Genealogy Encyclopedia

Genealogy (from Greek: γενεά, genea, "generation"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members. The results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives.

Some scholars differentiate between genealogy and family history, limiting genealogy to an account of kinship, while using "family history" to denote the provision of additional details about lives and historical context.

Overview

Hobbyist genealogists typically pursue their own ancestry and that of their spouses. Professional genealogists may also conduct research for others, publish books on genealogical methods, teach, or work for companies that provide software or online databases. Both try to understand not just where and when people lived, but also their lifestyles, biographies, and motivations. This often requires — or leads to — knowledge of antiquated laws, old political boundaries, migration trends, and historical social conditions.

Genealogists sometimes specialize in a particular group, e.g. a Scottish clan; a particular surname, such as in a one-name study; a small community, e.g. a single village or parish, such as in a one-place study; or a particular, often famous, person. Bloodlines of Salem is an example of a specialized family-history group. It welcomes members who are able to prove descent from a participant of the Salem Witch Trials or who choose simply to support the group.

Genealogists and family historians often join family history societies, where novices can learn from more experienced researchers. Such societies may also index records to make them more accessible, and engage in advocacy and other efforts to preserve public records and cemeteries.

Historical background

Historically, in Western societies the genealogical focus was the kinship and descent 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 their coats of arms. Many claimed noble ancestries are considered fabrications by modern scholars, such as the Anglo-Saxon chronicles that traced the ancestry of several English kings to the god Woden.

In modern times, genealogy became more widespread, with commoners as well as nobility researching and maintaining their family trees.^[1] Genealogy received a boost in the late 1970s with the premiere of the television adaptation of Alex Haley's account of his family line, Roots: The Saga of an American Family,^[2][3][4] leading to genealogy becoming a popular hobby. With the advent of the Internet, the number of resources readily accessible by genealogists has vastly increased, resulting in an explosion of interest in the topic.^[5] According to some sources, genealogy is one of the most popular topics on the Internet.^[6] The Internet has become not only a major source of data for genealogists, but also of education and communication.