Burke's Peerage becomes gender neutral

LONDON, July 1 (UPI) -- Burke's Peerage and Gentry, the definitive guide to British toffs, has decided to move with the times, listing children by birth order without regard to gender.

The publication also plans to list children born, as it were, on the wrong side of the blanket to parents who have not married, The Times of London reports.

Burke's Royal Families of Europe will be the first publication to reflect the new policy later this year. While changes will be made for new publications going forward, updating the entries in the huge data base, which has been accumulating since 1826, will be the work of many years.

William Bortrick, the new executive and royal editor, said the males-first listings were a result of most titles passing through male heirs. But he said the policy does not reflect modern views.

"These are my own ideas and I just consider them common sense," he said. "Burke's will be a better resource for anybody who wants to do research. Our Web site is getting more and more hits from ordinary people wanting to create family trees and do research, and all these changes will help them."