May Newsletter ~ Magna Carta Project
First and foremost - THANK YOU Magna Carta Project members, both badged and affiliate, for all you do. And if anyone would like to join us, post an answer to [our G2G join post].
Member of the Month
Gordon Warder has been a project Affiliate and participated in several of last year’s project challenges. One of our newer members, he is also one of our most active members. When he decided to become a badged member, he chose to be Gateway Guardian for George Elkington, and has been working with project coordinator Joe Cochoit to resolve issues with the Richardson-documented trail for that Gateway Ancestor. He worked with co-leader David to meet the requirements needed to become certified to work on pre-1500 profiles (see David’s “how-to“ for more information about getting certified). Gordon also developed a trail for Elizabeth (Boteler) Claiborne. As soon as review/approval for that trail is completed, he’ll be ready to review/approve trails for the project that have been developed by other members. Both David and I (Liz) have enjoyed getting to know Gordon as we work through the profiles for Elizabeth’s trail & I am really pleased to name him the Magna Carta Project’s Member of the Month.
Thanks for your contributions Gordon!
Profile of the Month ~ Philip d’Aubigny, by project coordinator Michael
Philip d’Aubigny was one of the Illustrious Men, King John’s listed counsellors at the time of the Magna Carta, and cousin of Magna Carta Surety Baron William d’Aubigny. He was Warden of the Channel Islands for part of his life. In the tumultuous years following the Magna Carta, Philip stayed loyal to the Crown. At the start of Henry III’s reign he took a leading part in suppressing rebellion and expelling a French invasion and became one of the young king’s tutors. He was rewarded with lands and sinecures. He was also a crusader, joining the tail end of the Fifth Crusade in 1221. In 1235, having pledged lands to a nephew, he went to the Holy Land where he died the next year. He was buried in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem.
I’ve recently worked on his profile. Two d’Aubigny family branches had been conflated. In disentangling them, and identifying Philip’s parents and siblings, I was greatly helped by an answer to a question I posted in G2G and several discussions in that invaluable resource the Google Group soc.genealogy.medieval, which it’s often worth searching for medieval and Tudor people. Further information came from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and State Records. An internet search for his name led me to a book on crusader art which yielded more information on Philip’s crusading and burial – showing yet again the value of websearches for going beyond standard sources.
Editor’s note: Links to sources are on Philip’s profile page, except for one to soc.genealogy.medieval, which is at https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!forum/soc.genealogy.medieval
Tip of the Month ~ Inquisitions Post Mortem by project coordinator Joe
We often depend on secondary sources for our information, and the Magna Carta Project leans heavily on Douglas Richardson’s Royal Ancestry series. And in these sources it is not unusual to see precise dates. If possible, it is preferable to cite a primary source for basic genealogical information such as birth and death dates; however, there are no birth certificates, no baptism records and no burial from this time period. So the question is, ‘how does Doug know the dates?’
The dates are commonly found in the Calendars of Inquisitions Post Mortem. Following the death a land holder, an IPM was held to determine who the rightful heir was, did he hold the land directly from the king, and was he of age (21) to hold the land. These documents are key to medieval genealogy as they provide primary evidence of relationships, dates of death, and birth dates or ages of heirs.
Tip: Do not depend solely on even quality secondary sources. Use the IPMs as primary evidence for dates and proof of relationships.
Editor’s note: See the IPM entry on WikiTree’s Pre-1500 Resource page, which includes links to one of Joe’s pages - at https://sites.google.com/site/cochoit/home/inquisitions-post-mortem - and to Chris Philip’s IPM page.
April Project Challenge Wrap-up: Clean-a-Thon participation, by co-leader Liz
WOW! The Clean-a-Thon (CAT) this past weekend was AWESOME! Video chats were lots of fun. T-shirts were won. And over 130,000 database errors were cleaned! For details, see the breakout of users by teams [here] (see [this page] for the overall ranking of the 505 participants and [this page] for the ranking the 26 teams).
All of the Magna Carta Project members (badged and affiliates) who participated contributed to the CAT’s fantastic success and I was pleased to award Challenge Met! stickers to those who cleaned at least 100 DBEs during the CAT – and was in awe of our members who broke 1,000!
Well done everyone! Every database error corrected improves WikiTree and, to quote the captain of Team Flying Dutchmen-Vliegende Hollanders, the time you spent helps “make our WikiTree shine bright like a diamond!”
Feature Article ~ Project Membership: It’s all about you, by co-leader David
Without members a project is just an initial concept - kind of like bones without skin. Or like a birthday party you plan. You can have a cake, games and activities all in place but without someone to join in the singing and blowing out the candles, it just isn’t a party. It takes members to make our project work. It takes members collaborating together toward the achievement of a common goal. The Magna Carta Project has always attracted and had great members who, truly, are the reason for the continued success of the project. We appreciate each and every member.
Maybe you have thought about joining the project? Perhaps out of curiosity you checked your relationship to one of the 17 Magna Carta surety barons known to have descendants past the fourth generation. Did it turn out that one or more of those noble barons may be your distant great-grandfather? Perhaps one of your ancestors was one of the 240 or so Richardson-documented “Gateway Ancestors“ who immigrated to the American colonies in the 17th century? That fact may have sparked an interest in joining the Magna Carta project and made you curious as to what we do as a project. Project members include both descendants and non-relatives of the signers and enforcers of the Magna Carta, who share an interest in the legacy those men left.
So, let’s explore membership in the Magna Carta Project. First of all, there have been some changes made to membership guidelines and requirements since the project began that are worth mentioning up front. These changes were made in 2017 to help revitalize projects, and for the Magna Carta Project included adding participation requirements (our G2G join post has an overview). The addition of participation requirements for badged members prompted the project to implement two different levels of membership: badged and affiliate. Affiliate members do not have participation requirements to meet. The membership level you choose depends on the goals you have for joining and are tailored to accommodate those with differing time constraints and interest levels.
In next month’s newsletter I will fill you in on the two different Magna Carta Project memberships and how new members can choose the right membership level.* I hope that you will join us.
* If you just can’t wait, check out this project page: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Magna_Carta_Project_Members
