Visitation of England and Wales

The twenty-one volumes of "Visitations" (1894-1921) together with the fourteen volumes of "Notes" (1896-1921) contain a vast wealth of English and Welsh pedigrees and supporting documentation. The "Visitations" series records the genealogical information contained in the Herald's Visitations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The pedigrees start with the grandparents of the principle person, and contain notices of all descendants of their name, covering five generations in most cases. A significant amount of genealogical and biographical information is given for each person. These volumes consist mainly of pedigrees, but there are also some wills, land records, extracts from parish registers, copies of monumental brasses, etc. In addition, the volumes contain illustrations of arms on record at the College of Arms, reproductions of autographs, seals, book-plates, portraits, etc. The "Notes" series contains genealogical data on the older generations of the families discussed in the "Visitations" series, to which they are directly keyed. The "Notes" series contains some pedigrees, but the bulk of the material in these volumes consists of documents, abstracts and other supporting material.
These Visitations are not to be confused with those of earlier centuries which were often erroneous. The present works have been characterized by P. William Filby in his bibliography, American and British Genealogy & Heraldry, as having a "high standard of accuracy." Dr. Howard died after a few volumes were published, but the work was continued by Frederick Arthur Crisp. Mr. Crisp was an antiquarian and publisher who produced scores of transcripts of parish registers, genealogies, etc. in addition to the present series. The pedigrees in these two series are indexed in Whitmore's Genealogical Guide (1953). Volume 11 lists pedigrees (from various counties): Abercromby, Barlow, Cave-Browne-Cave, Clark, Coode, De Chair, De Mauley, Freeman, Goddard, Grey, Hamilton, Harrison, Hodsoll, Hunt, Jackson, Jones, Landon, Lockett, Norbury, Patchett, Phillips, Portman, Raglan, Roberts, Roddam, Shedden, Sieveking, South, Steedman, Taylor, Teague, Thursby, Welch, Wood, and Worsley. The original full-name index adds to the value of this work.