Chamberlain’s Angliæ Notitia; or, The Present State of Great Britain, commenced in 1663, and was continued nearly every year until 1755. If information is required between these dates as to the professional or official classes, this will be found a valuable work to consult.
The London Gazette supplies still more comprehensive records with regard to the professions, learned and otherwise. Public appointments are here notified, the conferment of honours, promotions in the Church, Army, and Navy, etc. It commenced in 1665, and is now issued twice weekly.
The records of local societies and local magazines may often profitably be consulted.
Of the former the following are the most useful:—
The Antiquarian Societies of Batley and Bradford (Yorkshire), also of Beverley, Heckmondwicke, Lancashire and Cheshire, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Isle of Man.
The Archæological Societies of Bristol and Gloucestershire, Burton-on-Trent, Derbyshire, Durham, Essex, Kent, London and Middlesex, Northamptonshire, St. Albans, Scarborough, Shropshire, Somerset, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex, Wilts, Worcester, and Yorkshire; the Cambrian Archæological Society, the Somerset Record Society, and the Surtees’ Society, Durham.
The following local magazines may also be referred to:—
The Western Antiquary.
Notes and Queries, respectively issued for the following districts: Bedfordshire, Devon, Fenland, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire, Cheshire, and Manchester.
Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Notes.
The Manx Notebook.
The Palatine Notebook.
Where information is sought as to Members of Parliament, the Blue Book Returns should be consulted, and a valuable official work, Returns to Two Orders of the House of Commons (dated 4th May 1876 and 9th March 1877) of the Names of every Member returned to Serve in each Parliament from the Earliest Time to 1874.
Cave’s Parliamentary Register brings the list of members down to 1741; The Chronological Register of Parliament from 1707 to 1807, by Robert Beatson, gives the required information between these dates.
Besides the MS. authorities with regard to the Army and Navy which have already been enumerated, printed books on the subject, especially if the searcher is not looking for very early information, should not be ignored. Of course there are, as every one knows, official Army and Navy Lists, and a good deal of genealogical information may be derived from other books, as especially as regards the Navy.
Notable amongst these are:—
A Naval Biographical Dictionary, by W. R. O’Byrne.
Biographia Navalis; or, Memoirs of the Officers of the Army from 1600, by John Charnock, 4 vols., 1794.
English Army-Lists, etc., 1661-1714, by Charles Dalton, 6 vols., 1892-1904.
Lives of British Admirals, by John Campbell, 4 vols., 1779; new edition, 8 vols., 1812-17; abridged edition, 1847.
Of the two works of the Old Record Commission, dated 1801 and 1837 respectively, the latter will be found especially useful, as it contains returns from many of the various depositories of documents in Great Britain, notably The Tower, Houses of Parliament, etc.
Cotton’s Fasti contains a store of information, biographical and genealogical, about Church dignitaries, and certain searches among parochial registers may be obviated by a perusal of Marshall’s Parish Registers, for, as has previously been mentioned, a great many of such are obtainable in print.
The International Genealogical Directory should be consulted, as it contains much which might be of great importance to the searcher. He should also make himself acquainted with the very useful genealogical handbooks published by Mr. C. A. Bernau of Walton-on-Thames.
The number of County Histories increases rapidly, and the pedigree-hunter should consult those which are connected with the special districts in which he is interested.
From the Victoria County Histories to those compiled by private individuals, all may be of more or less importance to the genealogical student.