Viewing posts for the category genealogy and family history

IPM as Identity Solver: Elizabeth Wonwell (c.1432-1482), Wife of Sir Philip Courtenay of Molland

Posted by: mholford in genealogy and family history 10 years, 8 months ago

Genealogist Brad Verity uses an IPM to untangle a problem in the Courtenay of Molland pedigree.

Fitzalan or Arundel? The earls of Arundel's surname in the 15th-century IPMs.

Posted by: mholford in genealogy and family history 10 years, 9 months ago

The Fitzalan earls of Arundel descended from William fitz Alan (son of Alan fitz Flaad), lord of Oswestry and Clun on the Shropshire march at the start of the twelfth century.  They acquired Arundel castle from an heiress of the last d'Aubigny earl of Arundel in 1244 and became themselves earls of Arundel in 1292.  The family died out in 1580 when the 12th earl died without male heirs, after which the castle and title passed to the Howards (who in the mid-nineteenth century adopted the surname Fitzalan-Howard).

Up and Down the Family Tree, or, Medieval Heir Hunters

Posted by: mholford in Featured inquisition, genealogy and family history 11 years, 3 months ago

Michael Hicks explores the rules of inheritance applied to some distant heirs.

Inheritance and succession

Posted by: mholford in background and contexts, genealogy and family history, Law and administration 11 years, 3 months ago

IPMs are documents concerned with the inheritance of land. That inheritance normally took place in accordance with the principles of the common law, but sometimes according to grants or settlements that were designed to modify those principles in favour of various family members. The IPMs are a very important source of information on the changing ways in which estates were settled and inherited in medieval England; equally, some appreciation of the law relating to inheritance and conveyancing is necessary for a full understanding of the documents themselves. This page provides a short introduction to these issues.

The Missing Link in the Hungerford Pedigree, 1439

Posted by: mholford in genealogy and family history 11 years, 8 months ago

In this post Michael Hicks explores CIPM xxv.255-6, the inquisitions post mortem that furnish the crucial details explaining how the Hungerford family amassed the whole of the Peverell family estate and when.