Evening Star Newspaper, June 5, 1923, Page 34

v 34 o THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. TUESDAY. JUNE 5, 1923. B‘U’RKE,S NEXT TO BIBLE | Lord Fermoy, who, as Is well known, | cover ?f :xuruf's I[he :oneorf'u\flm:' | was long separated from his Ameri- | tory of the relgning house ol re: [ can wite. She tete him—ne was then | Eritain. There, it only, one daagey AMONG BRITISH BOOKSik.m-.,um Hon. Jamen Burke Roche | uiory “han That of Kine Georee: —and with her twe bove and et | e tested by the rigid teats of &c- Famed Genealogy | daughter, tfejoined her father, the Work, Started -Just% 100 Years Ago, Is Noted for Accuracy. By FREDERICK CUNLIFFE-OWEN, C. W E. UST a century has passed since John Burke, an Irlshman of much erudition, of letters and of birth, came to London and issued to the public “A General Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the United King- dom.” and today. after an interval of asveral years, consequent upon the confusion resulting from the great war, its ninety-fifth edition has just made its appearance. under the aus- pices of his grandson, Sir Henry Farnham Burke. who. as garter king of arms, is head of the Heralds' Col- lege, or Royal College of Arms, which has been in existence since 1484, in- trusted with the duty of regulating the grant and the bearing of heraldic devices and of coats of arms. Sir Henry, by virtue of his offic also tthe eprincipal heraldic officer of the sovereign of the reaim, and of the Ancient Order of the Garter. in addition to being the official geneaio- | nearly every one ist of the Trish Order of St. Patrick and of the English Order of the Bath as well as of most of the illustrious nf the Rritish orders of knighthood Tt is no exaggeration assert that, like his father. the late Sir Bernard Burke. before him, he is today acknowledge as the Rreatest living authority on British genealogy and as such ihe monumental work Which bears the name of his family possesses a degree of authority to ich nn other publication of the kind can aspire Ranks Next to Bible, There i none. indeed. that carries #0 much weight with 3 Briton as “Burke,” and he val f next to his Bible. It is unique in pub- lishing the full and complete geneal- ogy of every family in the British em- pire which now bears a hereditary ti- 1 ¢ pedigree recorded in its bepn duly authenticated and the nf such careful scru- tiny, that all fairy of a gene 1 charact mythical pre- ! sed on legend documen eliminated. work of con to ane S have been RBurke's” ig, therefore. cern. not alone to those subjects of King George who figure therein. but aiso to their countrymen at large Many Use Book Here. Interest in “Burk is by no means confined tn Rrito There are few volumes which ar greater demand ar the public libraries in the new world for purpeses of genealogical in- vestigation by Americans who are desirous of <ing researches hearing upon their ancestry and upnn that of their friends. This is only natural. Page after page of Burke's aling with the membhers of the Brit- h peerage and baronetage show in- stances of members thereof who are mentioned as having “emigrated (o America.” many of them in the sever teenth cighteenth centuries and as having been lost to sight in this cauniry by their relatives who staved at home. A very large proportion of the American people are descended, more The Hecht Co. Soriely (lnthes therefore. to | prospects of suc or less remotely. from British, Scotch | and Irish forbears. It is perfectly natural that they should like to re- gard their ancestors as having been personages of distinction in the old country, a disposition for which. in many Instances. there is excelient foungation. It is agreeable especial- | Iy for those who have acquired along | with wealth some social eminence 1o feel that they are descended from | nobles rather than from hinds. | Among their immediate progenitors. either in America or Europe, it is| always easy to find some one identi- fled with the aristocracy of the United Kingdom. The attendants of the national 1library of the British Museum, in London, the greatest li-| brary in Europe. if not in the entire | world. record tiat American visitors surpass each year in numbers those of all other foreign countries put together, and that at least 67 per cent of' those who hail from the United States ask for works on genealogy It must be borne in mind that there are plenty of professional genealo- | RIsts here and abroad who make Fandsome fees by establishing a blood relationship on the strength of the mere similarity of names, while {1t is no exaggeration to state that to f the some 1,200 i British. Irish and Scotch peerages "!hmv have been ar vhere from e 1o a score of Americ claimante. | Indeed, there 4s a o« n class of lawyers hers and in England who make 1t a husiness of inducing people | to furnish money for the prosecution { of pretentions to titles which In so { many instances may appear to h | some actual but which to | fact i Must Avold Suits, ! Few have any kiea of the colossal amount, of constant work and arch entiiled by the compilation {an annual such as that as “Burke's | the contents of which are constantly | being invoked in all sorts of litiga jtion as absolutely reliable authority | while the slightest and apparently {most insignificant error may lead to {law suits against the publishers and leditnrs. The work of classification rangement and correction fs never ended very day all the newspapers {are searched for notices of hirths | m ges and deaths, For each of | thexe reported happenings a form is |sent to the family concerned, asking {for confirmation. Each lssue of the old established London “Official Gazette” is also gone through, from | the first page to the last. for notices | of new creations. promotions and ap- tments. Every new fact so dis- the same day entered working _proofs of new In order to as still greater exactitude near! 20,000 proofs are sent out for each issue {not enly 1o the heads of amilles but algo to all the collateral branches. Beyond