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 Genealogy 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 these terms may be used distinctly: the former being the basic study of who is related to whom; the latter involving more "fleshing out" of the life and family histories of the individuals involved. One way to find the family lineage is with the use of the genealogical method. It is a well-established ethnographic technique. The early ethnographers developed symbols that covered the issue of kinship, descent, and marriage. Studying one's genealogy is important in terms of social organization, especially where people live and work with their kin everyday. It plays a very important role in understanding the current social relations and reconstructing the history. Marriage is also looked at because it is important in creating alliances amongst tribes, clans and villages.
OverviewGenealogists 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 novices 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 war, immigration, foster homes and adoption. The genealogist can help keep family traditions alive or reveal family secrets.
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 Wessex.
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, major events were usually documented with a license, permit or report which was stored at a local, regional or national office or archive. Genealogists locate these records, wherever they are stored, and extract information to discover family relationships and recreate timelines of persons' lives.
Records that are used in genealogy research include:
• Adoption records
• Baptism or christening records
• Biographies and biographical profiles
• Birth records
• Cemetery records and tombstones
• Census records
• City directories and telephone directories
• Daughters of the American Revolution records
• Death records
• Diaries, personal letters and family Bibles
• Emigration, immigration and naturalization records
• Land and homestead records, deeds
• Marriage and divorce records
• Medical records
• Military and conscription records
• Newspaper columns
• Obituaries
• Occupational records
• Oral history
• Passports
• Photographs
• School and alumni association records
• Ship passenger lists
• Social Security Administration
• Tax records
• Voter registration records
• Wills and probate records
As a rule, genealogists nearly always start with the present and work backward in time rather than forward. Written records have the property of hindsight in that they only tell where a person might have lived and who their parents are, not where they and their descendants will be living in the future. Two exceptions are when a genealogist might interview living relatives as to who and where their children and grandchildren are, or tries to locate long-lost cousins who have already traced their families backward to one of his ancestors (which is forward in time from his point of view).
The "maximum relationship"One of the aims in professional genealogy 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 back is the first common ancestor that the two most distantly related people on earth share.
Latest 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.
Genealogy softwareGenealogy software is computer software used to collect, store, sort, and display genealogical data. At a minimum, genealogy software tends to accommodate basic information about births, marriages, and deaths. Many programs allow for additional biographical information and a host of features.
Certain programs are geared towards specific religions, and will include additional fields relevant to that religion. Other programs focus on certain geographical regions.
Some programs will allow for the import of digital photographs, and sound files. Other programs focus on the ability to generate kinship charts. Some programs are more flexible than others in allowing for the input of same sex marriages and children born out of wedlock.
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