www.burkes-peerage.net
This is the web site to go to when searching for historical family name information on titled and landed families from the United Kingdom and Ireland. These are the families who have made a notable contribution to the history of these countries. Here the visitor is able to locate family information going back at least three hundred years, and in some cases, back as far as the ninth century!
To view the full text of the on-line historical family name documents, membership is required. Membership to this web site is available at a daily rate, or as an annual membership. Anyone can perform a search for a family name and if the family name is located on this web site, the visitor can view limited information about this family. To view complete family name information, however, the visitor must become a member. Membership allows a member to view the full text of the family name record. This information includes the most recent incumbent and a family biography. Following this will be the known detailed history of a particular family name, beginning with the oldest known family information and proceeding forward to the most current family information that is available.
The information contained in the sample family name search is extensive. The information on all family names found on this web site was compiled with the assistance of professional and experienced genealogists. The family information includes much more than the typical birth, marriage and death records. Different generational information is separated using different colored text. Whenever available, the family information will include the family's coat of arms (image and description) plus information regarding applicable clubs, tartans, residencies and seats.
Members will also receive the bi-monthly e-magazine publication, ATAVUS which is full of special interest articles. Members can also find articles about notable artisans who also have made valuable contributions to the histories of the UK and Ireland. Also available to members and non-members is brief but complete essays on each of the US Presidents and British Prime Ministers. Note that to date, there are only essays available for British Prime Ministers through the eighteenth century. The rest are listed as Coming Soon.
Several books that have been published by Burkes Peerage and Gentry are available for purchase on this web site, including one about the landed gentry of Scotland. Another publication is London's Waterfront, a book of drawings of various sites along the Thames river-bank at the start of the twenty-first century.
The Burke's Peerage and Gentry Web Site contains so much interesting information that it is just not possible to list it all in this review. The best advice is to visit the web site and click on the features that are of the most interest. Visitors will find an extensive News section, a section that includes essays about castles and other living quarters occupied by family members that have been included in Burke's Peerage and Gentry web site, and a family discussion area where members can post and read messages related to each family listed on this web site. There's an extensive database containing over 4,000 coats of arms that are associated with many of the family names found on this web site. There is of course a shopping area for purchasing books and genealogy software, and as with other web sites of this nature, there is a collection of related links that are available to all visitors.
Burke's Peerage and Gentry Web Site is a wonderful web site to visit. It contains an incredible amount of historical information related to titled and landed families from the United Kingdom and Ireland, much of which is available to non-members. Upon visiting the web site, however, it's easy to realize that membership is definitely worth the price.