Not long ago, I read a discussion on the subject of data and information that said the two are not the same. It explained that data is the basis of or the route to information, and information is valid and useful material that leads to conclusions or knowledge. Databases for genealogists are important in the search for reliable information; with that in mind the steady stream of lists, indexes, and reprinted resources coming onto the market is worth monitoring.

The selection of British resources reviewed here includes facts about the relative value of money, lists of part-time soldiers, topographical descriptions, indexes to marriages and the descent of land, and the indexed contents of numerous volumes originally published in Burke’s Peerage. Each of these products offers data–potentially valuable information–when used in conjunction with other research or when used as a finding aid to original records. This data could ultimately lead researchers to new conclusions.

This program calculates figures based on three resources: a "shopping basket" or composite commodity price index from two sources, How Much Is That in Real Money (J.J. McCush, American Antiquarian Society, 1992) and Bank of England figures for the years 1992—98. It calculates relative values of any sum of money from one pence to £30,000. In addition, it plots an inflation graph between the two dates chosen for comparison.

This 32-bit program is for Windows 95/98/NT only and comes on a floppy disk. It includes an integrated Windows Help section; a tutorial; supplementary information about pre-1971 pounds, shillings and pence; and a list of extreme peaks and valleys. This is all helpful and can be read in a few minutes.

When plotting a graph, you enter the start amount and date on one line; below that, the equivalent amount appears for the year you select. Next, a graph shows the ups and downs of inflation between the two dates. You can zoom in on the graph and then pan in either direction, following the extended graph to the chosen outside dates.

The program answers the obvious question about a legacy, tax bill, or price: How much is that worth in today’s world? If you are interested in a currency value other than pounds, current rates of exchange are easy to find in newspapers and on the Web.

The inflation graph has the scope for more interesting considerations. For example, pick a round number such as ten pounds and insert a start date of an ancestor’s birth and an end date of that person’s death. Did he or she live through a period of economic stability, or through significant change? If the latter, you might search for the cause of that instability and its impact on the ancestor’s parish.

Fun to use, and potentially a source of interesting and helpful information, Value of the Pound is worth the cost–after all, it was worth about 25 pence to my great-great-grandfather.

At the Public Record Office (PRO) in Kew (west of London) is a series of records classified as War Office (WO) 13. The series includes musters of militia regiments between 1780 to 1876 and some records of supplementary and local militia from the period of the Napoleonic Wars. Survival of the records for the four musters in 1781 and 1782 is good. They record those selected to serve, but researchers should be aware that lists of those eligible to serve were also made. Where these so-called "ballot" lists survive, they amount to a census of the males between 18 and 55 in a parish.

There are more than 40 indexes from WO13 in this series of floppy disks (700 to 1,700 names per disk), all arranged by county. County militia regiments were recruited locally, but sometimes served away from home, which enhances the value of the musters. For each soldier, the index provides name, rank, company, and whether present at each of the four musters, as well as the location, date, and officer in command. Keep in mind that these are indexes and that you should follow up any interesting entry with the original record. To check the list of disks available, or to view militia units, and other PRO sources, go to the Genfair Web site listed above.

The indexes are in ASCII text with comma-separated variables. Excel opens the index, so it is easy to check the details in the table. The material can also be accessed using a word processor or database program.

Lists, such as these militia musters, help researchers determine which original records to consult in depth, or they assist in searching for the occurrence of a name in a region. Determining whether an ancestor served is something of a lottery, but the CD’s inexpensive price and simple instructions mean checking it out is a reasonable gamble.

These four CDs come from two expanding series issued by S & N. One is the British Archive Data Collection, and the other is the volumes of indexes, Phillimore’s Marriages. (There are hundreds of CDs for 27 English counties and London.) The full range of available CDs can be found by visiting the above Web site. The Index to Parishes in Phillimore’s Marriages has been published (M.E. Bryant Rosier, 2000), and this information is also in the Atlas and Index of Parish Registers (C. Humphery-Smith, Phillimore, 1995).

