Still, the result will more than repay him, for thus only can his work be sound and satisfactory, and he has a wide field in which to search for the verification of traditional details. Most of the probably most helpful MSS. and publications have been mentioned in this little book; but if the pedigree-hunter is roaming among the documents in the Record Office or the British Museum, or among the contents of a great library, let him look through the various indexes and try to find out something new for himself. There is a joy in discovery, even if it is only that of an unknown document, and it is impossible to enumerate every work which might help all cases, while new ones, of course, are constantly being added. If the genealogist is not a student of Heraldry, he will find it both interesting and probably advantageous to form some slight acquaintance with this fascinating subject. The question of the Arms of a Family are of more importance than its Crest and Motto, and through the knowledge of what arms are, and have been, borne by it, the identification of some of its members may be established. But Heraldry is a wide subject, and many use arms and crests to which they are quite unable to prove their right. On the other hand, many who now occupy a humble station are lineal descendants in the male line of ancient and historic families. And, perhaps, our pedigree-hunter may be anxious to prove himself to be of noble or even royal descent. Some years ago an advertiser offered, for a certain fee, to prove to his clients that they were descended from kings of England. Naturally _Truth_ the argus-eyed, spied this advertisement, and denounced the seeming imposture. But when matters were explained to him, _Truth’s_ opinion somewhat altered. The point in question is an interesting one. Every one, we may say, has had two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, and so on _ad infinitum_. If the reader calculates the number of generations required to take him back to the Norman Conquest, allowing thirty years for each (there would be approximately twenty-eight), this will give him over a hundred million ancestors alive in 1066! This number will in reality be much lessened by the fact of inter-marriages and relationships (so that the same individuals may be ancestors on both the paternal and maternal sides), also by other causes. But the fact remains that there was only a population of a few millions in Great Britain at the time of the Norman Conquest, and our ancestors at that date apparently consisted of a much greater number, so that the probabilities are that almost every Englishman of either Saxon or Norman ancestry must have been descended from every one living in England at the time of the Norman Conquest, including the Conqueror himself.