Some of us are fortunate enough to be able to trace our family tree back to signors of the Magna Charta.
I don’t say that in terms of “oh, aren’t we cool!”. I only mean that when that is the case then a lot of the more challenging work for that line has probably already been done for you.
If you’re looking for a gift for someone who is heavily into genealogy AND you know that they have been able to trace some family back that far, this book listing descendants is both a great research tool and an interesting one to browse through.
It’s not a book with stories but a book of lineage listing names, dates of birth, names of spouses, children, and so on.
In many cases, if you find that one of the signors is an ancestor then other signors may also fall into your tree, too, as these families often intermarried. In our case, my 5th great-grandfather’s lineage was documented by the Baronial Order of Runnymede. I had found the information through Google Books and was able to find connections to 8 signors through marriage.
The Runnymede book can be browsed online but I really wanted a printed copy to keep on hand. Copies, though, are hard to find and expensive.
This Magna Charta Sureties book by Frederick Lewis Weis is much more affordable and certainly easier to read than the digital version. Anyone who wants to maintain records of historical connections to these signors will appreciate the information in this version.