Forty or more years ago (before today's computer searched) there was
one major firm that did genealogical research and was considered so
accurate that newspapers and magazines used their services and quoted
them.  What was the name of that company and are they still in
business?

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Request for Question Clarification by alienintelligence-ga on 01 Sep 2003 19:30 PDT

Hi there persnick...

So there isn't a presumption,
do you know if this is an
American based company?

The newspapers and magazines,
that quoted them... were they
national? Or was this in a 
particular area that you were
at? Do you remember any of
the newspapers or magazines
by name that might have made
mention of them?

Can you perhaps remember
their logo or slogan?
 
thanks
-AI

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Clarification of Question by iampersnickety-ga on 02 Sep 2003 08:12 PDT

Hallo... I believe it was an American firm, but may have had ties to
Britain.  And, yes, the newspapers and magazines that used/quoted them
were definitely national:  Life, Time, Collier's, Saturday Evening
Post, Reader's Digest, all the big newspapers like New York Times, et
al.  I have no idea if they had a logo or slogan.  This was a pretty
"upper crust" sort of thing in those days.  Only very monied people
could afford their services.  Hope that helps.

Hello iampersnickety,

American genealogy is mostly a do-it-yourself phenomenon, with people
doing it as a hobby or historians doing it as a sideline to their own
research. The largest organization for this is the Family History
Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Utah. (
http://www.familysearch.org/ ) It is the largest genealogy library in
the world.

British genealogy, with its' emphasis on keeping track of aristocratic
lineage, has it's own office concerned with such tasks (
http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/ ).

Of the two major British firms focused on researching lineage and
publishing massive lists, Burke's Peerage & Gentry (
http://www.burkes-peerage.net/ ) is the one that had an American
branch. Burke's Peerage & Baronetage has been printed since 1826, and
they do offer genealogical research services.

There are a number of copycats trying to use the Burke's name, so keep
that in mind. The other major noble lineage reference is Debrett's.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask for further clarification.


The Society of Genealogists (British) - http://www.sog.org.uk/
Debrett's - http://www.debretts.co.uk/

Search Strategy:
As I was already familiar with their printed edition, I used "Burke's
genealogy" as a search term to see if they had an web site.

"mormon library"
"england arms"
"debretts"

Thank you for all your help.  Your answer has been a great help.