This 106th edition of Burke's Peerage & Baronetage is the first since 1970, that is, for 28 years. Indeed in purely editorial terms the gap is more like 30 years. In the pre-computer era of the late 1960s it was necessary to wind up the editorial process much further in advance of publication, too soon to include many members of peerage or baronetage families born about then. In genealogical terms that amounts to roughly two ‘lost' generations. The newly born children of 1970 have now grown up and begotten their own children. With the publication of the 106th edition it is possible to include them. Perhaps up to half the living persons in Burke's Peerage & Baronetage have never featured in it before.

The new edition is the result of five years' unremitting toil by a full-time editorial team of 11. They have been supplemented by seven outside researchers, copy editors and proofreaders, who in turn have been backed up by the services of distinguished consultants in such specialised fields as Celtic family history, heraldry and peerage law. Still further information has been obtained through the goodwill, diligence and generosity with their time of members of the two and a half thousand or so families who feature in Burke's Peerage & Baronetage and to whom we have sent proofs of their entries.

Sir Bernard Burke, one of the former editors of Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, was in addition the author of a book entitled the Vicissitudes of Families. The historic reference book he gave his name to has undergone its own vicissitudes. In 1980 there was an incomplete reissue of the 105th edition. From the mid-1980s onwards its authority and prestige have been exploited for crudely commercial ends by persons of dubious antecedents displaying minimal concern for scholarship or indeed serious genealogical publishing generally. It cannot be stated too emphatically that such persons have nothing whatever to do directly with Burke's Peerage & Baronetage. Though technically legal, their imposture has misled many members of the public into thinking that such people were associated with a quality production. They were not.

Since the purchase by Morris Genealogical Books SA in 1989 of Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd (the copyright holder of Burke's Peerage & Baronetage), both I as publisher and the Editor-in-Chief, Charles Mosley, have been dedicated to restoring the good name and scholarly content of this cornerstone of British publishing. Though it is a reference work, indeed a major one, Burke's Peerage & Baronetage is much more. It amounts to a narrative of the leading families in these islands and shows how they have played a formative role in shaping the civilisation of the entire English-speaking world. In that context it complements American Presidential Families, the other major work published by Morris Genealogical Books, which traces the remarkable number of links between the first families of the United States and those in Burke's Peerage & Baronetage.

The 106th edition contains many innovations and improvements. The following are particularly worth noting:

• The larger format and change of typeface to enhance legibility and ease of use.
• The inclusion of many more titles following the proliferation of life peers, continuing additions to the hereditary peerage and baronetage, however small, and historic titles brought out of abeyance or dormancy.
• The inclusion of many more collateral branches, particularly where they are related to other families in Burke's Peerage & Baronetage. We now include for the first time since their titles became extinct figures of national importance such as Pitt the Elder, Pitt the Younger and Lord Palmerston.
• Details of political and court appointments of peers and baronets, both living and dead.
• An index of all living people, which extends to over 200 pages and includes some 100,000 names.
• A description and history of leading family seats.
• An account of previous creations of identically named titles. As this work covers over 1,000 years of history, many titles have been created several times and cross-references in other articles to a given title do not necessarily signify the present one. Where such is the case it is now made clear.
• The inclusion of nearly 30,000 addresses of living people, together with their correct form of written address.
• Translations of family mottoes.
• The inclusion of much new and revised Celtic genealogy.
• Thorough consultation of advances in scholarship over the last century, resulting in the correction of many past errors.

As with any work, particularly of this magnitude, inaccuracies and omissions may occur. The Burke's Peerage & Baronetage editorial staff are only human; so too are our correspondents, who sometimes compose letters containing genealogical information that is illegible, exaggerated or internally inconsistent. We have even at times received contradictory information from different members of the same family. Unfortunately, the urgency of meeting our editorial schedule has not always permitted us to clarify matters. We fully intend to correct any such errors in future editions, and our readers are cordially invited to inform us of any changes or additions which should be incorporated.