Information concerning many prominent contemporary persons are of course available through newspaper obituaries and newspapers. For persons of royal and aristocratic status, there are thousands of published volumes available. Below I have listed some of the sources that have provided useful information.
Internet Sources
Wikipedia
IMDB - Internet Media Database
Website - Medieval Lands : A Prosopography of Medieval Noble and Royal Families - Charles Cawley (2006 - 2009)
Newspaper Sources – obituaries
The Australian, British Weekly Telegraph, Daily Telegraph (Australian), New York Times, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Times (Britain)
Collective Biographical Works
American Authors and Books : 1640 to the Present (1972) (W. J. Burke & W.D. Howe)
Ancient Greek & Roman Women (2000) (Marjorie and Benjamin Lightman)
Annotated Index of Medieval Women (1992) (A. Echols & M. Williams)
Annual Obituary
Australian Dictionary of National Biography
Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1994)
Biographical Dictionary of the Sudan (1967) (R. Hill)
Bloomsbury Guide to Women’s Literature (1992)
(C. Buck)
Burke’s Guide to the Royal Family
Burke’s Peerage
Cambridge Ancient History
Caribbean Writers : A Bio-Bibliographical-Critical Encyclopedia (1979) (D. Herdeck)
Chambers Biographical Dictionary of Women (1996)
(M. Parry)
Complete Peerage
The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt (2004) (A. Dodson and D. Hilton)
Contemporary Authors series
Debrett’s Peerage (1963)
Dictionary of German Biography (2002)
(K.G. Saur)
Dictionary of National Biography
Dictionary of New Zealand Biography
Encyclopedia of Aboriginal Australia (1994)
(D. Horton, general editor)
Encyclopedia Britannica (1961)
Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers (1991)
(K.M. Wilson)
Europa Dictionary of British Women (1983)
(A. Crawford, et al)
Europaische Stammtafeln (both Prinz von Isenburg (1953) and Detlev Schwennicke (1978 – )
Halliwell’s Who’s Who in the Movies (3rd edit., 2003) (J. Walker, editor)
Heroines : Remarkable and Inpsiring Women : An Anthology of Essays by Women Writers (1995) (S. Hunt, general editor)
Japanese Biographical Encyclopedia and Who’s Who (1958)
Lives of the Mississippi Authors 1817 – 1917 (1981) (J.B. Lloyd, edit.)
Macmillan Dictionary of Women’s Biography (1982) and (2005) edition (J. S. Uglow)
Macmillan International Film Encyclopedia (1994) (E. Katz)
Monash Biographical Dictionary of 20th Century Australia (1994) (J. Arnold and D. Morris)
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992)
(S. Stanely, edit.)
The Northern Territory Dictionary of Biography (1990, vol 3) (D. Carment & H.J. Wilson)
Noveau Dictionnaire des Biographies francaises estrangeres (1964) (D. Labarre de Rallicourt)
Oxford Classical Dictionary (1970 and 1996)
Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal (1994 edit.)
(H. de Ruvigny) (all vols.)
Prosopographia of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE) (1971 – 1980)
(A.J. Martindale), three volumes
Whitaker’s Almanack 1998 : 130th Anniversary Edition (1997) (The Stationery Office, London)
Who Was Who in the Roman World 753 BC - AD 476 (D. Bowder, edit.)
