A MACKENZIE FAMILY DATABASE
Introduction
By its nature genealogical undertakings remain incomplete
and this one is no exception: the available data seem inexhaustible. The
data accessible here has been collected from hundreds of sources and collated over twenty-five
years. It has been synthesized through Family Tree Maker, a commercial
application. Since that software is not designed to run independently
on a web site, my son Colin has written software - which is not allowed
on our primary-host web site. This database is thus stored on a separate
server, hosted by my son Jamie. A third son Ian has maintained much of
the data integrity.
I have only documented my own data sources by subject name,
as opposed to separately documenting sources for each facet of a pedigree (ie date of marriage, place of birth, date and place of death, etc). I have made endless judgemental decisions and am responsible for the end product.
Database Access Links:
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Click on a letter to view a list of GIVEN
Names starting with that letter:
A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z - All
- or -
Click on a letter to view a list of LAST
Names starting with that letter:
A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z - All
Database
Genealogical databases exist with holdings of billions of names. This Mackenzie database is maintained in five parts, which are outlined below. Each of these components is addressed separately, but should be understood as parts of an interoperating whole.
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Sources of information. These are in the thousands and vary in accuracy. Over time I have graded some of them and have deferred in conflict to the more credible sources. Sources are a key component of genealogical information. Although some databases seek sources for each item of information, I have restricted sources to the person's name (or existence) and have presumed peripheral accuracy of supporting data. Sources lie outside the database.
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Database maintenance. I maintain my database in a standalone commercial software, which I operate on my own computer. I have restricted 'write' access so as to control the content and accuracy. I visit a variety of sources to update the database and then download it, from time to time, to the server. I add additional names and details from time to time.
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Server. The server is maintained by my son Jamie as a private site. He supports a variety of Internet operations besides my database. The server is located is located at his home and is entirely controlled by him.
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Website. I have created a private website on the Internet at my own expense. The commercial Website operation supports a large number of private operations and maintains access to the data via the Internet.
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Software. To organise and display the database on the website a software application is required, which is different than that used to create the data on my own computer. It is this software which finally enables public access to the data. Finally, this is also the software, which provides whatever tools are available for data manipulation. The principle genealogical tool of interest to many users is one which establishes relationships between any two people.
Names
Names (and dates) are the unique keys to successful searches. Sadly, so much information is available today that I have been unable to restrict my sources to English. Arguably the result has been improved data accuracy, but the penalty has been a spelling nightmare. I have learned that Alice might also be Alix, or Alys, and there seem to be endless variations of Charles, Eleanor, and Stephen. I have tried to use at least 'close to' original spellings. I have also attempted to avoid translations that render names unrecognisable.
Many historical names have been translated into other languages
and cultures. Friedrich der Grosser became 'Frederick the Great', and
Jeanne d'Arc became Joan of Arc to millions in the English-speaking world.
Similarly, many pedigrees reflect a French kings
called 'Henry', as opposed to Henri. With internet access genealogy has
become international; and I have separated names and titles, to render
the name in (what I think was) the subject's parent language.
Since many people also had titles, I have tried to reflect those titles
in the language of the 'owner' country. (The nobility could afford to travel and gained titles from other countries, and one might have
a French name but a Spanish title: Guillaume
le Conquerant, King of England, Duc de la Normandie is a case in point.)
I have limited my enthusiasm for historical accuracy to the familiar Roman alphabet: I have not translated Arabic, Russian, or other languages, which do not use the Roman alphabet. I
have attempted to reflect English as a default language, with common European languages rendered to show
names and titles. I concede that my translations may not reflect accurately the historical forms of various languages, but I feel that the languages themselves help to flavour the past. The languages themselves have changed over time. I have included historical spellings, where known, such as Kyyiv (in lieu of the modern 'Kiev'). I have sometimes 'fudged' names to retain some aspect of familiarity in English.
I have lost most Polish and Hungarian accents, as well as many Czech and Lithuanian accents due to machine translation amongst different systems. I have tried to use the common characters in the Standard ASCII table (American Standard Code for Information Interchange). However, not all web browsers use all ASCII characters.
For Indian names originating in the Americas I have accepted historical naming conventions. During the Spanish colonial period native Central and South American records were deliberately destroyed. Historical figures are often now only identifiable through stone carvings, or pictograms. Archeology has not yet been able to provide clear details of ancient Americans.
Be careful to consider alternate spellings in your own searches,
since these names have not been 'translated' into modern English. The
display provided here offers a family-group view of: historical, named subjects: spouses;
parents; and children. I have tried to use native spellings for names, but occasionally I have kept familiar spellings for unfamiliar Polish, or Hungarian renderings.
