----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Benyon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, May 22, 2000 3:04 PM
Subject: [LegacyUG] Title


> Hi
>
> Just a quick moan:-)  50 characters still isn't really long enough in
> some circumstances for a title.  I'm putting a tree together for a
> distant cousin and find that I'm cut off in mid flow and will have to
> start making manual adjustments all the way through any reports I
> produce with the consequent room for error - eg this is all I can fit
> in:
>
> 5th Earl of Craven, Viscount Uffington, Baron Crav
>
> But I'd like to include the dates in for the creation of each eg 5th
> Earl of Craven (1801), Viscount Uffington (1801), Baron Craven (1665)
> a la Burkes Peerage etc.
>
> Paul
> Portland
>
>

As the majority of my research is in the Medieval era, I fully understand
your difficulty. I would agree with the others that the dates for the
particular creations probably belong in events. The dates of creation are
not necessarily pertinent to the complete picture of the titles. The further
back you go with the titles, the less certainty there is for creation of
titles. Also, the succession of titles can also be a bit murky. Some title
holders were never summoned to Parliament whereas the date summoned to
Parliament could be signifigantly later than the date at which succession to
the title occured.

However, I hope your point about using multiple titles as suffix titles
which extend beyond 50 characters is not lost. As your illustration shows, a
person can have a number of titles. In England the titleis are as important
as the surname and actually more so. Although your illustration of the Earl
of Craven coincides with the family Craven, most titles have nothing to do
with the family that honors them. Another example might be the Dukes of
Marlborough. They are surname Spencer-Churchill. If you check sources
looking for Spencer-Churchill you will likely find data regarding Sir
Winston's immediate family. However, if you are looking for the
Spencer-Churchill Marlborough descent, you will have to locate that dignity.
It is maddening not to generally be able to search sources such as Burke's
or Debrett's or The Complete Peerage by surname, but it is the title which
is paramount, not the surname. So your inclusion of and interest of adding
appropriate titles is I believe a valid one.

I don't think it was mentioned in the previous posts, but I think you could
possibly add the additional titles as AKA's, but like you I would prefer
they be as suffix titles.

Best regards,

Henry Sutliff

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