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The Book of Ulster Surnames

Barry Chodak — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 16:53:06 +0000

This work has over 500 entries of the most common family names of the nine-county province of Ulster, with reference to thousands more. It gives the meaning and history of each name, its original form, where it came from – Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales or France – and why it changed to what it is today. The index provides nearly 3,000 surnames and variant spellings, cross-referenced to the main listing. The book includes notes on some famous bearers of the name and where in Ulster the name is now most common.

This new edition also includes an article by the author on the Riding Clans of the Scottish Boarders, many members of which came to Ulster during the Plantation. The result is a reference book that details much about the history of the Ulster Irish as well as the Scottish and English who arrived from the 17^th century onwards and is packed with surprising insights into the origins of a complex, turbulent people.

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The People of Barbados, 1625-1875

Marian Hoffman — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 13:59:02 +0000

Barbados is the most easterly of the many islands of the Caribbean. Captain John Powell claimed Barbados for the Crown of England in 1625, and two years later the first shipload of settlers arrived from England. The island was ideal for the production of tobacco, sugar, and cotton; consequently, entrepreneurs soon arrived from England aiming to produce those crops and market them in England and, to some extent, in Europe. These planters and merchants brought with them skilled artisans, many of whom arrived as indentured servants, and–to a lesser extent–rebels and criminals shipped in chains to be sold there. White Europeans were unwilling to perform hard labor in tropical plantations, and before long slaves were brought from Africa.

Most of the white population came from England and Wales, with a minority from Ireland and Scotland. [NB: I have treated the Scots in my book Barbados and Scotland, Links 1627-1877, Baltimore, 2005]. There was also a considerable number of Sephardic Jews there, who had been encouraged by Oliver Cromwell to settle in Barbados to avoid persecution of the Spanish Inquisition. By the early 18th century, with the productive lands fully allocated and a growing population, a significant migration occurred from Barbados to the Leeward Islands, the Windward Islands, Jamaica, and as far north as South Carolina, where the plantation economies were rapidly expanding. Planters, indentured servants, merchants, and African slaves thus became two-stage migrants within the Americas. Slavery was abolished in Barbados in 1834, though the island remained a British colony until 1966, when it became fully independent.

This book is based on research into manuscript and published sources, mainly located in Great Britain but also in Barbados. Dr. Dobson identifies numerous non-Scottish inhabitants, and for each we are given a full name, date, and the source. In many instances we also learn of the individual’s religious affiliation, vessel, relatives, or other particulars. The book commences with a helpful historical introduction and concludes with a list of primary and secondary sources cited in the work.

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The People of Jamaica, 1655-1855

Marian Hoffman — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 17:57:22 +0000

In 1655 Oliver Cromwell, as part of his “Western Design,” invaded and captured Jamaica, which had been a Spanish colony. The Spanish heritage is evident in many of the island’s place-names. Most settlements in Jamaica were established and named by incoming settlers, primarily from England with a minority from elsewhere in the British Isles. Jamaica’s economy was largely dependent on the production of sugar cane, which resulted in slave labor largely brought from Africa. Jamaica was also a destination for prisoners of war, rebels, and criminals–transported in chains–to be sold as servants to the planters there. Many artisans emigrated from English ports, notably Bristol and London, as indentured servants to Jamaica and were employed by merchants and planters who paid for their passage and maintenance for a few years before the servants were free to settle. The majority of white settlers in Jamaica clearly had their origins in the British Isles; however, the Caucasian population also included French Huguenots, American Loyalists, and Jews.

While this source book may identify a handful of Scots named in Dr. Dobson’s Scots in Jamaica, 1655-1855 [Baltimore, 2011], the individuals found in this much larger book were culled from entirely different sources and, moreover, emigrated primarily from England and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere in the British Isles. The compiler identifies each of the more than 2,000 Euro-Jamaicans in the volume by name, a date, one other point of specificity, and the source. In many instances we also learn the individual’s country or locality of origin, names and relationships of kin, vessel traveled upon, occupation, college attended, or other identifying features.

This compilation is based on a range of primary sources, published and manuscript, located in libraries and archives in Jamaica, England, Wales, and Scotland, including the American State Papers for the West Indies, the magazine Caribbeana, the Jamaican Historical Review, and the Journal of the Committee on Trade and Plantations.

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The Blood Royal of Britain [in One Volume] and the Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal [in four volumes]

Barry Chodak — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 04:51:03 +0000

Melville Henry de Massue (styled the Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval) produced, in this work, one of the great achievements on royal and noble genealogy. In it he traces all the living descendants of King Edward III as of the date of original publication, some 50,000 individuals with over 300,000 lines of descent between them. Included in the Roll are the names of all the crowned heads of Europe; of the majority of hereditary peers; of all the royal and princely houses of Europe; of many of the higher nobility of France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Bohemia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Russia, and Belgium; and of the old aristocracy of the Southern States of America, together with baronets and county gentry. The five volumes together comprise some 3,550 pages, illustrated with portraits, photographs, and line drawings, and each volume is completely indexed.