Who’s Who (1897 – 2006)
The Writers Dictionary 1996 – 1998 (1996) (12th edition, M.H. Ferrara, editor)
Ancient Sources :
Appian – Roman History, Civil Wars
Arrian – Anabasis of Alexander
Aulus Gellius – Noctes Atticae
Cicero – De amicitia, Epistuale ad Atticum, Pro Caelio, In Catilinum, Pro Cluentio
Fronto – Epistulae
Herodotus
Josephus – Antiquitates Judaicae
Livy – Epitome, Perioche
Plato – Alcibiades
Pliny the Elder – Naturalis Historia
Pliny the Younger – Epistulae
Plutarch – Moralia, Die mulierum virtutibus, Quaestiones Graecae
Aemilius Paulus, Caesar, Cicero, Cimon, Cleomenes, Crassus, Demetrius, Gaius Gracchus, Lucullus, Marius, Pericles, Pompeius, Pyrrhus, Sertorius, Sulla, Themistocles, Tiberius Gracchus
Polyaenus – Strategemata
Polybius
Sallust – Bellum Catilinae
Seneca – Ad Marciam consolatione, Epistulae
Scriptores Historiae Augustae
Statius – Silvae
Suetonius – Augustus, Caesar, Gaius Caligula, Claudius, Domitian, Galba, Nero, Otho, Tiberius, Titus, Vespasian, Vitellius
Tacitus – Agricola, Annales, Historiae
Xenophon – Anabasis, Hellenica
General Biographical and autobiographical sources :
Abbott, Paul D., The Provinces, Pays and Seigneuries of France (1981)
Abzug, B., Bella : Ms Abzug Goes to Washington (1972)
Adamson, J., Autobiography (1978)
Addams, J., Twenty Years at Hull House (1910)
Adivar, H.E., Memoirs (1926)
Alic, M., Hypatia’s Heritage (1990 edit.)
Almedingen, E.M., Charlemagne, A Study (1968)
Anderson, A. (F. Schanzkowska), I am Anastasia, Grand-Duchess of Russia (1958)
Anderson, Marian, My Lord, What a Morning : an Autobiography (1956)
Anderson, Mary (1), A Few Memories (1896)
Anderson, Mary (2), Woman at Work (1951)
Andressohn, J.C., The Ancestry and Life of Godfrey of Bouillon (1947)
Aronson, T., Royal Vendetta, The Crown of Spain 1829 – 1965 (1966)
Ashton-Warner, S., I Passed This Way (1980)
Askwith, B.E., Lady Dilke : a biography (1969)
Ayer, M.H., The Three Lives of Harriet Hubbard Ayer (1957)
Aylward, G., & Hunter, C., Gladys Alyward (1970)
Bachrach. B.S., Fulk Nerra, the Neo-Roman Consul, 987 – 1040 (1993)
Baden-Powell, O., Window on my Heart (1973)
Bagnall, R., & P. Derow, Greek Historical Documents from the Hellenistic Period (1981)
Baker, D., Medieval Women (1978)
Baker, S.J., Fighting for Life (1939)
Balabanoff, A., My Life as a Rebel (1938)
Baldwin, R.S., The Fungus Fighters : Two Women Scientists and their Discovery (1980)
Ballot, M.T., La Comtesse Benoist, l’Emilie de Demoustier (1768 – 1826) (1914)
Balsdon, J.P.V.D., Roman Women (1962)
Barr, P., A Curious Life for a Lady (1985)
Barton, W.E., The Life of Clara Barton (1922)
Bashkirtseff, M., Journal (1887)
Bennett, D., Margot : A Life of the Countess of Oxford and Asquith (1984)
Berry, P., and Bostridge, M., Vera Brittain : A Life (1995)
Bondfield, M., A Life’s Work (1949)
Borden, L., Francesca Cabrini (1945)
Bosworth, P., Diane Arbus : A Biography (1984)
Bowyer, J.W., The Celebrated Mrs Centlivre (1952)
Brandi, K., The Emperor Charles V (1939)
Brehl, E. Young., Hannah Arendt (1982)
Bret, D., Tallulah Bankhead : A Scandalous Life (1996)
Brissac, P. de Cosse, Duc de., The Dukes of Brissac : History of an Illustrious French Family (1952)
Brown, E.K., and Edel, L., Cather : A Critical Biography (1953)
Buckler, G., Anna Comnena : a Study (1929)
Burgess, A., The Small Woman (1957)
Burton, H., Barbara Bodichon (1939)
Calvet, J., Louise de Marillac : a Portrait (1959) (Eng. Transl. G.F. Pullen)
Caraman, P., St Angela (1965)
Carhart, M., The Life and Works of Baillie (Joanna Baillie) (1923)
Carmi Parsons, J., The Court and Household of Eleanor of Castile in 1290 (1977)
Carter, C.G., Margaret Catchpole (1949)
Cartland, Dame B., The Private Life of Elisabeth, Empress of Austria (1959)
Cartwright, J., Isabella d’Este (1903)
Castries, Duc de, The Lives of the Kings and Queens of France (1979)
Cecil, D., Portrait of Jane Austen (1978)
Chalon, J., Portrait of a Seductress : the World of Natalie Barney (1979 transl.)
