Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica

This is a massive collection of, as the name suggests, miscellaneous genealogical information. There were five series published, between 1868 and 1938, each series consisting of two or more volumes. Entries could include pedigrees, armorial bearings, transcriptions of parish registers, transcriptions of wills and more besides. A major part of these books was the notes and queries section, where people could write in with genealogical questions and hope that in subsequent volumes, an answer would be provided.

One of the chief difficulties with MGH is the lack of a clear index. Contents pages are divided by theme (Arms, Autographs, Monumental Inscriptions etc) rather than by surname. And whilst a given volume might spend quite a lot of time on a particular family, the pages are not always contiguous, so you have to jump around all over the place trying to find all the relevant sections. In the case of notes & queries, the relevant responses might be found in later volumes entirely.

In terms of online availability, the following table captures the editions I have found online: