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Genealogy

(Redirected from Genealogist)

Genealogy is the study and tracing of family pedigrees. This involves collecting the names of relatives, both living and deceased, and establishing the relationships between them based on primary, secondary and/or circumstantial evidence or documentation, thus building up a cohesive family tree. Genealogy is sometimes also referred to as family history, although sometimes these terms are used distinctly: the former being the basic study of who is related to whom; the latter involving more "fleshing out" of the life histories of the individuals involved.

Contents

Overview

Genealogists search written records, collect oral histories and preserve family stories to discover ancestors and living relatives. Genealogists also attempt to understand not just where and when people lived but also their lifestyle, biography, and motivations. This often requires — or leads to — knowledge of antique law, old political boundaries, immigration trends, and historical social conditions.

Genealogists and family historians often join a Family History Society where newbies can learn from more experienced researchers, and everyone benefits from shared knowledge.

Even an unsuccessful search for ancestors leads to a better understanding of history. The search for living relatives often leads to family reunions, both of distant cousins and of disrupted families. Genealogists sometimes help reunite families separated by immigration, foster homes and adoption. The genealogist can help keep family traditions alive.

In its original form, genealogy was mainly concerned with the ancestry of rulers and nobles, often arguing or demonstrating the legitimacy of claims to wealth and power. The term often overlapped with heraldry, in which the ancestry of royalty was reflected in the quarterings of their coat of arms. Many of the claimed ancestries are considered by modern scholars to be fabrications, especially the claims of kings and emperors who trace their ancestry to gods or the founders of their civilization. For example, the Anglo-Saxon chroniclers traced the ancestry of several English kings back to the god Woden (the English version of the Norse god Odin). If these descents were true, Queen Elizabeth II would be a descendant of Woden, via the kings of Censored page.

In fiction, it is common to give a character a complicated fictional genealogy to make his or her background more interesting. A picaresque one is the genealogy for Godwulf of Asgard.

Modern research

Some societies base membership on tracing lineage to a particular participant in an historical event. Among these in the United States are the Daughters of the American Revolution, The Society of Mayflower Descendants , and United Daughters of the Confederacy. Another area of interest is in documenting kinship to a particular group of people, such as Scottish clans; or to a particular person such as Jesse James.

The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) is the oldest genealogical society in America. For over 150 years NEHGS has been helping new and experienced researchers trace their heritage in New England and around the world. The New England Historic Genealogical Society advances genealogical scholarship and develops the capabilities of both new and experienced researchers.

The Mormons practice baptism for the dead, an ordinance where baptism is performed on living people for and in behalf of those who have died. They believe in this manner they may assist their deceased relatives to progress in the next life, should they accept the ordinance done in their behalf. In the last century, they engaged on a large scale program of copying all available records that would be useful for genealogy, microfilming them and constructing an index, the International Genealogical Index (IGI). The IGI contains records submitted for vicarious ordinances submitted by their followers or taken from various birth or marriage records that they microfilmed. The IGI contains hundreds of millions of records of individuals who lived between 1500 and 1900, primarily in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Europe. By making so many resources available (for example, copies of their microfilmed parish registers are available worldwide at their Family History Centers at a nominal cost), they have helped contribute to the increasing interest in genealogy over the last couple of decades.

Genealogy has been claimed by some to be one of the most popular hobbies in America, second only to stamp or coin collecting. The hobby received a big boost in popularity in the late 1970s with the premiere of the television adaptation of Alex Haley's fictionalized account of his family line, Roots: The Saga of an American Family.

Records in genealogical research

Records of persons who were neither royalty nor nobility began to be taken by governments in order to keep track of their citizens. (In most of Europe, for example, this started to take place in the 16th century.) As more of the population began to be recorded, there were sufficient records to follow a family using the paper trail they left behind.

As each person lived his or her life, the major events were documented with a license, permit or report which was sent to a local, regional or national office or archive. A genealogist locates copies of these records, wherever they have been stored, and rearranges the information about each person to discover family relationships and recreate a timeline of each person's life once again.

