How To Find If A Person Is Listed In Social Register

Dear Cecil:

How does a person get listed in the Social Register? Obviously genetics must be a factor, forth with piles of money. But many people with both appear to be excluded, while others lacking one or the other are listed. Who decides, anyway? And why does such a silly institution continue in the first place?

Fania, Washington, D.C.

Illustration by Slug Signorino

Cecil replies:

They leave you out again, kid? I told you they wouldn't exist impressed past that bowling trophy. Although the Social Register folks declined to be specific, I gather you lot have to exist invited. There'southward an anonymous admissions committee, and if you can become 5 people who are already in the volume to nominate you, or, even better, if yous can go married to a listee, yous've got a chance. If that doesn't work, your best bet is to get yourself elected president of the United States — he ever gets in, whether he deserves it or not.

The concept behind the Social Register takes a while to grasp. Here nosotros accept the thirty,000 snootiest families in the country, and they consent to put their addresses and phone numbers in a book available in the public library. Think of the junk post these guys must go. On the other hand, in a society total of climbers and frauds, I suppose there's a need for a quick-and-dirty way of distinguishing the quality from the shlubs. Screening ensures that the people who make information technology in aren't merely rich, they're Our Sort — no guarantee that a listee isn't a heel, but at least he'due south discreet.

The Social Annals takes pride in not explaining itself. We know that information technology was first published in 1887 in New York and that in that location were separate editions in major cities until 1977, when everything was consolidated into one national book. Two editions are published annually — the principal 1 in November, and a summer version in May.

The rest yous've got to slice together for yourself, which isn't like shooting fish in a barrel. Much of the book is written in some sort of Venusian Morse code. In the 1991 edition, for case, afterward the entry for Charles Norton Adams (no relation), we find the following: "Unn.Nrr.Srb.BtP.Evg.Myf.Ht.Cw." Goodness, yous remember, next fourth dimension they ask the man for information they should untie the gag. But really the letters are abbreviations for Charles's clubs. If nosotros refer to the forepart of the volume we acquire that "Nrr" is the Newport Reading Room, "Srb" is the Spouting Rock Beach society, and "Unn" is either a typo or someplace so sectional that to accept to ask about information technology is proof that you don't belong at that place. Mr. Norton isn't listed in the 1994 book and one can only surmise that he is Dd.Every bit.A.Stn.

In addition to the primary listing, there are various special sections such every bit Births, Deaths, and Marriages. (One longs in publications of this blazon for a section called Indictments, but no such luck.) Some sections are completely mysterious. In the front of the summer edition, for instance, there is something called "Dilatory Domiciles." Dilatory in my book means "disposed toward procrastination," which does not shed much lite. One supposes that some editorial type was taking aim at "temporary residences" and missed. As puzzling, at least initially, is a department called "Married Maidens." What are we trying to say here, 1 wonders — one-time virgins? On inspection, it turns out to exist a cross-reference of women'southward married and maiden names.

At that place is much in the Social Register to remind you that this is not a book meant for thee and me. In the summer edition, for example, we find the following note: "A listing of Yachts and Their Owners is included for the convenience of subscribers." Certain, similar the subscribers are going effectually slapping their foreheads and saying, "Damn, what is the length, tonnage, and builder of Chumley'southward boat?" That said, there is something mannerly in knowing that Mr. Lawrence H. Mott's "Ellen" (habitation port Charlotte, Vermont) is fifteen anxiety long with a beam of iv-1/2 feet. Would that the same honesty had been practical to summertime residences, all of which seem to accept names like "The Pines." Come on, doesn't anybody live at "The Dump"?

On getting socially registered

Regarding my column on the Social Register, Gregory Nigosian refers me to geographer Stephen Richard Higley's recent book Privilege, Ability, and Place: The Geography of the American Upper Course, which maps out where rich folks live based on their listings in the 1988 edition. Great book, not least because it explains what "dilatory domiciles" means: listings that the listees turned in too late to make it into the master book (DDs appear in the summer supplement), along with changes of address.

Higley confirms what everybody suspected: the SR is heavily skewed toward old money and the Eastward Coast. The seaboard states from Maine to Virginia account for two-thirds of the listings, with nearly i-third located in just two states, New York (five,838) and Pennsylvania (four,200). New coin is grossly underrepresented. California has 2,517 SR households, fewer than Massachusetts (3,231), although it has v times the population. Texas has merely 424 SR families (it is hard to imagine Ross Perot at the polo gild, although the '94 book lists several other Perots). At the bottom of the listing is North Dakota with 1 SR family, no doubt the toast of Fargo.

Higley does not have much useful advice on how you can get into the SR. (Plain you can only utilise, like you can probably just apply to exist pope.) But he does signal out that it's pretty easy to get kicked out. There were 38,000 families in the 1984 book but a great purge the post-obit year reduced that number by 3,500 and more have hit the route since. Sorry testify of this comes from H. M., an SR listee from Chicago. H. (who according to his list is really H. the third) got in because his mother'southward side married into a Mayflower family. But his four sisters were de-listed considering they married members of the steerage crowd, thereby diluting the genetic pool. H.'s mom think he'll get the boot too once he marries his sweetie, whom H. cheerfully describes every bit NOKD — "not our kind, dear." He didn't sound real concerned. Osculation up to the gentry and you might increment your social stature, simply I bet hanging with us mutts is more fun.

Cecil Adams

Ship questions to Cecil via cecil@straightdope.com.

How To Find If A Person Is Listed In Social Register,

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