Sir Bernard Burke

John Bernard Burke, CB, was the pre-eminent geneologist and armourer of his time studying the British nobility.

Bernard was the son of John Burke (1787-1848), who was the author of the "Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the United Kingdom", usually referred to as simply "Burke`s Peerage". First assisting his father, he later took editorial control of the work and greatly expanded it following his death.
"Burke's Landed Gentry" (183x)
"Dictionary of the Peerages of England, Scotland and Ireland, extinct, dormant and in abeyance" (1866)
"Royal Families of England, Scotland and Wales (1847-51)
"Encyclopaedia of Heraldry, or General Armoury of England, Scotland and Ireland" (1878 and 1883)

Bernard's own works included
"The Roll of Battle Abbey (1848)
"The Romance of the Aristocracy" (1855)
"Vicissitudes of Families" (1883 and earlier)
"The Rise of Great Families" (1882)

Following Bernard's death, the work was continued by Ashworth Peter Burke, his fourth son.

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Burke]
*[http://www.nndb.com/people/239/000102930/]