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Genealogy is the study of the descents of families and
persons from an ancestor or ancestors. This study is
undertaken by many people out of interest in their
personal and family origins. As a hobby it can become
pleasantly addictive, at least to the person concerned.
However the study is also undertaken professionally, not
just in order to provide a commercial service that can
be used by people who are seeking help in researching
their origins, but also for very serious legal and
financial reasons. Thus there are accepted standards for
doing genealogy "properly" - standards that we recommend
you seek to learn and emulate.
The term Family History used to be regarded as
synonymous with Genealogy, but now it applies to
biographical research into one's ancestors - the aim
typically being to produce a well-documented narrative
history, of interest to family members and perhaps
future generations. Thus the study of family history
involves putting flesh on the skeleton that is produced
by genealogy - and involves the study of the historical
circumstances and geographical situation in which
ancestors lived. (The resulting ability to associate
historical events with particular generations or
individuals of your family can help history come really
alive for you.)
This server aims to provide you with information and
sources of guidance on both genealogy and family
history. However in this brief account we will
concentrate on providing some very basic advice on
genealogy - we hope it will help you whether you are an
inhabitant of the British Isles, wanting to start by
tracing your immediate forebears, or you live overseas,
and have found that some of your perhaps distant
ancestors came from here, and now would like to find out
more about them.
However one word of warning - these notes of guidance
should not be regarded as a substitute for good
old-fashioned books. Especially if you are a beginner
you are strongly advised to start by visiting your local
library and doing some reading on genealogy. There are
many useful introductory books on genealogy and family
history which will provide you with more complete and
coherent guidance as to how to get started than you will
get here, or from merely posting a series of questions
to the newsgroup or mailing list with which this server
is associated.
Incidentally, if you are lucky enough to live within
convenient reach of one of the many Family History
Centres of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints (the Mormons) make sure to pay the Centre an
early visit to find out what facilities and information
resources they have, and how you can use them. The
volunteers who run these centres, which are freely open
to all, will not do your research for you, but you are
very likely to find them a mine of useful information
and advice.
Develop a plan. Think about which lines to follow. You
have two parents, four grandparents, eight
great-grandparents, and so on. You have to draw the
lines somewhere. You can use your time better if you
develop a plan to guide you.
There are in fact three commonly adopted plans:
- Some people aim to produce a "Family Tree" -
showing their male-line ancestors (father,
grandfather, greatgrandfather, etc.) and the wives,
brothers and sisters of these ancestors. (It is of
course possible to concentrate on female-line
ancestors, but the types of records that were kept,
and the common practice whereby a wife took her
husband's surname at marriage, can make this
difficult.)
- Others try to produce what is sometimes termed
an "Extended Family Tree". Such a tree shows all the
collateral branches of a family, i.e. all the
descendants (with their spouses) of some earliest
known (typically, but not necessarily) male-line
ancestor. An extended family tree therefore will
grow to include many of your distant cousins.
- Yet others attempt just to trace as many as
possible of their direct ancestors, through both
male and female lines, and so produce what is termed
an "Ancestry Chart". (In fact, even if you re only
trying to trace your ancestry it is wise to record
any information you happen to obtain about your
ancestors' siblings, since such information can
sometimes help to resolve tricky questions of
identification.)
However, whichever aim you set yourself, it is best
to concentrate on just a small part of the tree or
chart, so to speak, at any one time - you can always
move to another part when you get stuck. |
