September 2019 Newsletter ~ Magna Carta Project
In Search Of -
Meet Our Members ~ Profile of the Month ~
Feature Article: What does the term "at of" mean ?
First and foremost - THANK YOU Magna Carta Project members, both badged and affiliate, for all you do. And if anyone would like to join us, post an answer to our G2G join post.
Special Announcement
Former Project Coordinator Michael Cayley is now, Project Leader Michael Cayley ! Michael recently accepted the unanimous invitation by the WikiTree Team and fellow Project Leaders to join the Leader's Team. Help me congratulate Michael on his promotion to Project Leader.
ISO ~ "In Search Of" a Newsletter Editor
Do you enjoy the monthly newsletter? Have ideas for future articles? How would you like to be the editor for the project's newsletter - coordinating and collecting input, coordinating with the rest of the leadership team, & posting in G2G at the start of each month? Contact David Douglas, Liz Shifflett, or Michael Cayley if you're interested.
Meet Our Members ~ In his month's newsletter we bring you our Project Leadership Team
There are four members of the Magna Carta team: project leaders Liz Shiflett , David Douglass, and most recently, Michael Cayley, who, besides working on Magna Carta trails themselves, do lots of behind-the-scenes work and responding to enquiries about the project; and It's our good fortune to have Project Coordinator and medieval research specialist Joe Cochoit.
Liz Shifflett: Considering I'm fairly careful about what I post about myself online, you can find out tons about me online! From my profile page, which includes a link to my personal website (sorely out of date – I spend way too much time on WikiTree), to my WikiTree blog interview, when I was featured in WikiTree's "Meet Our Members" series in May 2017. In that interview, I mentioned the first trail I did for the Magna Carta Project, but not how I had come to be a member of the project: it was the profile for my immigrant ancestor John Awbrey. He still isn't in a badged trail, but in working with the project over the years trying to get him in one, I have learned more about English history than was ever included in my high school history classes! The project's work is not only educational but also rewarding, as more and more profiles are developed, badged, and watched over by project members.
David Douglass: I am currently a co-leader of the Magna Carta Project of which I have been a member since March 2016. I have been a WikiTree member since May 2015. I first got involved in the Magna Carta Project because one of my ancestors was listed as a "Questionable Gateway Ancestor". This is an immigrant ancestor whose trail to a Surety Baron has not been proved and who is not listed with the 240 or so "Gateway Ancestors" documented by Douglas Richardson. It took me a lot of hours of research but I proved that Abraham Estes was not a "Gateway Ancestor". After that my interest sort of waned and I just sat on the membership roll basically doing little to help the project. That was until WikiTree began its efforts to increase project participation. I decided that either I was going to get involved or give up my membership badge. After proving to myself and Liz that I could do the work, she asked me to become a Project Coordinator and to work on membership building. I took her up on it and was soon nominated as a WikiTree Leader. I became a Leader in February 2018. I enjoy WikiTree and especially enjoy working on project duties with Liz, Joe, Michael and each one of our members. Thank you for letting me be a part of the Magna Carta Project team.
Michael Cayley: I love genealogy research, am a history fanatic, especially for English history of the medieval, Tudor and Stuart periods, and enjoy medieval literature. I am also interested in the ups and downs of families over the centuries, and the way relationships and alliances between different families shifted over time. That combination has made it impossible to resist the draw of the Magna Carta Project. I have no Gateway ancestors who moved to North America and descended from Surety Barons: I live on the UK side of the Pond. But I do have Surety Baron ancestry through English lines which inevitably link up to some trails from the Barons to Gateway ancestors.
Joe Cochoit: A Magna Carta project coordinator (for research), Joe is an extremely active WikiTree member and a seasoned researcher when it comes to medieval genealogy. He created and helps maintain the Pre-1500 Resource Page, which has links to helpful pages that he maintains outside of WikiTree (such as Medieval Genealogy Resources). He is the leader of the Gateway Descendants from Edward III project. He is also a co-coordinator on the PGM Project, but his primary interest lies with the EuroAristo Project. He keeps so busy, we had to write his section of this article for him! ~ Liz
Magna Carta Profile of the Month: Robert Knyvett (c.1365-1419)
On the face of it there’s nothing exceptional about Robert Knyvett. He seems not to have distinguished himself in any particular sphere. Yet his profile has what Sherlock Holmes might call "features of interest".
His father was a successful lawyer who served as Lord Chancellor and Chief Justice and married into a branch of the extensive Basset family, acquiring manors as a result. Robert, a younger son, married three times and the first two marriages made him a fairly substantial landowner. He is a good example of how in this period the family of a top lawyer could morph into landed gentry.
The profile has been built up by several WikiTree members and illustrates the quite wide range of sources that are often available for Magna Carta Project profiles: in this case, books on local history, records of land transactions and holdings, a volume of monastic charters and an early autobiography in addition to obvious sources like Inquisitions Post Mortem and Douglas Richardson’s works. And it follows good practice by including an indication of where there is a minor question-mark about one piece of information given by Richardson and a research note setting out where there is disagreement in sources relating to Robert’s wife.
Time and care have clearly gone into all this: time well spent ~ Michael
September Feature Article: Explained - "At of" as used in Our Royal, Titled, Noble and Commoner Ancestors
Our Royal, Titled, Noble and Commoner Ancestors ("ORTNC"), often referred to by the name of its compiler, Marlyn Lewis, can be helpful but needs to be used with care. It is a compilation of information, some without sourcing, some citing standard secondary sources. All such sites have errors, and it is best to look at any sources cited, and at other sources, to confirm what is stated on ORTNC, and to give other sources on WikiTree wherever possible.
One trap is the way ORTNC gives birth and death information. It frequently says that so-and-so was born, or died, "at of" such-and-such a place. For instance it states that James Bourchier, son of the 2nd Lord Berners, was born and died "at of Haughton, Staffordshire, England". The sources listed for James are works of Douglas Richardson which do not give James's birth or death place. Richardson says that James was "of Haughton, Staffordshire", inheriting it from his brother Humphrey in 1540; and that his father had property in a number of different places, and gave Haughton and other Staffordshire manors to Humphrey in his lifetime, which suggests that Haughton was not one of his father's main residences.
Better-off people frequently owned, and lived from time to time in, a number of properties, and, besides any manors they held, may have had houses in major towns or in London. And people were not always born, and did not always die, where they or their parents owned property.
When ORTNC says that someone was born or died "at of" a place, it means simply that, according to ORTNC, the place was associated with their parents when they were born, or themselves when they died. It may have been one of a number of such places, not all mentioned in ORTNC. If you track down the sources cited, you'll generally find they say simply that the person was "of" the place concerned. So the place should not be used as a birth or death place on WikiTree unless there is other evidence. It may be appropriate to mention it in the main part of the biography as a place associated with, or held by, them or their family: but you should try to confirm this from other sources.
If Marlyn Lewis believes there's reasonable evidence for a birth or death place, ORTNC says the person was born, or died, "at" that place, not "at of" it. Again, you should seek out other sources to confirm this. ~ Michael
Note: Checking Lewis citations is the main reason for the Magna Carta Project's maintenance category Needs Source Check (not only because of the "at of" wording issue, but also because Lewis's style of placing citations at the end of a phrase or sentence can lead to mis-attribution of a source). The project's Reliable Sources pageincludes Lewis's database under "Reliable Sources with Conditions". ~ Liz
