Since its inception in 1826, Burke’s Peerage & Baronetage has rightly come to be regarded as the authoritative reference book on the British aristocracy. In consequence it has become an institution in its own right. Although not the first reference work to cover the nobility, meticulous research combined with a revolutionary classification ensured that Burke’s Peerage & Baronetage was soon regarded as The guide to the Establishment.

As Charles Mosley recalled in his introduction to the 106th edition, previous books on the nobility employed a taxonomy that presupposed in the reader an encyclopedic knowledge of the date of a title’s creation and, where it was a peerage title, its precise rank in the five orders of peerage, to say nothing of other editorial idiosyncrasies on the part of the publishers. Burke’s Peerage & Baronetage not only arranged its articles more helpfully but used a revolutionary model to document and arrange them. It was possible for the first time to trace fairly remote kinships without having to spread a sheet of paper on a surface the size of a billiard table.

It is this emphasis on a user-friendly approach that has seen Burke’s Peerage & Baronetage develop into an online genealogical resource. Having now entered a new era, the publication is available as a searchable database on the Internet, substantially extending its reach to millions of individuals who can read and search the records from the comfort of their own home.

In 1952 Peter Townend, who was to become the editor of Burke’s Peerage & Baronetage during the 1960s, was already discussing the problems of publishing the title in book form due to the huge cost, given its size. My colleague Gordon Prestoungrange, in the Publisher’s Preface to this edition, continues the theme when he states that in all likelihood the 107th will be the final edition in book form. This involves much more than a purely commercial decision. It is based on the revolution in publishing that dates from the growth of the commercial Internet in the early 1990s.

The Internet, more specifically the World Wide Web, based on hypertext and hypermedia, has swiftly become a magnificent communication tool. It has even been called the ‘fourth medium’. It is a cross-disciplinary, cross-educational and cross-social meeting ground, allowing exchanges in a whole new dimension. Information has been called a ‘new gold’ for our times. Many people consider we are living through a period as important as the 15th century that saw Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press.

Burke’s Peerage & Gentry, the holding company for Burke’s Peerage & Baronetage and its associated titles, has used this publishing revolution to develop its flagship title, together with our other publications - British-American Families, Irish Family Records, American Presidential Families, British Prime Ministers and especially the Landed Gentry of the UK - into the definitive historical guide to the UK and Ireland’s titled and landed families.

The challenge has been to embrace the benefits whilst avoiding pitfalls. Fortunately, Burke’s Peerage & Baronetage record of meticulous research, the main though not the only component of its strong brand name, helps enormously. The Internet, whilst allowing respectable publishers to target new markets with improved and expanded resources, also provides an opportunity for unscrupulous individuals and publishers to prey on the naive. The Burke’s brand is a guarantee of reliability.

The team working on the 107th edition has set up an efficient editorial process to ensure the highest genealogical scholarship. This 107th edition covers over 5,500 families, laid out in three volumes of meticulous and extensively researched articles in a package that weighs almost 10 kilos.

Publishing Burke’s Peerage & Baronetage online allows us to provide accurate and up-to-date lineages of historic families without pagination problems or the cost of printing. Opportunities for collaboration afforded by email, the creation of online communities and the streamlining of traditional genealogical publishing make possible an expanded knowledge base. A knowledge base that is increasing all the time as more people make the transition to online publishing. Each of us is now a potential author, with information to impart and access to a medium that makes imparting it easier. The various sections within the Burke’s Peerage & Baronetage website provide an opportunity for people to interact with each other, also to expand and clarify information about the history of the families concerned using the fruits of their own genealogical labours.

Transforming a work of this magnitude has been a great challenge. Burke’s Peerage & Gentry commissioned Thomas Technology Solutions, a leader in overcoming the problems of electronic publishing. The aim was to develop an electronic publishing and content management system that would provide wholly new opportunities for genealogical and historical researchers worldwide on the Internet.

The main challenge was how to digitise and organise the data from hardcopy format. Thomas Technology Solutions arranged for the content of the hardcopy books to be manually keyed into machine-readable format. This time-consuming and costly process involved carrying out a detailed analysis of the structure of the entries and setting up a Document Type Definition (DTD) for the keyboarding staff to follow. When defining the DTD, Burke’s Peerage & Gentry analysed the content and used comprehensive tagging structures that would allow innovative data mining by genealogical and historical researchers.

Meanwhile, Thomas Technology developed an editorial database system which would be used to accept the digitised records. The editorial database utilised Microsoft Word macros to read the tagged entries and convert them to Word. Each tag was converted to an equivalent Word style so that an editor could easily see and update the content. The editorial process involved amending or removing old records and adding new ones. This massive task was made easier with the help of the editorial database system. Development of the editorial content management system was a substantial investment but will ensure that continual updates of family records can be published on the Burke’s Peerage Website.

It was in addition necessary to develop the means to distribute and sell the finished product. Thomas Technology Solutions developed a database-driven website which enables Burke’s Peerage & Gentry to reach new customers all over the world. Central to the website is the Burke’s Peerage & Gentry content database, enabling the delivery of a wealth of information on British history and culture as well as genealogy. Each family within the Burke’s Peerage & Gentry series of publications has been allocated its own homepage and community discussion area where users can find additional information about the families as well as meeting, discussing and researching pertinent issues with like-minded individuals. This expansion of digitized, organised and indexed content, verified by our expert editorial team, makes for a truly revolutionary approach that delivers an unsurpassed information experience. Just as John Burke in 1826 used existing technology and an improved taxonomy to make Burke’s Peerage & Baronetage stand out from other books on the nobility, so Burke’s today uses the most up-to-date and sophisticated approach to reach genealogical researchers wherever they are.

The Burke’s Peerage website under the overarching name of Burke’s Peerage & Gentry brings together one million names from over ten thousand family records, some dating back over a thousand years. And it isn’t just a question of the sheer size of the collection. Burke’s has added value to this information by designing data-tagging and search methodologies that at a keystroke can scan these thousands of records to provide information that goes way beyond who is the current head of the family or when such and such a title was conferred. Information as varied as the number of individuals who went to Eton, or which family members served in the Scots Guards is only a keystroke away. It is even possible quickly to retrieve information on families represented at historic battles such as Culloden, Waterloo or Alamein. If it is the marriage prospects of your children that concern you, searching Burke’s database will highlight debutantes or sons coming of age, together with their complete family pedigree. The information contained in a Burke’s record has relevance not just for genealogists but for historians, political scientists and sociologists. In the past it was only retrievable by people who had the time and expertise to trawl dusty tomes manually. Now online, it is quickly and accurately available to the non-specialist.

Over the centuries the families listed in Burke’s Peerage & Gentry have played an import role in national, even world, history. But what is the story behind their individual deeds, what inspired them to embark on their adventures - Burke’s website can provide the answers to these questions, and many others. ATAVUS, our online magazine, contains high quality articles in the field of genealogy, British history, traditions and related topics. The editorial goal is to produce a unique periodical containing accurate, trustworthy, informative and entertaining information. ATAVUS supplements the family homepages and discussion groups in bringing Burke’s historic families to life.

Log on to the Burke’s Peerage website at www.burkes-peerage.net to experience the unrivalled combination of editorial scholarship and ground-breaking reference publishing that is the Internet.

MICHAEL CROSS
C.E.O.
Burke’s Peerage & Gentry