but our mothers. All honor to the noble pioneer women of this the promised land. A sweet and touching thought is beautifully expressed in the following lines by Charles S. Ross: I love old mothers-mothers with white hair, Time, with caressing touch, about them weaves Seem joined to lend a sweetness to their speech. Their trembling hands cling gently to youth's strength. GENEALOGICAL RECORDS OF FAMILIES. Duncan M. McAllister of Salt Lake City, Utah, has devised and published a Genealogical Record of Families which is the latest, and we think, one of the best arranged books of its kind. The size is handy, 9x6 inches, a book which can be placed on the shelf with other books, or easily carried around. The first twenty pages are devoted to the grouping of families under father, mother, and children, opposite each name being the page number in the book where the history of each individual may be found. For this history, the following side headings with columns for the dates are printed: Born at...., Baptized (christened) by...., Schooling commenced at...., Education continued at...., Graduated. ..., Religious affiliation...., Confirmed by...., Avocation...., Migrated from...., Married to...., by...., Member of...., Political affiliation...., Official position.. General condition of health...., Height...., Weight... Weight...., Chest size...., Color of hair...., Color of eyes...., Specially interested in...., Died of.... at... .. One half of the double page containing these headings is left clear for other "Important events." Seventy blank pages at the back are for "Notes." There are 137 pages in the book. Bound in half leather; it sells for $1.25. Orders filled by the Genealogical Society of Utah. HERALDIC VISITATIONS. Among the most valuable genealogical treasures of Great Britain are the records compiled by the Heralds of olden times. Many of these records have been preserved and are now being published by the various genealogical societies of Great Britain. The Genealogical Society of Utah is in possession of many of these publications, and the following account of how the Visitations come into existence will be of interest: The original proclamation of King Henry V, which was the first step towards Heraldic visitations, was dated June 2, 1417, and was to the effect that no man of any estate, degree or condition whatsoever should assume arms unless he held them by right of inheritance or by grant of some person who had the power so to privilege them, and that all persons should make it appear to officers to be appointed, by whose gift they enjoyed such arms, excepting those who had borne arms with the king at the battle of Agincourt. The College of Arms was not established until 1485. At irregular intervals, when the visitation of a county was determined upon, Clarenceux or Norroy, king of arms, armed with special powers by the soverign and the lords of the privy council, issued his summons to the bailiffs of each hundred or to the mayors or other chief officers commanding them to notify each of the gentry, included in an accompanying list of names, that they should appear before his deputies at a certain place and on a certain day in order that their pedigrees might be duly recorded and their right to the arms and to the consequent title of "gentleman” be certified and any irregularities corrected. The heralds appointed as deputies, accompanied by their staff of registrars, scribe and draughtsmen proceeded in due time to sit as announced in the most convenient towns to receieve and record, as brought in to them by the neighboring gentry, their descents, and to acknowledge or respite or refuse altogether the arms which might be put forward, according to whether the proofs submitted to them were satisfactory. Every faculty was offered on the part of the heralds to make their work complete. The announcement of the approaching visitation often caused excitement and in many cases alarm. The heralds were armed with great authority and it depended entirely on the character of the individual deputy whether this was used in an arbitrary manner, even to the extent of breaking down family monuments and destroying other heraldic devices, a power which Dugdale put into force in 1667. Letters written to Dugdale show that he possessed a sway equal or almost superior to the authority of the secular soverign. It can be readily understood, therefore, how the old gentry whose position was known and assured in their own district might hesitate to submit their degree to the judgment. of a stranger who was himself judge and jury and there was no appeal. It was not in human nature at least in the character of most men to be thus exalted as the representative of the Earl Marshall and through him, of the crown itself, and sent down into a country district without having a due sense of the great dignity with which they had been clothed and the heralds were particularly sensitive to any neglect or want of respect. It was to the heralds' interest to record the greatest possible number of the gentry of a county, but the limits within which they must work were distinctly marked out for them and every instinct of the dignity of their position, loyalty to their order and fear of the consequences of any fault constrained them to carry out their instructions fearlessly. Some times angry feelings were aroused, the heralds' authority was slighted and their summons to appear greatly neglected. It is probable that in the earlier visitations this was not so much the case. The heralds found many persons who pretended to have the right to bear arms. When such persons' claims were not established by proof they were "disclaimed." In such instances shields were pulled down and defaced by the heralds, but in most instances these were put up again the moment the herald's back was turned. The heralds entered and registered the descents of all who applied, but those who were proved to have no right to coat armour were publicly notified of the fact. Thus we find many genealogies entered in the visitations without any arms attached and the names occur among the list of disclaimers. We have many instances of consideration and forbearance on the part of the heralds. There are cases in which the scion of an ancient stock attended the heralds and recorded his descent and arms and was excused the fees on account of poverty, that is, more regard was paid to blood than to position. Many instances are on record where the heralds would have spared persons "from disgrace," but the terms of their commission were inexorable, the "nobilis" must be distinctly upheld, the mandates of the Earl Marshall's court had gone forth-prove your lawful right to the arms which you have been using or be disclaimed. Any idea that the heralds should shield their friends is quite inadmissible-the dignity of their commission surmounted all personal consideration and its terms were strictly carried out. Every allowance was made for those who had difficulty in proving their right to arms. The pedigree was entered and the arms were respited for proof. Even though the proof was never obtained and entered the pedigree still remains, which, after all, is the important thing for the modern genealogist. The heralds underwent privations and labors, traveling through their districts on horseback and stopping in country inns in those centers which seemed most convenient and where the neighboring gentry would most readily wait upon them. The established scale of fees in their court was not excessive and during the visitations, when expenses must presumably have increased, they must have been little more than sufficient to repay the labors and outlay of the herald and his staff. We are told that "the yearly Pention allowed them was Garter £40: Clarencieux and Norroy £20 each: six heralds at £13 6s 8d; four Pursevants having amongst them all £69 6s 8d-anything beyond this arose from fees." Some criticism has been made against the heralds of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that their work was so imperfect and many families have no mention in their records, but it is more just and reasonable to suppose that the heralds did all within their power than otherwise. Being human, they must have encouraged the gentry to come in with their fees and to show such satisfactory proofs as would confirm to them their proper social distinction. The heralds warned them of their approach a month or so beforehand and came with books and attendants to their very doors. In heraldry there is no room for supposition, either a man is a gentleman of coat armour or he is not, he may be an equally respected yeoman. All the heralds sought to establish was the truth. DEFINITION OF FAMILY GENEALOGY. Human life is like unto a mountain stream that flows from unknown springs to unchartered seas. An individual life has its known entrance and exit. Not so with the family. It was never born; it will never die. So complete and wonderful is a family, that the term is hard to comprehend or define. The strains of blood in the veins of a twentieth century Bicknell are as numerous as the sands of the shore or the multitude of the stars. To find the Adam and Eve Bicknell would be a search as hopeless as for the Holy Grail. A family genealogy is a bit of the infinite in terms of the finite; a sample of creative energy, working through men and women, who, for a few centuries, bear the Bicknell name. What name we bore, two thousand years ago, no man knows. What name we shall bear two thousand years hence is beyond our ken. What we do know is this, that a common name, peculiar physical, mental, and spiritual characteristics unite a few thousands in relations of mutual acquaintance, fellowship, brotherhood, love. The family, called your name, is one of the units of a national, a world life; the ends it serves are to cement a closer brotherhood and to foster true sympathy, co-operation and faith. A family genealogy gives identity and personality to scattered forces, and makes the interlinking of lives more real, natural and helpful. The Bicknell genealogy is a grouping of a body of men, women, and children, a section of world workers who should make good as beacon lights on the beacon hills for the races of men.-Thomas W. Bicknell, in Bicknell Genealogy. CONDITIONS OF BRITISH PARISH RECORDS. [The following letter from the British genealogist, George Minns, is of interest in explaining to those who have research work done in Great Britain, the difficulties which are encountered in handling the parish records.-EDITORS.] The Genealogical Society of Utah: April 28, 1914 Since Christmas I have had the pleasure of sending you work for some 36 applicants gathered from a much larger number of parish and other records in various counties of England and Scotland; most if not all, I trust, will afford satisfaction recipients. to the In some instances the information received, as a foundation to work upon, has been of the scantiest nature; but I have done what I considered best, and what I believe is only possible under the circumstances, to obtain the names required without running into much expense. This also applies to those cases where a given. record contains little or nothing of interest to the applicent. I sometimes hear from the latter that they find names are repeated in the lists which are sent them from time to time. Perhaps it would be as well to describe briefly for the consideration of those who do not know, what a parish record is-one which had not yet been printed, or even copied by a modern and legible writer. There is just about as much resemblance between an orginial manuscript, and a printed copy, as there is between a book of mathematical problems, and another containing the answers to the same. There are exceptions, but the majority of those I have inspected have complications and defects that puzzle and vex by their number and variety. These take up no small part of a searcher's limited time to unravel. In some there is such a confused mass of scrawls, faded or quite obliterated and undecipherable matter, mixed events and dates, almost forgotten items crowded in between lines, sometimes upside down, marginal notes, etc., that it is no wonder that the scribe or scribes entered names a second time. As a rule births or baptims, marriages, and deaths or burials are kept in separate books for the greater part of the period they cover; or in the case of small parish records, in different parts of books. The events are set down, or should be, in chronological order. The families are not kept distinct or even in alphabetical order, neither is there an index to the surnames; therefore it is a matter of inevitable scrutiny of every page or line of a page, till the name required is found. It often takes as long to search under one heading as it does under another. I feel confident that this condition of things is unknown to a great number of persons who are interested in genealogy, from the letters I receive. |