The viewer for the Data Collection and for the volumes of Phillimore’s Marriages is Adobe Acrobat Reader. A copy is included on each CD for anyone who needs it.

The Data Collection is made up of poll books and directories. Both are lists of people, limited by certain qualifications, e.g. a level of property value or whatever the conditions were for inclusion in the directory. On the left side of the screen, there is a listing of bookmarks, which has 17 headings for the London directory. The alphabetical name listing is lengthy, and access is facilitated by subheadings for each letter. Directories and poll books are published by other companies and by societies, so there is a wide range available–in the S & N list, the years 1823, 1844, and 1855 dominate. The 1823 books predate England/Wales civil registration by 14 years, and the 1844 and 1855 books fall between census enumerations.

On the Phillimore Marriages CDs, the names of the parishes in the volume appear as bookmarks in the left column. The entries are listed in chronological order within each parish. In each instance, the name of the groom is given before that of the bride. These indexes are well known and can be viewed on microfilm at the LDS Family History Library and its Family History Centers. But, it is worthwhile to consider the convenience of having the indexes at home and to investigate, within the context of the search parameters, what other indexes exist and what can be accessed by microfilm loan. The price may also be a factor, even with the 50-percent discount offered on the purchase of complete county sets.

The South and West Wales CD contains a number of items for Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire, Pem-brokeshire, and the Gower Peninsula (western part of Glamorganshire); these include an index to baptisms, marriages, and burials in seven Carmarthen parishes between 1671 and 1901. The CD also contains an index to marriages in Carmarthen and Pembroke, from 1813 to 1837 (nearly 60,000 names); marriage bonds and fiats, 1612—1800, for the whole area (11,570 names); a census index for a selection of years in two parishes in Carmarthen; and an index to wills proved at the Consistory Court of St. David’s for the whole area between 1564 and 1750 (more than 24,000 names).

The search function worked well when I searched for several names on the Phillimore Marriages CDs, but there is a warning on the package that says the search may not work properly; so be prepared to browse through many pages if this is the case. This search method did not work for the London directory, but the alphabetical list facilitated finding names. Zoom and print functions operate as expected.

This line of products is being added to regularly. So keep an eye out for whether the series offers potentially useful facts and background information for your research.

Lewis’ topographical dictionaries are something everyone with British or Irish ancestry uses, and even covets. The descriptions of parishes are full of such useful facts as dioceses, churches, schools, and major economic activity. In book form, they are generally fairly expensive, and a combined England, Scotland, Ireland CD has been available for some time. But now Quintin has produced the dictionaries for England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland on separate CDs at a reasonable cost.

The volumes are viewed using Adobe Acrobat Reader. Since all the places are in alphabetical order, searching by place is straightforward. The search function did not work well on the review copy, so it was not possible for me to search for every place that mention, say, the word coal. Zoom and print functions worked well. To get clear, readable text and to move around the page quickly, I found that 150 percent magnification was about right, but some might prefer larger letters to improve the clarity.

You can purchase gazetteers on the Internet or view them on film and fiche in libraries, but when you can't pull one off the shelf, turning to a CD is the next best thing.

In picking up this CD in a shop or at a conference booth, you have to ask what is on it; the answer that comes from the jewel case cover, other than knowing there are eleven volumes, is all pedigree and lineage works published in Burke’s Peerage. The cover says that some of the information that might appear for an individual includes education, service, occupation, honors, family members, vital events, place of residence, and armorial bearing. Whether 1 percent or 10 percent or more of the 539,000 names on the CD have many of these facts is not indicated.

The publications have, at one time or another in the last 35 years, been published by GPC or its associated company, Clearfield. There are actually eight titles– eleven volumes–and part of another included on the CD. In the order they appear on the CD, with the author and years of publication (original version and reprints), the titles are as follows:

•Burke’s American Families with British Ancestry, John Bernard Burke, the American section of the Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 16th ed., 1939, 1975.

