Genealogy

What is a Genealogy

Genealogy is the study of ancestry, or family lineage. Genealogists trace lines of family ancestry and usually show their findings by means of pedigree charts, or genealogical tress. Their study may be relevant to history, law, sociology, or eugenics or their appeal may be more personal, providing people with a sense of continuity and of belonging.

Primitive societies, which are usually organized in tribes or clans, have often sought to trace clan ancestry to gods, legendary heroes, or animals. Clans can thus bolster their identity and strive for divine protection. Lineages were originally transmitted by oral tradition, but later literate societies began to write them down. Notable early Western examples include the genealogies of the tribes of Israel (recorded in the Bible), the Greeks, and the Romans. Genealogies assumed particular importance in connection with the principle of inheritance of power, rank and properly. List of hereditary kings were compiled by the ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Indian, and Chinese. In medieval Europe feudal landholders kept records for the transference of rank and land. Concern with descent, and thus rank, was also reflected in heraldic developments.

In modern times, social status has depended less on pedigree, but genealogy remains of interest to many people other than scholars. The United States, for example, has numerous genealogical societies that trace people’s descent. The Mormon Church has collected an enormous bank of genealogical data (official registers of births, marriages, and deaths and related documents), probably the greatest such collection in existence, Church members use this records to bring their ancestors posthumously into the church. Popular interest in genealogy was stimulated by the television dramatization of Alex Haley’s Roots (1976); in researching this book Haley had traced his ancestry back to his African forebears.

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