CHAPTER VII 



THE STUDY OF AMERICAN FAMILIES 



Nowhere else is a genealogical interest keener than in 

 America. The possibility of tracing one's pedigree back to 

 the first ancestor of the name in the country has inspired 

 thousands of genealogical researches^ and the demand for 

 assistance in working out pedigrees has created the pro- 

 fessional genealogist. Still the amateur's work, like most 

 labors of love, is usually to be preferred because of the per- 

 sonal element involved. 



1. The Studt of Genealogy 



The study of genealogy, under the stimulus of om* modern 

 insight into heredity, is destined to become the most 

 important handmaid of eugenics. The conscientious and 

 scientific genealogist records a brief biography of each person 

 of the pedigree and such a biography should be an analysis 

 of the person's traits; an inventory of his physical and 

 mental characteristics; his special tastes and gifts as shown 

 by his occupation and especially his avocations. It would 

 be well, so far as possible, to go further than that, if not for 

 publication at least for record.^ It will be desirable to get a 

 statement of physical weaknesses, diseases to which there 

 was liability and causes of death. There are none of these 

 classes of data that are not included in some genealogies; it 



1 The Eugenics Record Office has an isolated fire proof vault at Cold Spring 

 Harbor, N. Y., in which it will receive and keep safe and confidential any rec- 

 ords that genealogists will deposit there. All genealogical data is indexed on 

 cards so as to be made accessible to properly qualified persons who wish to use 

 it for justifiable purposes. 



239 