Records that are used in genealogy research include:

In most cultures, the name of a person includes in one way or another the family to which he or she belongs. This is called the family name, or surname. It is often also called the last name because, for most speakers of English, the family name comes after the given name (or names). However, this is not the case in all cultures.

Sharing data among researchers

Data sharing between genealogical researchers has grown to be a major use of the Internet. Since most genealogy software programs store information about persons and their relationships in GEDCOM format, they can be shared with other genealogists by e-mail and Internet message boards, added to an online database, or converted into a family web site using online genealogical tools such as GED2HTML, PhpGedView and Phpmyfamily [1] http://www.phpmyfamily.net . One phenomenon over the last few years has been that of large genealogy-related databases going on-line, attracting a flash crowd, and having to suspend service within days to make hurried upgrades after collapsing under the unexpected magnitude of traffic load: this happened with the Mormons' genealogy database [2] http://www.familysearch.org , and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's listing of war graves [3] http://cwgc.org.uk . In January 2002, the much-anticipated British census for 1901 [4] http://www.census.pro.gov.uk/ went online. Within minutes it was inaccessible due to the server and network load, and it had to be taken offline. Later in the year, after upgrades had been made, it came back online.

Reliability of sources

Experience shows that genealogical facts can be unreliable. The top five, in order of decreasing reliability, are:

1. Place Names - Normally the most accurate because it is long lasting, and apart from rare occasions is rarely wrong. Things to look out for include variable spellings by partially literate scribes, small places of the same name in neighbouring counties (e.g. the name of the village of Brocton occurs six times in the border area between the English counties of Shropshire and Staffordshire), old county borders (outlying and detached areas belonging to one country with another county, particularly in C17th-C19th England), and incorrect county on census returns. The place where the ancestor recalls growing up may not be the place of birth or where the records are eventually found. Many families have been historically very mobile. A good set of detailed maps (such as the British Ordnance Survey) and use the OS Old Map website. Old records may contain references to Middle Age villages that have ceased to exist due to disease or famine. In general, there is a good likelihood that the place (parish) of a birth for a girl is the place she marries (unless 'sent abroad' as a servant), and that the place of residence for a man is where he is buried; certainly a neighbouring parish. Useful references: maps (online), gazetteer (place name dictionary), census returns, birth, death & marriage records, Domesday Book.

2. Occupations - Can be partly right. Many unskilled ancestors had a variety of jobs depending on the season and local trade requirements. Occasionally skilled trades pass from father to son. Census returns may contain some embellishment from Labourer to Mason, or from journeyman to Master craftsman. Workmen no longer fit for their primary trade often have less glamorous jobs later in life. Look out for old or unfamiliar local occupations that may cause confusion if poorly legible - an ostler (a keeper of horses) and a hostler (an innkeeper) can be confused. For example, someone who has a perplexing description "ironer of rabbit burrows" turns out an ironer (profession) in the Bristol district named Rabbit Burrows. Several trades have regional preferences, for e.g. shoemaker or cordwainer, and many apparently obscure jobs are part of a larger trade community such as watchmaking, framework knitting or gunmaking. References: trade directories, census returns, birth, death & marriage records.

3. Surnames - At least correct if viewed phonetically! Some surnames can be spelled a multitude of way by partially illiterate ancestors or scribes. The further you go back, the more bizarre the variations you encounter. Some names become interchangeable between married and maiden names, and previous husbands names. Some family names are not always obvious (examples include MORDECAI interchangeable with MORT). Confusion can result from using step-parents or adopted parents names, as well as a woman using her lover's name. Common-law marriages were still common in Victorian times in England, even though this type of legally recognised informal marriage was abolished in 1753, so records of a marriage simply may not exist. References: trade directories, census returns, birth, death & marriage records.

