Tracing Your Ancestors 



well-equipped libraries, opportunity is 

 afforded to procure the information 

 needed to begin a preliminary study, for 

 there have been several books and a 

 number of contributions to genealogical 

 magazines which aim to guide the begin- 

 ner. It is unfortunate, however, that 

 the greater niunber, in fact most 

 libraries, have failed to place such 

 works on their shelves. The beginner 

 in genealogy is therefore entirely at sea 

 how to go about collecting the data he 

 needs to form an intelligent foundation 

 for the study of his ancestry. Yet the 

 data are really nearly always ready at 

 hand, or readily accessible if the right 

 steps are taken. 



The first step is to arrange in a sys- 

 tematic manner what information one 

 already has regarding the family. There 

 are a number of publications especially 

 designed to record such data. Any up- 

 to-date bookseller can procure these 

 publications. But as a matter of fact 

 the best system is home made. Later, 

 when the material is in hand, verified, 

 arranged, it can be transferred to some 

 specially designed book. 



HOW TO CLASSIFY DATA 



The simplest method is to take a 

 sheet of paper, of letter size, and midway 

 in the left margin enter the name of the 

 person whose ancestry is to be studied. 

 At one-quarter the distance from the 

 top, and about the same distance from 

 the left margin, write the name of the 

 father, and directly under his name and 

 one-quarter the distance from the bot- 

 tom write the name of the mother. 

 Join these names by a bracket. Under 

 each name write the date and place of 

 birth, the date and place of death, and 

 under the mother's name the place and 

 date of marriage. Under the father's 

 name write his occupation or profession, 

 his titles if any, and other brief notes if 

 there is room. Now make a third 

 column, and write the names of the 

 parents of father and of mother, join- 

 ing each pair as before, and taking care 

 that the distances between the names 

 are equal. In a fourth coliunn write 

 the names of the great grandparents, 

 joining each couple with a bracket. 

 This last column will contain eight 



names, and will be at the very right of 

 the sheet. Under each name write the 

 date and place of birth, death, etc., and 

 under the wife's name the date and place 

 of her marriage. This sheet now con- 

 tains the names of every ancestor in 

 three generations of the person whose 

 name was first written. It carries the 

 names of fifteen individuals. Take 

 eight sheets of the same size as the first. 

 At the left of each sheet write the name 

 of one of the great grandparents, and 

 duplicate for that person the record for 

 his or her ancestors in the same fashion 

 as on sheet No. 1. When complete, this 

 series of nine sheets will show seven full 

 generations of ancestry of the person 

 whose name was first written on Sheet 

 No. 1. Such a record, if complete, is in 

 itself a very creditable performance, and 

 few people can make up such a record 

 without extensive research. 



As the average American of pre-Rev- 

 olutionary ancestry is of the eighth or 

 ninth, and often of the tenth generation 

 from the emigrant ancestor, a third 

 series of sheets will be required to show 

 all of these ancestors. In the fourth 

 generation appear eight ancestors. In 

 the seventh generation there were 

 sixty-four ancestors, and in the tenth 

 generation there would be 512 ancestors. 

 It is very probable that in one or 

 more instances cousins will be found 

 marrying, and hence the actual number 

 of different individuals will be less than 

 that estimated. In this connection it 

 should be asserted that the often 

 repeated statement that if the lines of 

 everyone were extended back for a cer- 

 tain number of generations it would re- 

 sult in proving that all persons inherited 

 more or less the same ancestry, is not the 

 truth, unless, of course, we trace back to 

 a common progenitor. The fact is, that 

 people of one class or of one community 

 marry among themselves, and in the 

 community it is usually people of the 

 same class who intermarry. Hence, 

 while it may be true that a thousand 

 years ago every yeoman in a certain 

 village or even a larger district may be 

 claimed as a common ancestor by those 

 people who have remained in about the 

 same social position, it is not the fact 

 that every inhabitant in that district 