Charles-Roux, E., Chanel and her World (1981)
Churchill, P., & Mitchell, J., Jennie, Lady Randolph Churchill, A Portrait with Letters (1974)
Clemoes, P., The Anglo-Saxons (1959)
Coates, E.G., Marie Corelli (1977)
Cohen, E.C., Madamoiselle Libertine (1970)
Cole, H., First Gentleman of the Bedchamber, The Life of Louis Francois Armand, Marechal Duc de Richelieu (1965)
Colmore, G., The Life of Emily Davison (1913)
Cope, C., Phoenix Frustrated : The Lost Kingdom of Burgundy (1986)
Craveri, B., The Age of Conversation (2005)
Curtayne, A., Saint Catherine of Siena (1935) : St Brigid of Ireland (1954)
Dahmus, J., Seven Medieval Queens (1972)
Dalch, J., Imogen Cunningham : a Portrait (1979)
Damase, J., Sonia Delaunay, Rhythyms and Colours (1972)
Deegan, M.J., Jane Addams and the Men of the Chicago School (1986)
Dinnage, R., Annie Besant (1987)
Douglas, D.C., William the Conqueror – the Norman Impact Upon England (1964)
Dunbar, Agnes P.C., Lives of the Female Saints (1904) (2 vols.)
Edwards, I.E.S., The Pyramids of Egypt (1972)
Epton, N.C., Queen Victoria and Her Daughters (1972)
Josephine : the Empress and Her Children (1976)
Erickson, C., Anne Boleyn (1984)
Falkiner, S., Eugenia : A Man (1988)
Fauchier-Magnan, A., The Smaller German Courts in the 18th Century (1958)
Findlater, R., Lilian Bayliss : the Lady of the Old Vic (1975)
Finely, M.I., Ancient Sicily (1979)
Fitzlyon, K., Memoirs of Princess Dashkov (1958)
Florescu, R., & McNally, R.T., Dracula, Prince of Many Faces, His Life and Times (1989)
Forster, M., Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1988)
Fox, J., White Mischief (1982)
Gardiner, Sir A., Egypt of the Pharaohs (1961)
Gartner, M., Anne Bonney (1978)
Gauci, C.A., The Genealogy and Heraldry of the Noble Families of Malta (1981)
Gaume, M., Ruth Crawford Seeger : Memoirs, Memories, Music (1986)
Gaussen, A.C., A Woman of Wit and Wisdom : a Memoir of Elizabeth Carter (1929)
Gelzer, M., The Roman Nobility (1975)
Gerin, W., Horatia Nelson (1970)
Emily Bronte : a Biography (1971)
Anne Bronte : a Biography (1975)
Gilder, R., Enter the Actress (1931)
Giroud, F., Marie Curie : A Life (1986)
Glendinning, V., Elizabeth Bowen (1977)
Goldberg, V., Margaret Bourke-White (1986)
Grant, M., Elizabeth Blackwell (1974)
The History of Ancient Israel (1984)
Green, M.A.E., Lives of the Princesses of England from the Norman Conquest (1850)
Greer, G., The Obstacle Race : The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work (1979)
Gregg, E., Queen Anne (Anne Stuart) (1980)
Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum
Grenfell, E., Mary McCleod Bethune (1977)
Grey, I., The Romanovs, The Rise and Fall of a Russian Dynasty (1970)
Guest, B., Herself Defined (1984)
Guest, I., Fanny Cerrito (1956)
Guiness, J., & Guiness, C., The House of Mitford (1984)
Haight, A., Anna Akhmatova : a Poetic Pilgrimage (1976)
Haldane, C., The Galley Slaves of Love (1957) : Madame de Maintenon (1970)
Hale, N., Mary Cassatt (1975)
