MSc/PgDip/PgCert Genealogical, Palaeographic & Heraldic Studies

This session provides a context for genealogical practice in a wide variety of environments. You'll progress with a common level of knowledge and understanding of key concepts and practice, including:

• ethics & standards in genealogy
• analysis of evidence problems
• business practice
• an introduction to palaeography
• the recording & presentation of data

You'll be given a grounding in the use of record and archival sources, physical and online, including genealogical literature and where to find it (catalogues of printed and manuscript genealogies and pedigrees; indexes and directories, etc). Also discussed are:

• copyright legislation
• maps & other geographic sources
• newspaper & photographic image sources
• money & coinage
• dates & calendars
• burgesses & guilds
• local government structures in the United Kingdom

This class is a systematic foundation in the use of various sources, including birth, marriage, death and census records from across the United Kingdom.

Census substitutes (poll books, electoral rolls, valuation and taxation assessments and subsidy lists, poor law registers, etc) and ecclesiastical records (OPR, parish registers, bishops' transcripts, Kirk Session and parish administration records, etc) are also covered.

This class introduces the use of DNA in genealogical research; upon completion students will understand the various tests available and their use alongside traditional research methods.

Demography, research into the nobility and landed gentry and other family research along with Irish records, migration and emigration are covered as well as personal records such as occupation, military and education records.

You'll be given a methodical basis for the use of various document types, including the inheritance of property and land, wills, testaments and inventories across the United Kingdom.

Other areas covered include local and central government records (taxation, evaluation, elections, legal records, the courts of equity, records of chancery and exchequer) and a deeper look at palaeography records.

When you complete this session, you'll be able to transcribe and translate records from Latin sufficiently to extract relevant genealogical information from them. The origins and intentions of Scottish and English heraldry and heraldic art are covered and students will understand heraldry’s use in tracing families.

Here you'll deepen and extend your knowledge of sources and genealogical techniques used when researching non-UK countries and in mediaeval genealogy. Certain specialist topics such as the advanced uses of DNA in genealogy and Jewish genealogy are also covered.

Areas covered include:

• the British Empire
• Europe
• Australia
• New Zealand
• the USA
• Canada
• Ireland in depth

As well as requiring you to demonstrate that you've acquired an understanding of a range of research methods and ways in which they can be deployed, this session provides practical skills in professional and academic research and practice and introduces archival record management.

When you complete this class, you'll recognise specific types of documents, their structure and intent and be able to transcribe and translate these from Latin sufficiently to extract relevant genealogical information from them.

The origins and intentions of Scottish and English heraldry and heraldic art are covered and students will understand heraldry’s use in tracing families.

The Masters stage of the Genealogical, Palaeographic and Heraldic Studies programme comprises one compulsory class. This requires you to plan, implement and evaluate a major piece of research, which involves carrying out an investigative and developmental project of genealogical relevance which will be assessed on the basis of a dissertation of 12,000-16,000 words.