this. nearly every profes- slonal and amateur genealogist in the United Kingdom. is in the habit of writing to the publishers. with the recult that even the most remote in- accuracies are brought to light and corrected Great Care Taken. As an instance of the care which the editors of Burke's feel it in- cumbent upon its editors to exerc 1 need only recall the quarrel which ensued between them and the late Seventh at F | 2 recent decislon from applying to | from the courts of Delaware was Y Iate Prank Work. Ih New Yotk She then proceeded to obtain from Delaware courts a dlvorea This wal nEREATS ST oo Wi aniy Tre corded 1n Burkes for the followin, vear. whereupon James Burke Roche. running for parlfament at the time in | a Roman Catholic constituency, insti- tuted proceedings against the pub- ilshers for having proclaimed him in their pages to be a divorced man, and such- to _have compromised his ss at the polls. He conterled that in the first place, be- ing an Irishman, neither he nor his wife could secure a dissolution of their marriage except by act of par- lament, since divorce has alwayvs been unknown in Irish jurisprudence —and I may add 'still remains so un- der the new and altered conditions now existing in the Emerald Isle— the only difference being that Irish- men are now precluded, according to the imperial parliament at Westmin- ater for a dissolution of their mar- riage. Jdmes Burke Roche argued that the divorce obtained by his wife utterly valueless in the eves of Eng- lish and lIrish law. aince she had Dacome an IEnglish subject by marry- him and could only secure matri- monial freedom by a decree of the Britigh courts or by act of parllament at Westminster, He demanded dam- ages from the editors. Indeed, it is| quite true that after this publication in the pages of Burke's about the Delaware divorce, he was never again able to obtaln a seat In parllament. In the end Burke's were compelled | 1o publish a correction of their state- ment and tc pay damages, while in those pages of their annual editions subsequent to the lawsuit, they were obliged to avoid all mention af the | divorce. He died a couple of years! ago, just a few months after he had succeeded to his elder brother's peer- Lord Fermoy. his wife thereby ning through the fnvalidity in | itish eyes of her Delaware divorce, | & peeress of the realm as Lady Fer- | moy and entitied to all the preroga- | tives of that position. including im- | munfty from the jurisdiction of the [ tinary courts of But since | the late Lord Fermoy is now dead and can no longer be Injurousiy affected in the eyes of the Irish constitueney which he sought In vain ent in parliament some Vears ago. the present editio Rurke's placed once more record its pages for the first the fact that his ed from him an American divoi | Another Case Lost. agent of the name of Munro obtained a verdict of damages to the tune of one farthing -that is to say, half a cent ~from the publishers of Burke's for having stated through some mis- print thas his crandfather, who was a very remots relative of an obscure baronet. had died unmarried That th lawsuits against | Burke's have been so very few and far between furnish conclusive proof how very careful the editors are in Keeping thelr wonderful annual up to date and free from every kind of mistake The Burke for 1923 shows that since the beginning of the war. over 100 new peerages have heen created and nearly 400 baropeteies, while very near an equal number of peerages and baronages have become extinct It likewlge records those British peer- ages that have fallen into abeyance. and those others which have been | called therefrom by the crown. The new knighthoods bestowad ate also rded in its pages. and attention 18 called to the fact that there are no less than twenty peeresses in | their own right—that Is to say, hy birth and uot through marriage which would give them a right to sit and vote in the house of lords if they happened io nelong to the masculine persuasion. There is also within the The Hecht Co. | feature (urney applied among wewtern na- tions. The only error In this section S Bure’s that has ever been din- Sior 1o Notes and Gueriest who ing attention tq the that Eleanor, Gaughter of Edward I, was 1ecorded as having been twice mar- ried, wrote to point out that she had only been espoused hy proxy to King Alfonso of Aragon, who had died be- fore the marrfage had been actually completed. Finally. there is in Burke's a hich no other hook of ref- erence has ever attempted to copy. 1t is the alphabetical list of every person who has any claim to prece- dence, with the particular number attached to his or to her name, which indicates the position,in the scale of precedence to which 'that person is entitled. There are no less than 160,000 of these names. Sir Henry Burke has a particularly ble editor and collaborator in the compllation of his all-important work in Altred T. Butler, who is especially well equipped for this particular Kind of work. As for 8ir Henry Burke himeelf. his name as the head of the val Collexe of Heralds must be lar to every American bearing an English coat of arms. For it § the State Department, of which he is the chlef, which conducts all genealogical researches for those cltizens of the United States and others who are able, through his as- sistance and through that of his col- | eagues. to establish such affliation with old houses of the British aris- tocracy as will entitle them to adopt a8 a matter of right.and by warrant the armorial bearings of these for- bears. 5 flap attached Al Jobbacs—Amer) Makers, War Cuticura Talcum e Faseinatingly Fragrant s ;A.l,,‘l?Xi Healthful Laderatertss, Maitan B e s Dep L Metal Porch Columns —will not rot or crack. Any 'gths. Base and cap in- cluded Wheeler & Co. 410 Bond Bldg. Braud Featured by the Best Store in Your Throughout The Nation Billiken Shoes For Children - We all remember Billiken. He came into the world and we smiled. He K the fairy of fun, the imp of happiness. 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