The project utilizes social network analysis to represent and measure the social network properties of elite families. Specifically, using an untapped archival resource, and the techniques of network analysis, the project generates a quantitative measure of how densely connected the elite families of a given area are, and how hierarchically arranged they are. This is accomplished via the use of an array of very special archival sources known as ‘blue books’ and ‘social registers’. These documents were used historically to allow elite families to recognize and connect with one another – they were the ‘Facebook’ of the early 20th Century. Importantly, these documents provide a wealth of data: at the household level, all acknowledged family members, their clubs and society memberships and each family members’ education. What these sources provide is a way of mapping the social networks of wealthy elite families, by connecting households together via their common memberships, clubs, educational backgrounds, and even their spatial proximity to one another. Using these data allow us to measure, for a given geography and time period, how cohesive the elite families were, and how hierarchically arranged they are vis-à-vis one another.