This growing series will keep me busy for a long time!

books:

	• Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Coloncial And Medieval Families (Royal Ancestry) (Royal Ancestry) Douglas Richardson, Kimball G. Everingham Genealogical Publishing Company, 2005 - 1098 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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An Exceptional Purchase

Magna Carta Ancestry: .... is excellent -- very readable in material and format. I'm delighted to have it and thank those who made it available. I highly recommend it.

Must have for those with royal ancestry!

I am a big fan of Douglas Richardson. I have his prior book in this series, 'Plantagenet Ancestry'. Since I discovered that I was a direct descendent of Geoffrey Plantagenet, I am related to almost everyone in that entire book, and its a big book! In researching this book, I found out that I am also related to many Magna Charta signers. I have only had time to lightly peruse "Magna Charta Ancestry" but have already discovered many connections to my existing data. Douglas Richardson is a thorough researcher, I trust his efforts because his source citations are impeccable, and he readily states instances where there may be doubt. Since I have traced most of my direct family lines to Colonial America, Mr. Richardson's books are a great way to extend those lines back to Europe. When I do find conflicting information from material gathered from other sources, Douglas Richardson is invariably right, he is extremely careful in his research. All genealogies contain errors, but Mr. Richardson's books contain very few! I can hardly wait for the other books in this series!

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This growing series will keep me busy for a long time!

In 2004, Richardson, a highly regarded specialist in royal and peerage genealogy with numerous published articles to his credit, brought out the first volume in a planned series -- _Plantagenet Ancestry,_ which tracked the descents of some 190 immigrants to the North American colonies from the Plantagenet monarchs of England, and which weighed in at 945 pages. This second installment is 150 pages thicker, and there are at least two more volumes in development, on descents from early feudal barons, and from the Emperor Charlemagne.

Any high school graduate knows the term "Magna Carta" (the "Great Charter") but most have probably only a hazy understanding of its key role as the foundation of the English legislative system (and therefore of our own), and that it established the principle that even the king, the highest authority in the land, was subject to the law. The baronial party that forced King John to sign the document in 1215 didn't trust him to live up to the limitations and conditions it laid down, and so they elected from among their own number twenty-five barons to monitor and enforce compliance. Of these twenty-five Sureties, seventeen had descendants past four generations; of those, there were two father-son pairs (Richard and Gilbert de Clare, earls of Hertford, and Roger and Hugh Bigod, earls of Norfolk), leaving fifteen distinct families that were ancestral to 238 17th century North American colonists. As with the first volume, the author's careful organization of a large mass of complex data makes this a comparatively easy book to use, either for ready-reference or for extended reading. All descendant families are organized alphabetically, numbered generationally from the Magna Carta Surety, with emphasis on patrilineal descents. This is not a listing of all descendants in each generation; grandchildren without descendants themselves, for instance, are excluded. Citation of sources -- mostly the original sources -- is very extensive and the bibliography runs to nearly 100 large-size pages.

With such a wide-ranging project, with so many sources being perused, one might hope for new discoveries, and there are many included in the book. Some, of course are minor corrections, but at least a dozen are noteworthy, especially as they affect the Bohun, de Verdun, Grey, Hastings, Pole, FitzMaurice, and Mowbray families.

As with _Plantagenet Ancestry,_ after borrowing it for review, I bought a copy of this one for myself and I shall be waiting eagerly for subsequent volumes in the series.

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Magna Carta Ancestry - Comments

In my opinion Douglas Richarson has provided a well researched book. It will be a main source of reference for years to come.
I was hoping to see more "new lines", but I guess the reality is there just is not that many lines out there that have not been researched. The $100.00 US price tag was well worth spending. L.R. Anderson,

This book provides detailed information about descents from the famous Magna Carta Barons of 1215 for over 200 individuals who emigrated from the British Isles to the North American colonies in the 17th century. It combines research in original records with the use of published literature to provide well documented ancestral lines for American colonists with Magna Carta ancestry. It features hundreds of biographical summaries as well as over 28,000 citations to published materials, making it the most documented source book of its kind. In addition, the book contains a massive 93-page bibliography--probably the most exhaustive listing of medieval genealogy and history ever published.

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