Guidelines for Entries for the Award

• The competition is open to all, with the exception of members of the FMG Executive Committee (trustees) or its employees¹, or previous recipients of the award. We are keen to encourage new scholars to submit entries, but entries from experienced researchers are also welcome.
• The judging panel will consider only those articles submitted specifically as entries for the award competition. Entries will be anonymised before presentation to the judges. The panel will make recommendations to the Executive Committee.
• The decision of the FMG Executive Committee shall be final, and there is no right of appeal.
• One prize of £750² will be awarded annually (provided suitable entries are received). The judges may offer a higher award for exceptional work, at their discretion.
• For articles with multiple authorship, all co-authors must confirm their agreement to the name of the lead author to whom any prize money will be awarded. Any partition of the prize is a matter for the lead author to determine.
• Entries must represent original research on British or continental European medieval genealogy or prosopography. The work will be judged on the quality of the research undertaken, the soundness of the interpretation, and the clarity of presentation within the article. Primary sources should be used wherever possible.
• The work must be unpublished (including on websites), and not submitted or pending publication elsewhere. Studies prepared for academic dissertations are eligible. References to previously published work by any author should be supported with appropriate citations. Any evidence of plagiarism will result in the rejection of the entry.
• The research should be reported, in English³, in an article of about 10000-15000 words. The article should follow the guidance for authors for Foundations. This is available on the FMG website at http://fmg.ac/publications/contributors or on request to the FMG secretary. Authors' attention is particularly drawn to the house style for bibliographic citations.
• Articles should if possible be submitted electronically, either on disc or by email, to the FMG secretary (see contact details at the end of this notice). They should be preferably in MS-Word or a compatible format such as RTF. It is advisable to submit a hard copy also in case of any problems with foreign alphabets or other non-standard characters. Diagrams and charts should be designed with the format of Foundations in mind. Standard graphics formats such as JPEG, TIFF or PDF are preferred.
• It would be helpful to both the FMG, and hopefully the candidate, to submit a short work plan as soon as possible indicating the scope and approach. We will then confirm whether it is potentially eligible for the award.
• Entries must be received by the 30th November in any year. The winner will be announced by the end of February. The winning article will be published in the following edition of Foundations. The editor reserves the right to amend the text for publication.
• Non-winning entries of suitable quality will also be considered for publication in Foundations.
  Foundations is published both as a printed journal, and on the Users' Area of the FMG website.
• Entrants can only win once.
• Copyright of material submitted remains with the author(s), but on publication in Foundations, the FMG assumes publisher's copyright in the published formats.

Submission of Entries

All entries should be clearly marked on the first page, "Charles F H Evans Award". Deadline for receipt of submissions is 30th November. Please allow for postal delays if sending by mail.

Electronic files may be sent by email to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

or mailed on a CD-ROM to the following address:

Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
Oak House
Vowchurch
Hereford
HR2 0RB
United Kingdom

Hard copy submissions can also be accepted at the above address. Please print double spaced, on one side only of the paper using a clear type face, as it will be processed using optical character recognition software.

Submissions will be acknowledged. If you fail to receive such an acknowledgement, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or write to the above address.

Background Information

Charles Evans, MA, FSA, FSG, was one of the 20th century's leading medieval genealogists. He died in 1988 at the age of 84. His work and his collected papers were the inspiration in 2001 for the establishment of the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy (FMG) as a UK-based not-for-profit educational charity. The objectives of the FMG are the advancement of public education in the study of medieval genealogy and prosopography, the promotion of research into medieval genealogy and the publication of the useful results of that research. In pursuit of those objectives the FMG has developed an active website (http://fmg.ac/), published a journal (Foundations) and initiated an Occasional Publications series starting with the Complete Works of Charles Evans in book and electronic formats to celebrate the centenary in 2003 of Evans' birth.

The Charles F H Evans Award has been made possible by a generous donation from a member of the FMG. It will be awarded by the FMG Executive Committee on the recommendation of a panel of experts appointed by the Committee. The Award will be given to the lead author of the best article submitted which presents original or cutting edge research, leading to a major advancement in a topic related to medieval genealogy.

1 - At the present time the FMG does not have any paid staff. Should a member of the judging panel wish to make an entry, they will be expected to resign from the panel for that year.

2 - For equivalent value in other currencies, check finance sites for latest exchange rates. Any costs of conversion to non-sterling currencies must be borne by the recipient.

3 - Some editorial assistance can be given to authors whose first language is not English, provided the underlying scholarship is of appropriate quality, and the intended meaning is reasonably clear.