Hall, Mrs M., Queens Before the Conquest (1854)
Halperin, J., The Life of Jane Austen (1984)
Hambly, Gavin, Islamic Women (1998)
Haney, L., Naked at the Feast (1981)
Harris, J.F., Buck : a Biography (1969 – 1971)
Haslip, J., Catherine the Great : A Biography (1977)
Hatton, R., Charles XII of Sweden (1968)
Hays, E.R., Those Extraordinary Blackwells (1967)
Helicar, E., But Who on Earth Was …… ? (1981)
Hemelrijk, E.A., Matrona Docta (1999)
Hoegsbro, I., Biography of the late Agathe Backer-Grondahl (1913)
Hopkirk, M., Queen Adelaide (1946)
Howarth, P., Attila, King of the Huns : The Man and the Myth (1994)
Hugel, F. von., The Mystical Element of Religion (1908)
Hume, M., Queens of Old Spain (1906)
Husted, H., The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (3 vols., 1969)
Huxley, D., Lady Denman (1961)
Ilsley, M., A Daughter of the Renaissance, Marie le Jars de Gournay (1979)
Infield, G.B., Eva and Adolf (1974)
Jackson, Guida M., Women Who Ruled (1990)
Jenner, H., Royal Wives (1967)
Jennewein, L., Calamity Jane of the Western Trail (1953)
Joelson, A., Courtesan Princess, Catherine Grand, Princess de Talleyrand (1965)
Johnston, C., The Work of Dorothy Arzner – Towards a Feminist Cinema (1975)
Jordan, R., Berenice (1974)
Kamm, J., How Different from Us : a Biography of Miss Buss and Miss Beale (1958)
Kannenstine, L.F., The Art of Barnes (1977)
Katkov, N., The Fabulous Fanny (1953)
Kiddle, M.L., Caroline Chsholm (1950)
Kleinman, H., Anne of Austria : Queen of France (1987)
Kolb, P. (edit.), Marcel Proust : Selected Letters 1880 – 1903 (1983)
Kurth, P., The Riddle of Anna Anderson (1983)
Lane, A.J., Mary Ritter Beard : a Source Book (1975)
Lang, D.M., A Modern History of Georgia (1962)
Langford, G., The Richard Harding Davis Years : a Biography of Mother and Son (1961)
Laurentin, R., Bernadette of Lourdes (1979)
Leamer, L., As Time Goes By : The Life of Ingrid Bergman (1986)
Levin, P., Abigail Adams (1987)
Lewis, A., Miss Elizabeth Arden (1973)
Linklater, A., An Unhusbanded Life : Charlotte Despard, Suffragette, Socialist and Sinn Feiner (1980)
Livingstone, A., Lou Andreas-Salome (1984)
Longworth, P., The Three Empresses, Catharine I, Anne, and Elizabeth of Russia (1972)
Lonsdale, R. (edit.), 18th Century Women Poets, An Oxford Anthology (1989)
Lord, W., A Night to Remember (1956)
Lutz, A., Crusade for Freedom (1968)
McCabe, Joseph, The Empresses of Rome (1911)
The Empresses of Constantinople (1913)
McCleod, E., The Order of the Rose : the Life and Ideal of Christine de Pisan (1976)
Macleod, J., The Sisters d’Aranyi (1969)
McGing, B.C., The Foreign Policy of Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus (1986)
Malcolmson, E.M., Daisy Ashford : Her Life (1984)
Manton, J., Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1965)
Mary Carpenter and the Children of the Streets (1976)
Marshall, H.E., Dorothea Dix : Forgotten Samaritan (1937)
Marshall, R.K., The Days of Duchess Anne, Life in the Household of the Duchess of Hamilton 1656 – 1716 (1973)