Titles
In such a grouping of names a common language would be helpful, but that would remove the context of their world. These people did inter-marry and travel in a world quite different from today's and the languages help to reflect that difference. I imagine that I have got many of these titles wrong, however, I believe that they would be recognisable to the people involved. I hope that the native titles help to give a sense of the time and place.
One overriding consideration has been the limitations of automated programmes. Because the commercial data structure limits space I have arbitrarily altered names and titles to fit the space available. I have frequently just dropped a word. Parents do not all marry and there were often legal differences between children who descended from married parents as opposed to those from unmarried parents; and I have distinguished wives from mistresses - where known.
Since European family pedigrees introduce multiple nationalities and language conventions I have imposed a degree of standardisation. I have capitalised all titles, nations, and states regardless of national convention (the French for example). This is not accurate, but with large lists of names and titles an unintended appearance of implied superiority can be inferred without standardisation. I have further truncated some lengthy titles for lack of space. History often records a variety of titles for an individual and national authors may have favoured one title in preference to another perhaps more senior title. No doubt I have also got some titles wrong as a result of my own poor understanding of language and history.
To standardise titles in Britain I have used English for the later Orkney earls, kings of York, and the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Obviously these kingdoms will have used their native languages initially, but I have no indication of when recognisable English came into common use. I have chosen to use English for kings' titles in Scotland starting with Duncan I in 1034. After MacAlpin the Scots were recognised as a nation, whereas prior to him there were only isolated kingdoms. (I appreciate the irony of using an outside language, however, Gaelic, Pictish, Scots, Welsh, Saxon, and English were often in use simultaneously in Alba/Scotland.) I have used Welsh, Irish, or Scots, for the Celtic kingdoms. I have used Scots for some Picts in preference to English, as history records them without an understandable written language.
Cypriot and 'Holy Land' titles were difficult, since official languages often changed there: I have often tied the title to the incumbent's language. I have used Latin for the Romans, and papal titles. I have used Spanish for the Visigoths, and Italian for some of the later Lombards. (This is not entirely historically accurate, but I felt it was better than English.) I used a variety of languages for the Byzantine titles, defaulting to English if not an evident French, or other, incumbent. have translated the English label 'sir' as inferring either a barony or a knighthood - unless there was further clarification: secondary sources are quite unclear about the distinction.
It is possible to give one or several nobility titles (from perhaps more than one nation) to any particular person; and to include accession and termination dates with these titles. As a further potential, it is then possible to make selections by title and display for example the kings of France in chronological order, etc.
For a complete list of all names in the database access
either the Given, or Surname, alphabetical displays and choose the
last option All.
Relationships
A relationship between any two persons is calculated based on a common ancestor. It is possible that there may be several common ancestors, and for a given ancestor several connecting branches of different lengths. My son Colin has written a small programme to identify at least one connecting link between any two related people. The application produces a list showing the intervening related people.
Colin's programme also creates a potential tree depiction of either ancestors, or descendants of any individual. Since there is a spatial dispaly limit, we have limited the data to individual's name, title, and birth/death dates. The latter dates may be approximate, but they should provide clues for your own further research.
Geography
The world changes and it becomes difficult to find a map of Rhodesia, and more difficult to find Neustria, or Outremer, but ancient titles related to now-forgotten worlds. Carolingian titles cannot always be transferred to modern states and I have reflected such forgotten 'states' as Neustria. Similarly the later Merovignan kings lost power to the 'Palace Mayors', and the Crusader states were located in Outremér, or the Kingdom of Jerusalem. A little patience is advised.
Caveat Emptor
Since I started with paper records of family histories, the advent
of the internet has changed the very nature of genealogical research.
A continual surge of newer, bigger, better-researched, etc, sites have
become available. With this explosion has come an opportunity to improve
the quality of genealogical data and to resolve the inevitable disagreements
between historical sources. For family amateurs like me, it is impossible
to resolve many data-conflicts, since secondary sources often repeat the
same (perhaps) flawed primary sources.
Modern access and tools have enabled a great expansion
in archeological research and historical understanding. DNA fingerprinting
has created opportunities to resolve former pedigree issues. Modern historical
research techniques have improved the basic discipline required to determine
truth. Yet despite these improvements and the great wealth of data, piecing
together thousand-year old pedigrees remains problematic. Original records
were sometimes falsified to hide indiscretions, records were lost, and
some details went unrecorded. Spelling, which was chancy at best, has
created a myriad of confusion as time has passed.
I have taken the greatest care to try to render accurate pedigrees,
but despite my intentions there are certain to be errors in the
data. Consider my data as a basis for your own research.
ENDNOTES
I have used a variety of references for titles including Miroslav Marek 'Abbreviations' at http://genealogy.euweb.cz/abb.html. I often used 'InterTran' at http://www.tranexp.com:2000/Translate/result.shtml, to help with language translations. |
