First published in 2000, Cracroft's
Peerage was the first peerage reference work to be available in a
digital format. When complete Cracroft's
Peerage will have the breadth of information found in The Complete
Peerage and it's sister work The Complete Baronetage, matched with the
type of genealogical
information found in Debrett's Peerage & Baronetage and Burke's
Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage. In the course of
compiling Cracroft's
Peerage it has been possible to correct most of the errors still
showing in Debrett's and Burke's, as well as expand the
narrative genealogies wherever possible with the "missing" sons and daughters omitted from
Burke's. Although a digital work will never have the attraction of
a printed book to a true bibliophile, it has considerable advantages over the
paper format:
- the extensive use of hypertext links makes moving between articles
almost instantaneous
- the search and find capabilities inherent in a database make finding
information very easy
- narrative pedigrees and articles can be annotated digitally or printed out for personal research
Burke's Peerage & Gentry LLC have recently announced that the
107th edition of Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage will be
the last edition to be available in a paper format. They have made
this edition available online to subscribers as a "flat" digital file and as
such it lacks some of the important capabilities outlined above. It
also lacks the wide scope of information that will be contained in Cracroft's Peerage
when it is completed.