The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #155071   Message #3644168
Posted By: Jack Campin
22-Jul-14 - 09:15 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Using Genealogy to determine origin
Subject: RE: Origins: Using Genealogy to determine origin
I used genealogical references to figure out who the dedicatees of Scottish tunes were, and what might have occasioned the composition or dedication. I found that the standard big fat reference books weren't all that accurate, and their coverage of women members of elite families was often pathetic (this mattered because a lot of those tunes are dedicated to girls and women).

Crowd-sourced data might be better cross-checked, but most families of all social classes re-use first names across generations, so what might look like a fully identifying name is often not unique.

Public Profiler's data is usually too coarse-grained to be much use. But it is interesting that all the Cunts in the world live in Lewis and Clark County, Montana.