Masters, A., Nancy Astor : a Life (1981)
Mattingley, G., Catherine of Aragon (1942)
Max, G.E., Majorian Augustus (1984)
Mead, M., An Anthropologist at Work : Writings of Ruth Benedict (1959)
Meltzen, M., Tongue of Flame (1965)
Mesquita, D.M. Bueno de, Giangaleazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan (1351 – 1404), A Study in the Political Career of an Italian Despot (1941)
Migel, P., The Ballerinas from the Court of Louis XIV to Pavlova (1972)
Miller, W.D., Dorothy Day : A Biography (1982)
Mirabeau, Comte H. de, Secret History of the Court of Berlin (1895)
Mitford, N., Madame de Pompadour (1964)
Morella, J., The ‘It’ Girl : the Incredible Story of Clara Bow (1976)
Morgan, J., Agatha Christie (1984)
Morgan, M., Annette von Droste-Hulshoff (1984)
Myles, D., Prince Dracula, Son of the Devil (1988)
Nash, M., The Provok’d Wife : the Life and Times of Susannah Cibber (1977)
Newark, T., Women Warlords (1989)
Newman, A., The Stanhopes of Chevenning (1969)
Noble, P., Anne Seymour Damer (1908)
O’Ceirin, K. & C., Women of Ireland (1996)
O’Connor, G., The Secret Woman : A Life of Peggy Ashcroft (1997)
O’Neal, H., Berenice Abbott (1982)
Pain, N., Empress Matilda, Uncrowned Queen of England (1978)
Paton, L.A., Elizabeth Cary Agassiz : a Biography (1974 ed.)
Paludan, A., Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors (1998)
Paris, R.M., Camille Claudel (1984)
Pausch, H., Ingeborg Bachmann (1975)
Peck, M.G., Carrie Chapman Catt (1944)
Pena, L., Teresa Carreno (1953)
Perowne, S., The End of the Roman World (1966)
Perry, R., The Celebrated Mary Astell (1986)
Plaidy, J., The Rise of the Spanish Inquisition (1959)
Platt, W.J., Three Women (1964)
Ponder, W., Clara Butt (1978)
Pope-Hennessy, J., Queen Mary (1959)
Pougin, A., Marietta Alboni (1912)
Powell, C.H., Catherine Booth (1951)
Robins, E., Twelve Great Actresses (1990)
Robinson, J.M., The Dukes of Norfolk, A Quincentennial History (1982)
Robinson, J.R., The Last Earls of Barrymore 1769 – 1824 (1894)
Rodgers, B., Georgian Chronicle : Mrs Barbauld and Her Family (1958)
Roebeck, N. de., St Clare of Assisi (1959)
Roelker, N.L., Queen of Navarre, Jeanne d’Albret (1968)
Rojas, M., and Calderon, M., Tania : the Unforgettable Guerilla (1971)
Rollason, D.W., The Mildreth Legend : A Study in Early Medieval Hagiography in England (1982)
Rose, K., Curzon, A Most Superior Person (1985)
Rosenstiel, L., The Life and Works of Lili Boulanger (1978)
Nadia Boulanger : a Life in Music (1982)
Runicman, S., The Emperor Romanus Lecapenus and His Reign : A Study in Tenth Century Byzantium (1929)
Ryan, C.J., H.P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Movement (1937)
Ryder, R., Edith Cavell : a Biography (1975)
Sadleir, M., Blessington d’Orsay : a Masquerade (1933)
Sanborne, H.J., Anne of Brittany (1917)
Saxton, M., Louisa May : a Modern Biography of Alcott (1977)
Seager, R., Tiberius (1972)
Secrest, M., Between Me and Life (1974)
Settipani, Christian, Les ancestres de Charlemagne (1989), with Addenda (1990), Le Prehistorie des Capetiens (1993)