4. First Names - One of the most confusing aspects of research for a wide range of reasons. Nicknames are very common - Beth, Lizzie or Betty is common for Elizabeth, which can be confused with Eliza. Patty has been used as a diminutive form for Martha. There is Amy used for Alice, Nancy/Ann, and Polly for a number of girls names including Mary Ann and Elizabeth. While the girls names are the most confusing, boys names can also interchange: Jack, John & Jonathan, Joseph & Josiah, Edward & Edwin, etc. The use of middle names is more common than you may think - very often names appear back to front on a wide range of documents. The same name can also be given to several children, often the result of an earlier child dying young, however this is not always the case! You may conclude that there is both a John senior (i.e. "elder") and John junior (i.e. "younger") alive at the same time (not to be confused with the use of Sr. and Jr. as - usually - referring to father and son). It is also common to confuse relatives (father and son, nephew & uncle, etc.) and family groups - you will find a period in time where everyone seems to be a child of a couple named William & Mary or Samuel & Ann, with several couples of the name living in the district you're researching, all with children named with the most popular names of the times! The sex of some names is not always clear - examples include Treasure (male) or a Frances (actually male - "Francis") marrying Eli (actually female - "Elly").

5. Dates - the general rule is to never trust a date! Accurate dates of birth may be given for modern registrations and in a few church records at baptism. Family bibles may be a help, but can be written from memory long after the event - beware of the same ink and handwriting for all entries; a sure sign the dates were written at the same time and therefore will be less reliable. Women will commonly reduce their age on marriage, and perhaps those under "full age" may increase their age upon marriage or joining the armed forces. Census returns are notoriously unreliable, particularly when looking for a date for a husband's death - if the woman is at home while the husband is away, she could be given as Head of household or assumed a widow. The 1841 census in the UK is rounded down to the next lower multiple of five years. Dates around birth may be confused between birth and baptism. Some families wait 3-5 years before baptising children, and adult baptisms are not unheard of. Both birth and marriage dates can be adjusted to cover for pre-wedding pregnancies. It is very common for the first child to be born before or within a few months of a marriage and sometimes baptised in the mother's name, later adopting the father's name after the parents' marriage. The father's name can be used even if no marriage has occurred. In 1752 the date of the new year was changed in England. Before 1752 the new year started on the 25th March, in 1752 this was changed to the 1st January. This was part of the transition to the Gregorian calendar from the Julian calendar. Many other European countries had already made the change, and by 1751 there was a 11 day discrepancy between the date in England and the date in other European countries. The date continued to be recorded as usual in 1752 until 2nd September 1752, the following day became 14th September 1752. Dates that were recorded in the older system can be shown by "double dating". For example; Original date: 24th of March 1750 Modern date: 24th March 1751 Double dating: 24th March 1750/51

The "maximum relationship"

One of the aims in professional geneaology circles has been to determine the maximum degree of separation which currently exists between all people in the world. That is to say, how many generations have passed since two people have shared a common ancestor. It has been calculated, that the maximum relationship a person living in the modern age can be to someone else, anywhere in the world, is 30-32 generations removed which is roughly 1200-1500 years of ancestory.

The figure of 30 generations was calculated based on doubling a person's direct ancestors exponentially, increasing the number per generation. Thus, the first generation would have two direct ancestors (2 parents), the second 4 (grandparents), the third 8, and so on. At 30 generations, the number of direct ancestors a person would have is 1,073,741,824 people. With each generation taking 25-30 years to pass before the next generation was spawned, 30 generations equates to 1500 years. Since the population of the Earth, 1500 years ago, is less than the number of direct ancestors a person would have that long ago (see pedigree collapse), 30 generations is the maximum extent which a person may trace an ancestory before everyone living at the time can be considered a direct ancestor.

The 30 generation figure effectively means that everyone living as of (and before) the year 500 AD is a direct ancestor of everyone living today. This brings to mind intriguing notions such as the lineage of the Roman Emperors, the Pharaohs, and other ancient nobility which in effect are the ancestors of all people alive today. The concept also is interesting from the point of relationships being that everyone living today would be no more than a 30th cousin to anyone anywhere in the world.

Improved models, taking into account sexual differentiation, monogamy and realistic migration patterns suggest that the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of all humans probably lived 75-150 generations or 2000-4000 years ago. Moreover, the MRCA is likely to have lived somewhere in Southeast Asia (increasing the likelihood of his or her descendents reaching the remote islands of the Pacific), is equally likely to be a man or woman, and is not characterized by an unusually large number of children. These models also show that while a large group (indeed all humans) share recent common ancestors, a given person is likely to share the vast majority of his or her genes with a very small local group. (See Rohde's On the Common Ancestors of All Living Humans http://tedlab.mit.edu/~dr/Papers/Rohde-MRCA-two.pdf )

Software

Below is a list of computer software (listed alphabetically) which helps genealogists gather and structure the information related to genealogy.

