the equivalent of squire. For the sake of consistency between English and Scots families, the Families Database only rarely uses the title 'Baron' but instead normally uses 'Lord' (with a capital L), leaving 'lord' (with a small L) for non-parliamentary lords.

In Britain there has long been the tradition that only the head of an enobled family may inherit the title. In some countries in Continental Europe it was different eg. all of the sons of a Count could call themselves Count (although this normally followed into the next generation for only the head of the family).

One thing to remember when considering names and titles is that those which are of the form "Xxxx of Yyyy" can mean a lot, or a little, or anything in-between. Sometimes that Yyyy represented a major estate, other times it was just a simple farm, and sometimes it was just the name of the place that person came from. However, if the same reference is repeated over several generations ("Xxxx, 5th of Yyyy") it is likely not only that ownership rather than just location is implied - although, of course, this may not apply to Peers (eg. the Earls of Essex did not actually own all of Essex) - but also that the Yyyy was something more substantial than just an allotment. If a person is described as "Xxxx in Yyyy" then that indicates merely a location or base for that person without any implication that the person actually owned that place. However, we are not always consistent with that and sometimes "of" is given when it would perhaps have been better to use "in". This applies particularly where a major town or city has been named so, hopefully, such inconsistency should not cause any significant confusion (eg. we trust that you would not consider "John Smith of London" as suggesting that John Smith actually owned the whole of London).