Sewall, R.B., The Life of Emily Dickinson (1974)
Seyersted, P., Chopin : A Critical Biography (1969)
Sharp, E., Hertha Ayrton : a Memoir (1926)
Sheppard, L.C., Barbe Acarie, Wife and Mystic (1953)
Shipman, D., The Great Movie Stars, The Golden Years (1982)
Sklar, K., Catherine Beecher : a study in American Domesticity (1976)
Southern, R.W., St Anselm and His Biographer, A Study of Monastic Life and Though 1059 – c1130 (1963)
Spalding, E., Vanessa Bell (1983)
Spurling, H., Secrets of a Woman’s Heart (1985)
Stanhope, G., A Mystic on the Prussian Throne, Frederick William II (1912)
Stassinopoulos, A., Maria Callas : the Woman behind the Legend (1981)
Steadman, R., In the Days of Miss Beale : a Study of her Work and Influence (1931)
Steegmuller, F., Your Isadora (1974)
Stein, L., & Baxter, A., Grace H. Dodge : her Life and Work (1974)
Stephen, B., Emily Davies and Girton College (1927)
Sterling, P., Sea and Earth : the Life of Rachel Carson (1970)
Stevenson, S.W., A Dictionary of Roman Coins (1964)
Stoeckl, A. de., Mistress of Versailles : the Life of Madame du Barry (1966)
Stoney, B., Enid Blyton (1974)
Sturdy, David, Alfred the Great (1995)
Sugden, A., Dauntless Women in Childhood Education (1971)
Summers, A., & Mangold, T., The File on the Tsar (1976)
Syme, Sir R., The Augustan Aristocracy (1989)
Talbot, T.R., Elizabeth, Empress of Russia (1970)
Taylor, P.J.O., A Companion to the Indian Mutiny of 1857 (1996)
Thornton, J.K., The Kongolese Saint Anthony : Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian Movement, 1684 – 1706 (1998)
Thwaite, A., Waiting for the Party : the Life of Burnett (1974)
Todd, J., The Secret Life of Aphra Behn (1996)
Travisano, T.J., Elizabeth Bishop (1988)
Trease, G., Seven Sovereign Queens (1968)
Trouncer. M.L., The Reluctant Abbess (1957)
Turney, C., Byron’s Daughter – a Biography of Elizabeth Medora Leigh (1974)
Vaughan, R., Philip the Bold (1962)Philip the Good (1970)
Wake, J., Princess Louise, Queen Victoria’s Unconventional Daughter (1988)
Walker, A., Joan Crawford, the Ultimate Star (1983) : Bette Davis (1986)
Weaver, P.R.C., Familia Caesaris : a Social Study of the emperor’s freedmen and slaves (1967)
Weaver, W., Duse (1984)
Webster, G., Boudicca : The British Revolt against Rome, AD 60 (1978)
Wedgwood, Dame C.V., William the Silent (1967)
Weir, Alison, Britain’s Royal Families (1989)
Whitaker, K., Mad Madge (2004)
Whittle, T., The Last Kaiser – A Biography of William II, German Emperor and King of Prussia (1977)
Williams, N., Thomas Howard, Fourth Duke of Norfolk (1964)
Willis, D., The Descendants of Louis XIII (1999)
Wilson, C., & Seaman, D., Scandal ! An Encyclopedia (1986)
Wilson, M., These were Muses (1924)
Winegarten, R., Madame de Stael (1985)
Winstone, H., Gertrude Bell (1978)
Wolff, R.L., The Sensational Victorian : the Life and Fiction of Braddon (1978)
Wyndham, V., Madame de Genlis : a Biography (1958)
Zeigler, P., The Duchess of Dino (1962)