diff --git a/.git-blame-ignore-revs b/.git-blame-ignore-revs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d9cfd9d53b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.git-blame-ignore-revs
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# Initial commits that enabled spotless automatic formatting
+59731c089e9d649a663c81d9622b54557d6aba37
+4d63ffd98cdead513ab0be0fa23f9787423092d3
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 0f4fbd3d3f..ff201f2a25 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ GitHub there are a few pre-requisite steps to follow:
 the linked page, this also includes:
     * [set up your local git install](https://help.github.com/articles/set-up-git) 
     * clone your fork
+* Instruct git to ignore certain commits when using `git blame`. From the directory of your local clone, run this: `git config blame.ignoreRevsFile .git-blame-ignore-revs`
 * See the wiki pages for setting up your IDE, whether you use 
 [IntelliJ IDEA](https://hibernate.org/community/contribute/intellij-idea/)
 or [Eclipse](https://hibernate.org/community/contribute/eclipse-ide/)<sup>(1)</sup>.