FAMILIES DATABASE - LONG-TERM PROJECTS

I refer to this page in my notes on Lates pages released. To keep those notes simple, and to give myself greater scope to identify projects that I am working on, I am now reporting the main projects below. However, I will not show here the smaller projects that do take up much of my time.

I have been working on this database for many years now (see History of the site) but there are, of course, still many families that I have not worked on at all. I am open to suggestions on what families I should include and what sources I should use (and, if possible, where to find free copies of those sources) as long as you remember that I apply various constraints on what I will work on and that I normally give priority to working on families that have not yet been covered by the database at all over those for which something has already been done.

Peter Barns-Graham
Page last updated 18.07.24

Search for better sources

The Sources & Acknowledgements page identifies many of the sources that I use most often and comments on my use of other web sites. Noting that my database is rather large, I have sometimes had to chose between relying on a source that I view as 'suspect' and not including an interesting family or connection at all. As part of my general aim to steadily improve the database as well as expand it, from time to time I trawl around the database to see where I have relied more than I like on sources that have not impressed me 'enough'. [One clue for this is use of the phrase 'various web sites'.] I have found that many books are available online now, in sites such as archive.org, that were not available a few years ago. If you have found a source that I am likely to have access to (preferably for free) and think that it would help me improve a page, or include a new one, please let me know.

Particular Sources

You may have seen me spend time on a particular source, spending anything from a few days to several months on it, with only occasional diversions. If a work is mentioned on Sources & Acknowledgement then it is likely that I will have spent some time on it. However, there will almost certainly have been gaps in that coverage (not least because of my prioritising the inclusion of new families over adding small details to families already in the database). I keep notes on which of the major works I have spent time on and, in varying amounts of detail, which pages in them I have left to a later date.

Having just finished my first trawl through ‘The history of modern Wiltshire' (Sir Richard Colt Hoare), I have just started a first trawl through the many volumes of 'Visitation of England and Wales' by Frederick Arthur Crisp, the first 9 of which were 'led' by Joseph Jackson Howard.

Pleas for help (this note started 18.07.24, to be expanded in due course):
- 'Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica' ("MGH"). I think I have all the volumes up to Series 5 Volume 5 (1925) of this excellent source. I would welcome being advised where to find later volumes, preferably downloadable or at least viewable or free.

Multi-branch families

I sometimes focus on 'multi-branch families', many of which were Scots who seem to have had more of a tradition of documenting junior cadet branches than the English did and who are normally easier to follow than Welsh & Irish families. So far I have worked on the Burghs, Campbells, Carews, Frasers, Hamiltons, Leslies, MacDonalds, Mackenzies, Montgomerys, Munros & Sinclairs.
* Other families to be covered in due course will probably include Bruce, Bulkeley, Corbet, Douglas, Johnston, Leigh, Murray, Ogle & Stewarts.
* I am still stuck on the Staffords so any suggestions on them would be welcome.

Old Welsh families

I am finding this project to be quite difficult but I intend to keep plugging-on with it. I made a major start on it some years ago using ‘Pedigrees of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire Families’ by John Edwards Griffith (1914) but have yet to complete a full trawl through that. Some time ago, to help me control the work, I set up a page called The Tribes of Wales so, if this project interests you, I suggest that you keep an eye on that page. Sources still to be used include:
* 'Visitations of Wales' by Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick (2 volumes, 1846, based on the works of Lewys Dwnn (c1550-1616)).
* 'Annals and Antiquities of The Counties and The County Families of Wales' by Thomas Nicholas (2 volumes, 1872).
* 'History of Brecknockshire' by Joseph Russell Bailey, Baron Glenusk (2 volumes, 1909, based on 1809 works by Theophilus Jones).

The Ancient & Mythical and Continental sections of the database

It is rare that I work on these sections simply because they are included merely 'for fun'. I do not take them very seriously, though I agree with those of you who find them interesting. However, I do accept that they need more work to get them 'up to standard'. Much of what is there at the moment came from ‘Royal Genealogies. The genealogical tales of emperors, kings and princes from Adam to these times.’ by James Anderson (1736). I regained access to that rare & fascinating (but not always reliable) book in February 2022 and will be revisiting it in the near future. Other sources I expect to use include:
* 'Genealogia Antiqua or Mythological and Classical Tables' by William Berry (1816).