•A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire, John Bernard Burke, 1883, 1985.

•A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland, and Scotland, John Bernard Burke, 2nd edition, 1841, 1977.

•Burke’s Family Records, Ashworth P. Burke, 1897, 1994.

•A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Colonial Gentry, John Bernard Burke and Ashworth P. Burke, 2 volumes (includes Australia, South Africa, the West Indies, and North America), 1891—95, 1997.

•The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, John Bernard Burke, 1884, 1967.

•A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, John Bernard Burke, 4 volumes, 1834—38, reprinted with the Index to Pedigrees in Burke’s Commoners, George Ormerod, 1977, 1993, 1998.

•The Prominent Families of the United States of America, Arthur M. Burke, 1908, 1991.

Navigating within the CD is not difficult; its means of access is the Family Archive Viewer. The viewer offers a contents list to each title, the ability to move immediately for any item in the contents list, and a complete index to all names in all volumes. Advice is included, such as how to search for names beginning with "Mc" or "O’" and what to do about title, rank, or "Jr." after a name (ignore it). Wild card searches are also possible.

When using the index, key in the name of interest (surname is enough) and the screen will jump to that part of the index. Double-click on a name, or use the "turn to" button at the bottom of the screen to be taken to the right page. It is possible to zoom in. Do this, or print the page; either way, if the name is not in bold letters, it can take some concentration to find it. There is no underlining or highlighting to aid the search, unfortunately. The search feature picks up only personal names. Testing a number of names that are both family names and place names, and testing some that are place names only, shows you that you can find, for example, the Earl of Leicester, but not the county or town.

Burke acquired the information in the Peerage by sending questionnaires to living families and printing the results. There is room for error and for omission. Stick to the rules of good research, and use volumes such as these in a supplementary manner and to generate strategical ideas.

In Scotland, the heir to landed property did not actually succeed to his inheritance until he had been served as heir, which meant there was an inquiry before a jury to examine the claim of the heir and other matters such as value. Findings were sent back to Edinburgh (retoured) and recorded. These records of retours are in Latin, and there are two types: general (dealing only with the claim) and special (detailing the lands in the claim). Special retours were followed by a Precept of Sasine, thereby giving another source of information.

This CD, the first in a pair, contains the index to the retours (on Vol. III) and two volumes of brief Latin summaries of special and general retours, 1544—1699. Volumes are arranged by county, and then by name and place. The second CD is made up of four volumes of indexes for the period 1700—1859. In 1847, the procedure altered somewhat, and the use of Latin came to an end. The indexes are in ten-year segments, with five indexes in each of the first two volumes and three in each of the others. These CDs are reproductions of the indexes published between 1811 and 1816 (the retours) and between 1863 and 1889 (the decennial indexes). The viewer is Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Upon launch, a table of contents appears in the left column. Plus signs (+) indicate where more detail will be found, and these must be clicked on and opened. Each time a selection is made from a thus-revealed subheading, the table returns to its original abbreviated form. This is frustrating. To avoid more frustration, I would advise reading the "Historical Notes" in the CD case and examining in advance all the subheadings in the table of contents, particularly for the retours. Also, take the time to read the introductory explanation in the first volume of the decennial indexes (1700—59). With a little practice, you can build a routine for navigating several different searches in a session.

The decennial indexes are arranged by the name of the heir(s) and give the name of the deceased, the relationship to the heir, occupation, and sometimes information about the land or the date of death. The Latin summaries in the retours indicate the name of the deceased, the heir, the relationship between the two, and something about the land.

Services of heirs are routinely checked as a source for Scottish research. Anyone doing extensive research into Scottish families will find one or both of these volumes a useful acquisition.

Sherry Irvine, CGRS, FSA (Scot), is a lecturer and author. She is a course coordinator (England and Scotland) and British Study Tour leader for the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama.