There is no more fascinating subject in which a person may become occupied than an examination into the history of his ancestry, his family genealogy. The study of hu­man beings is an interesting one, especially when they are the particular human beings from whom the student has derived his existence, his character, his likes and dislikes, and those elements which differentiate him from every other human being and constitute him an entity with an individuality.

A large number of people are becoming increasingly inter­ested in the study of their family genealogy. Persons everywhere are inquiring as to who were their progenitors, when they came to America, where in this country they settled, in what di­rection they followed the tide of migration as it moved into new settlements in early days, what they accomplished in business, in education, in public service, what place they occupied in the development of the state and the nation, who their children were and what became of them, and so on with many questions, the answers to which are an engrossing study.

The business of answering these family genealogy questions has become a profession and many persons are following it with more or less success. To them, however, it is purely a business. There is nothing about it which vitally concerns them except the wages derived therefrom.

There are also many persons taking up this work who have no intention of becoming professional genealogists or making the study a vocation.

They seek to answer their own ques­tions and desire the sport connected with the family genealogy search, and have come to realize that finding one's ancestors and learn­ing to know them intimately through records and history cannot produce its greatest enjoyment if it is to be accom­plished through a third and disinterested party. Like many of the pleasures of life, ancestor hunting must be experienced first hand if it is to possess real charm.

To many people the search for ancestors and family con­nections cannot be prosecuted through the hired worker be­cause of the amount of money involved in the transaction. Family genealogy research is a great gamble. Sometimes a few hours work will produce marvelous results and at other times, days, weeks, and sometimes months will be consumed with very little accomplishment to show for the work done. When the search is being paid for by the hour it is often very dis­couraging and unless a person is financially able to spend considerable money it may prove a disappointing business.

Many people with a keen interest in their progenitors and a longing to know more about their family genealogy make no move to satisfy their wishes or answer the questions which arise concerning such matters. This is because they are fairly well convinced that they cannot afford to hire the work done and that they do not possess the ability to do it themselves.

THE PURPOSE OF THE BOOK

With that situation in mind this book is prepared:

1st. To bring to the attention of people the desirability of undertaking their family genealogy research, and to show them the enjoyment that is to be derived in doing it—the pleasure there is in living over with the forefathers in family connection their lives of adven­ture, toil and accomplishment. The satisfaction of see­ing themselves as their lives reflect the lives of others who have transmitted to them by blood something of strength and of weakness, of character and the pecu­liarities of human nature. To understand the lives of today in the light of the lives of yesterday, and to in­terpret the characters of yesterday in those of today.

2nd. To show to the interested person of average mental ability how very easy it is to do such family genealogy research work himself, thereby satisfying his longings and answering his ancestral questions himself without any consider­able outlay of money, and at the same time opening an avenue of activity from which he will derive the keen enjoyment which always accompanies this sort of work. To take the novice step by step from the very beginning of his ancestral queries through the various phases of the search until he can solve his ancestral problems as successfully as could the profes­sional genealogist. To outline a plan of both genealog­ical and ancestral research and to work it out to the result of producing either an ancestral history or a genealogy, whichever it is that he assays to accom­plish.

CLASSES OF WORK

The study of the history of a family may properly be divided into two distinct branches:

1st. Those who are studying from an ancestral point of view which is the history of a portion of many families con­verging in one person in the present, usually the student himself, and,

2nd. Those who are studying from a genealogical point of view which is the history of many families diverging from one ancestor at some distant point of time.

The former is a very easy and simple proposition and one that any person with ordinary intelligence may undertake without special training or preparation with a fair expecta­tion of reaching successful results. The latter demands more training and skill if success is to be obtained. With proper introduction to the work and guidance, however, the layman need not hesitate taking up the construction of a family genealogy confident of producing a creditable piece of work which will find its place among family histories of the first class.

In this treatise it is purposed:

1st. To discuss those subjects which are common both to ancestral and to genealogical work.

2nd. To treat of those subjects which bear distinctly on the construction of ancestral charts and histories which are not prepared with a view of publication and whose readers will be limited to those individuals having a personal interest in its production, and

3rd. To consider those matters which have to do with the preparation of a family genealogy which it is intended shall be published and become a source of information for the general public.

TERMINOLOGY

Ancestral Charts

An Ancestral Chart is a picture or diagram of a descendant and his ancestors. It is the framework or skeleton on which a Family Genealogy is built. It may be arranged in any one of a multitude of ways, sometimes resembling an open fan, but more often shown by a plain diagram on one or more sheets of paper ruled for the purpose and indicating the multiplica­tion of lines necessary to represent the geometrical progres­sion needed to accommodate the actual number of ancestors of any one person.