Windows

  • Ancestral Author http://www.ancestralauthor.com/
  • Brother's Keeper http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/BROTHERS_KEEPER/
  • Genbox Family History http://www.genbox.com/
  • Legacy Family Tree http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/
  • The Master Genealogist http://www.whollygenes.com/
  • Personal Ancestral File http://www.familysearch.org/
  • WinFamily http://winfamily.com/

Macintosh

  • Mac Family Tree http://www.onlymac.de/html/stammbaum4en.html
  • Reunion http://www.leisterpro.com/

Linux

  • Genes http://genes.sourceforge.net/
  • Gramps http://gramps.sourceforge.net/
  • LifeLines http://lifelines.sourceforge.net/

Web-based

  • @rbre - open 3D genealogy (Java-X3D-P2P) http://arbre.sourceforge.net/
  • GeneWeb http://cristal.inria.fr/~ddr/GeneWeb/
  • PhpGedView http://www.phpgedview.net/
  • phpmyfamily http://www.phpmyfamily.net/

External links

General

Wikibooks has a textbook about Genealogy.
  • Family Forest-Digital Resource for Ancestral History, Descendant and Ancestor Series eBooks, and "A People-Centered Approach To History" http://www.familyforest.com/
  • Cyndi's List - A categorized directory of tens of thousands of genealogy web sites http://www.cyndislist.com/
  • The LDS Church's online database of family history data http://www.familysearch.org/ , Personal Ancestral File http://www.familysearch.org/paf
  • RootsWeb.com - free genealogy site with 324 million names http://rootsweb.com/
  • Ancestry of notable people http://www.blue-blood.co.uk
  • Heritage Quest Magazine - Website of the oldest and largest popular genealogy magazine http://heritagequestmagazine.com/
  • A genealogy message board http://www.gendir.com/village/
  • About Genealogy - Tutorials, Links and Surname Meanings http://genealogy.about.com/
  • PhpGedView Online genealogy viewer http://phpgedview.sourceforge.net/
  • GenealogyBlog - A continuously updated website dealing with family history related news, websites, and products http://www.genealogyblog.com/
  • An interactive directory of categorized genealogy search engines. http://www.search.vanee.org/

UK

  • A directory of online information for genealogy in the British Isles http://www.genuki.org.uk/
  • The extensive suite of online genealogy offerings from the British government http://www.pro.gov.uk/
  • A project to transcribe the entire GRO indexes and provide them online free of charge http://www.freebmd.org.uk/
  • The entire GRO Indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths for England and Wales from 1837 to date http://www.1837online.com/Trace2web/

Australia

  • The Genealogical Society of Victoria Inc. http://www.gsv.org.au
  • Victorian GUM Inc. http://www.vicgum.asn.au

Malta

  • Maltagenealogy.com. http://www.maltagenealogy.com/
  • Maltese migration research http://www.maltagenealogy.com/

USA

  • The decsendants of Alexander Gordon, b 1635 in Aberdeen, Scotland http://www.gordonsofmaine.com
  • Ellis Island Records http://www.ellisisland.org/
  • More on Ellis Island http://www.ellisislandimmigrants.org/
  • NEHGS - The oldest genealogical society in the United States http://www.newenglandancestors.org/
  • Online Searchable Death Indexes & Records (United States) http://www.deathindexes.com/

Sweden

  • Swedish Roots http://www.genealogi.se/roots/

Finland

  • The Genealogical Society of Finland http://www.genealogia.fi/indexe.htm

Miscellaneous

  • The GRANDMA Project, 713,132 people of German-Russian Mennonite Ancestry http://calmenno.org/grandma/index.htm


Last updated: 02-09-2005 19:46:32
Last updated: 04-25-2005 03:06:01