Various monarchies, sovereign houses, and states have long kept records of members of royal and noble houses. The Almanach de Gotha served as a form of privately-published social register across national boundaries for European royalty and nobility from the late 18th century until its records were destroyed by the Soviets in 1944. Diligent researchers located medieval data at the Wrzburg Archives in the Wrzburger Residenz, Germany. Data found there helped form the basis of the reconstructed Almanac of Wrzburg, making it a useful historical directory of ancient and modern royalty & nobility. The Almanac includes reigning and non-reigning sovereign houses, higher nobility, and nobles of many nations. While some revisionists of history purport today that original Almanacs, such as the Almanach de Gotha, were legal documents, they in fact were not. They were simply an early version of a "Who's Who" among royalty & nobility and served mainly as a social register.