An Ancestral Chart will contain only names, dates of births, deaths and marriages, and possibly the place of resi­dence of the various people named. It is a skeleton history giving only the vital record.

Ancestral History

An Ancestral History in a compilation of family genealogy data combined with interesting incidents, with reference to lines of ascent from a common descendant. It starts with a person in the present or some recent time and works back to earlier dates along all lines of blood which have contributed to the life of the individual selected as the starting point, thus embracing many families of different surnames and many strains of blood in no way connected only as they are the ancestors of a common offspring.  For instance, assuming that the compiler is taking himself as a starting point, his father and his mother will develop the first division into two distinct family blood lines.  Their blood ties are in no way connected only as they merge to become his parents.  With the next preceding generation his grandparents will introduce four blood strains by the same process. The compiler is not interested in any of the other children of his grandparents or their families. Ancestral History is one straight line from child to parent so far back as it is carried.

An Ancestral History may end with the emigrant ancestors or it may extend to earlier dates and embrace ancestors prior to emigration to this country.

It is the history of a descendent and his ancestors, and is the direct opposite of a genealogy in that it treats of may totally disconnected families and blood strains brought together in one common descendant, while the genealogy treats of one family and blood strain spread out into a multitude of descendants.

An Ancestral History, because its focal point is in one person of recent date, or at most in one family of brothers and sisters, is of more private nature than a family genealogy. It is of interest in its totality to only a few people and is prepared more for a pastime than for any historical value it may reveal and, therefore, is not prepared with a view of publication.

Genealogy

A Genealogy is a compilation of data with reference to lines of decent. It starts with one common ancestor who may be the emigrant, or one of the emigrants if there were several bearing the same surname, who came to this country in colonial times. Or it may begin with any subsequent ancestor heading a particular branch of the family surname. For instance, Matthew Cushing with wife, Nazareth, and sons, Daniel, Jeremiah, Matthew and John and Daughter, Deborah, came to America in the ship “Diligent” in 1638. A genealogy of the Cushing family may include this entire family and their descendants, or it may be the Daniel Cushing family genealogy treating only of Daniel, son of Matthew and Nazareth, and his descendants.

From the beginning point, wherever it may be, the family genealogy works down to a more recent date, even to the present time enumerating by generations the descendants of the selected ancestor and following only the blood lines of the one chosen forefather. For instance, if the compiler is preparing the genealogy of the family of his own surname, i.e. of his father’s side, he will only be concerned with the history of his mother to the extent of naming her as the wife of his father and the mother of the children having that father’s blood, with the vital record of her birth, death and marriage to his father, and the names of her parents. She has no further part in the genealogy of her husband’s family . Of the four grandparents the only one with whom he is concerned is the father of his father who bears the same surname, and that grandfather’s wife to the same extent to which he carried his father’s wife, his own mother, and while all the other grandparents are dropped and ignored, it is the purpose of the genealogy to deal with all the offspring of the one grandfather who is picked up in the blood line of the ancestral name and carry them to some point where it has been determined to drop out those who have changed their surname by marriage. Genealogy is a history of one family of one blood strain only.

The family genealogy may be restricted to those persons bearing the same surname as the selected ancestor in which case it is only the history of sons and unmarried daughters of the family, or it may be enlarged to include the marriages of daughters and the enumeration of their immediate families, which by the way is the most common practice and the plan to be most strongly recommended, or it may be still further extended to include all known descendants of the ancestor, thus embracing the ancestral name and the surnames acquired by the daughters through marriage in all branches.

The latter method would produce a family history which could be termed a full genealogy and would be the complete history so far as it could be gathered of an ancestor and all his blood descendants—the complete history of one strain of blood. Thus, while an Ancestral History is the history of a descendant and his ancestors, a family genealogy is a history of an ancestor and his descendants.

The Genealogy has an interest for a large number of people; it will embrace many who are connected by blood ties to the common ancestor, and also students in its many branches. It is, therefore, prepared with a view of publica­tion that it may fully serve its purpose, reach the attention of those interested in its record, and justify the expense of its compilation.

Genealogist

A Genealogist is a person who, professionally or otherwise, practices the science of examining public and private records with the object of compiling in some form the history of a family. In its broader meaning it embraces both those persons who are working on Genealo­gies and those who are preparing Ancestral Charts and An­cestral Histories. In this treatise the term Genealogist will be used in its broader sense to indicate any person who for any reason is examining and compiling any sort of family genealogy.

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