Apparently, one lister suggested that my piece containing a mock-up of an entry for Sussex, as an example of the kind of entry in the List I proposed earlier this month had become buried in the thread, and was not seen by listers, so I append it here in hopes of responses. Thank you, Richard Richard Smith wrote: >> I think it would greatly help us in understanding your proposal if you >> mocked up a short section of this list, and then amplified on one (or a >> few) of the entries so we could see what you propose the detailed >> entries to look like. > > I shall get to my drawing board and work up some entries for this > to model my proposal for such a listing. > > >> Richard [Smith] > > Richard C-Z Herewith my mock-up: List of Landed, Manorial, or Gentry Families of England, Wales, and the Pale of Ireland, arranged by county, and covering the period from the Conquest to the Glorious Revolution (A.D. 1066-1688). Compiled by sundry contributors. Project examples prepared 28 May 2016, by Richard Carruthers-Żurowski, B.A. (Hons), Modern History, & M.A. (Oxon.). All collegial suggestions welcomed. Example of a Simple Listing SUSSEX Surname Locality Date From Date To Rank Title Contributor Source Research Pub. Var. ERNLE Earnley ca 1166 1632 ext.LMG Esq. RHBC-Z WSRO Yes Var. Yes ERNLE Sidlesham 1345/6 ibid. do do do Sx FF Yes do do ERNLE W. Wittering ante 1632 ext. do do do PCC Yes do do Source Detail (i.e. each entry’s justification), viz.: (could be made a clickable hyperlink) Line 1: WSRO Money-Kyrle ref. 1720/44 for Lucas de Erneleia fl. ca 1166 Line 2: Sussex Fines: 16-20 Edward III, An abstract of Feet of Fines for the County of Sussex, vol. 3: 1308-1509 (1916), no. 2003 for John de Ernelee the elder/Margaret wife, fl. 1345/6 Explanation of the categories included in the simple listing. Surname: Main spelling chosen for the family for which there was an entry. Locality: Could be a manor, or parish, estate, city, etc. Date from: date of record, either precise or approximate, as based on source citation. Date to: date of conclusion of study based on some sourced record. This could be hyperlinked to an explanation (in this instance, “Abstracts of probate acts in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, vol. 1, 1630-1634, p. 146 [Anno 1632] ERNLE, Richard, of Cackham (Cakeham, p. West Wittering), Sussex, Esq. Will [66 Audley] pr. June 16 by rel. Susan. P. r. Eliz RISTON” To this the word ext. could be included indicating that the line is apparently extinct in that locality at least at the date indicated, based on research justified by the source citation associated with that listing. If this were not the case, some other explanation could be provided on the date source page. N.B. if no date is yet included for the beginning of the period, the word ante indicating that some period prior to the date included as the terminus would be inserted. Rank: L for Landed, M for Manorial, G for Gentry. One or more would have to be chosen as justified by the source(s) cited. Research: Example of instance where a name in the simple listing is marked Yes (as being researched). The "Yes" would be highlighted and hyperlinked to another page showing the contributor’s name and contact information if so desired. This opens the possibility of monetising the project and charging a small fee for access to this information by non-contributors. Just how this might be made to work is something on which one would have to take advice, and, of course, need the agreement of contributors. There could be a sort of blind email address for contributors who did not want their personal email address or other particulars given out before they had had a chance to read any message sent and decide on its bona fides. This is done by the Guild of One-Name Studies (GOONS) for example. Pub. (for Publications): an indication that one or more items about the family listed have been published. The precise publications could be listed elsewhere and access to that list (which may or may not necessarily be exhaustive, of course, given human frailties, and the fact that the list of publications may grow with new discoveries of missing items, or indeed the inclusion of new publications. Var. (for Variants): all names are variants as they derive from possible representations of sounds indicative of a particular family. Here, however, the word Yes in this category would indicate that there are known and specific variants of which this entry may be deemed to be a primary, but not necessarily a sole, entry. The primary entry or entries (say, for example, ERNLE, ERNLEY, and ERNELEY) would be allowed to appear in the Listing based on the use of that spelling or spellings of the name indicated either by some justifying reason such as that that spelling is found extensively in the literature, citing where and when, or because it is the spelling associated with a modern family using that variant whose pedigree can be corroborated as linked to the name in the entry. This would obviously involve some work to provide reasonable justification, and could lead to legitimate differences of opinion, which could be made explicit elsewhere in the project’s hyperlinked pages. So elsewhere in the Listing for the county in question there could be subsidiary variant spellings given, with the date, and justification for that entry, e.g. Ernele (de) Ernelee (de) Erneleia The preposition de would appear in parentheses where the family found under that spelling was later found without it as having dropped its use. Ditto series of prefixed words such as (or series of prefixed words as in (de la) Estcourt, Where the preposition or prefixed words appeared in the name over time and were generally retained there would be no parentheses. Names would, however, be sorted by their substantive part, as in Ernle and Estcourt. One could include as many variants as were justified by citing at least one source. There could also be deviant spellings included, such as Early for Ernle where the ‘n’-less form can be clearly shown to be a case of usage for a person belonging to a family normally referred to under another a true variant. Var. could also be used to denote cases where a family, for example, Arundel or FitzAlan is referred to by more than one surname over time, and is nonetheless recognisably the same family. Of course, this could give rise to further debate, but that would be allowed for via other hyperlinked pages associated with the project as it develops. The development of more complex pages derived from the simple listing entries for surnames associated with a locality, by county, is something that can be considered later when the need arises. Indeed, someone else may want to jump in here with their suggestions. I should note that I limited the number of categories in the simple listing based in part on the page margins I am currently dealing with. Still, unless someone points out an obvious lacuna in my example, I think it is a fair representation of what may deemed a useful sort of listing which could serve as a sort of mediaeval and early modern genealogical research directory for families of these levels of society. Your thoughts are welcome, but please be collegially gentle with me!;) Thank you, Richard C-Z:)