278 THE ANCESTOR EDITORIAL NOTES THE modern revival of interest in genealogy, heraldry and antiquities must be the excuse, if any be needed, for intro- ducing to the public a review in which these subjects are to be dealt with in the spirit of the new criticism. The want of a recognized guide in these fields of study has been felt for a long time, and it is hoped that The Ancestor may prove its claim to be regarded as the central authority on all the sub- jects that come within its scope.
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In order to justify its claim to be the guide on matters genealogical and heraldic The Ancestor will afford space for correspondence, and will, as far as possible, answer questions and give advice upon subjects with which this review is con- cerned.
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There are very few subjects, if any, on which wilder state- ments are made and accepted than that of family antiquity, as indeed is seen in our pages devoted to ' What is Believed.' But it must be admitted that there is some excuse for this condition of things in the absence of any authoritative guide to the names of our oldest families. We propose therefore, in a series of articles entitled ' Our Oldest Families,' to deal in a systematic manner with those of which the pedigree can be traced so far back as the twelfth century. Our readers, meet- ing constantly — in the press — with families which ' came over with the Conqueror,' may wonder why we select a date so late as the close of the twelfth century. But those acquainted with Mr. Round's article on ' The Companions of the Conqueror ' {Monthly Review^ June, 1901) will have learnt how infinitesi- mally small is the number of those who can find their ancestor even in Domesday Book (1086). Among them are the houses of Gresley and FitzGerald, of which we speak in the present number. In our next issue we hope to begin the regular series we have in view with the Tichbornes of Tichborne and the family of Wake.
