Harold Brooks-Baker

Who was Harold Brooks-Baker?

Harold Brooks-Baker, was an American-British financier, journalist and publisher, and self-proclaimed expert on genealogy.

Born a U.S. citizen, the son of a Washington, D.C. attorney, he attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and Harvard University, in the same class as Ted Kennedy. He married a French countess, Irene Le Gras du Luart de Montsaulnin, and they had two daughters. In 1997 he remarried to Catherine Neville-Rolfe. Brooks-Baker preferred to be known as "Brookie". He adopted the "Brooks-" part of his surname voluntarily, perhaps because of a dispute with French authorities about his children's middle names.

He became a bond trader and settled in London in the 1960s. In 1974 Brooks-Baker and his business partners took over Debrett's, publisher of several titles on British aristocracy including Debrett’s Peerage & Baronetage.

In 1984 he moved to Burke's Peerage Partnership as director of publishing. The partnership had been in poor financial health for years and had already sold its flagship publication, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage. Brooks-Baker was never associated with Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage but oversaw the publication of books about genealogy and the aristocracy including Burke's Presidential Families of the United States of America. The company's major business was genealogical research.