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The Blood Royal of Britain [in One Volume] and the Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal [in four volumes] eBook Bundle

Barry Chodak — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 04:40:49 +0000

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Ancestral Trails. The Complete Guide to British Genealogy and Family History

gpcdevel — Fri, 03 May 2019 20:27:00 +0000

This is the second edition of the book that has been
called the Bible of British genealogy. Originally published
in 1997 in association with the Society of Genealogists
(London), and now revised and updated to reflect
the latest developments in the field, Ancestral
Trails enables the researcher to form a coherent picture
of past generations by describing virtually every class
of record in every repository and library in Britain. The early chapters help beginners take their
first steps by dealing with such matters as obtaining information from
living relatives, drawing family trees, and starting research in the records
of birth, marriage, and death, or in census records. Later chapters guide
researchers to the records that are more difficult to find and use, such as
wills, parish records, civil and ecclesiastical court records, poll books, and
property records. So the book is ideal for the beginner and the experienced
researcher alike, and will enable those who are persistent enough
to trace their ancestry back to the Middle Ages.

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The Descendants of King George I of Great Britain

gpcdevel — Fri, 03 May 2019 20:23:00 +0000

Mr. Willis, whose royal genealogies of the Habsburgs and Louis XIII of France are available from Clearfield Company, has here compiled an extensive genealogy of the descendants of King George I of Great Britain.

George I, who ascended the throne in August 1714, was the first of the Hanoverian monarchs of England. George’s claim to the British crown after the death of England’s Queen Anne was based on the terms of Britain’s Act of Settlement of 1701. His mother, the Electress Sophia of Hanover, was the granddaughter of James I, making George the next Protestant in line to the throne. Mr. Willis explains the royal history of the Hanoverian line in the front matter to the volume and also provides a select bibliography, a list of abbreviations, and a reader’s guide to the text itself. He then launches straight into a genealogy of the immediate family of George I, chronicling the births and marriages of his two children, the future George II and Princess Sophia Dorothea, and his grandchildren.

The bulk of the volume is arranged, chapter by chapter, according to the descendants of the following grandchildren who had significant issue: Frederick, Prince of Wales; Anne, Princess of Orange; Mary, Landgravine of Hesse-Cassel; Louisa, Queen of Denmark; Charlotte, Duchess of Brunswick; Sophie, Margravine of Brandenburg-Schwedt; Ulrike, Queen of Sweden; and August, Prince of Prussia. The work concludes with an intriguing chapter establishing the connections of George’s descendants to other European royal families and another outlining the current line of succession to the British throne. In all, this densely packed work identifies approximately 5,000 royal and noble connections emanating from the first of the Hanoverians and impacting the future course of European royalty and politics. These connections are easily traced by means of the name index at the back.

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Burke’s Family Records

gpcdevel — Fri, 03 May 2019 20:22:00 +0000

Burke’s published this collection of Family Records as a supplement to its Peerage and Baronetage and the Landed Gentry. The nobility and gentry of England, Scotland, and Wales, as Mr. Burke explains in his preface, “are by no means confined to these classes, but include many other families of equal position, descent and alliance, for a gentleman derives his nobility from his ancestors and not from the mere possession of lands or titles . . . Many a noble lord, paramount in his own county, would be astonished to find that his less distinguished neighbor was of a nobility as ancient as his own. The position of these cadet houses has been still further obscured by the acquisition of lands and titles by those who have risen from humble rank to wealth and honour . . . have ennobled themselves by their great services to the Crown and country, or whose alliances make them so near akin to our ancient nobility.”

Following the arrangement of the Peerage and Landed Gentry volumes, this work seeks to put to rights this oversight by tracing the descent of some 300 cadet houses of the British nobility from Airey and Gorton to Swanzy and Yarker. In keeping with Burke’s scrupulous standards of evaluation, coats of arms are also provided, but only for those families for which clear official authority was forthcoming. Students of royal and noble genealogy will welcome the index to the more than 10,000 names found in this volume, now rescued from obscurity by Clearfield Company.

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An Index of Hereditary English, Scottish, and Irish Titles of Honour

gpcdevel — Fri, 03 May 2019 20:21:14 +0000

This is an index of about 5,750 titles of honour, alphabetically arranged, which gives the family name for all the Peerages and Baronetages of the United Kingdom, both existing and extinct at the time the work was originally published. It also shows the date when each separate title was conferred, the family seat, and the changes which the titles underwent. Since hereditary titles of honour often are used by direct male descendants and, in some creations, by heirs in general, the family names themselves are little known. Identification of family hereditary honors is thus facilitated through the use of this index.

“Mr. Solly’s Hereditary Titles of Honour now before us is a book which ought to be among the â€˜working tools’ of every genealogist. It gives us a clue to a large class of pedigrees entirely uncatalogued in the various guides to printed genealogies which have been published. If therefore an account of a family is required it will easily be found by referring to any Peerage or Baronetage, as the case may be, published during the time the title was in existence, or to books treating of dormant and extinct titles if not now in being.

“Mr. Solly has done much service to genealogists by the publication of this volume . . . it is the first attempt made to furnish a list of Hereditary Titles.”-The Genealogist [London], Volume IV, pp. 210-211.

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The Knights of England

gpcdevel — Fri, 03 May 2019 20:21:00 +0000

This is the standard reference work on the knights of England, Scotland, and Ireland, bearing reference to more than 10,000 historical personages. The work describes the ten official Orders of Knighthood, and with each Order, starting from the earliest time, the knights are listed in chronological order of succession, with details setting out the full name and title of the knight, beginning with the date of his appointment, and generally containing the exact date of installation, and date, place and cause of death. Other details include reasons for the appointment and civic or military positions held.

The second volume comprises a chronological list of the largest Order–the Knights Bachelor–and contains over 7,000 entries. This is followed by a superb 253-page index in which all the knights referred to in the two volumes are listed alphabetically by family name, or, if they were sovereigns or princes of the Blood Royal, by title.

“Most complete list available.”- P. William Filby, American & British Genealogy & Heraldry (1970).

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