(from Greek: γενεαλογία genealogia "the making of a pedigree") is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, 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. The field of family history is broader than genealogy, and covers not just lineage, but also family and community history and biography.
Genetics is a branch of biology concerned with the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.
Though heredity had been observed for millennia, Gregor Mendel, a scientist and Augustinian friar working in the 19th century, was the first to study genetics scientifically. Mendel studied "trait inheritance", patterns in the way traits are handed down from parents to offspring. He observed that organisms (pea plants) inherit traits by way of discrete "units of inheritance". This term, still used today, is a somewhat ambiguous definition of what is referred to as a gene.
Genetic genealogy is the use of genealogical DNA tests, i.e. DNA profiling and DNA testing in combination with traditional genealogical methods, to infer biological relationships between individuals. Genetic genealogy involves the use of genealogical DNA testing to determine the level and type of the genetic relationship between individuals. This application of genetics came to be used by family historians in the 21st century, as tests became affordable. The tests have been promoted by amateur groups, such as surname study groups, or regional genealogical groups, as well as research projects such as the Genographic Project.
A family tree, or pedigree chart, is a graph representing family relationships in a traditional tree structure. A more detailed pedigree used in medicine, genealogy and for social work is known as a genogram. Genealogical data can be represented in several formats, eg as ancestor pedigree or graph. Pedigrees are often presented with the oldest generation at the top and newer generations at the bottom. The outlet, the tree showing the ancestors of the individual, is more like a tree - they are wider at the top than at the bottom. In some gender charts, the default individual is on the left and his ancestors on the right. The birth, which shows all the descendants of the individual, will be the narrowest at the top. The family tree can have many motifs. It can include all direct descendants of an individual, or all known ancestors of a living person. Others could include all persons of the same surname (eg male line).Yet another possibility is to create a tree, including all holders of a certain function, such as rulers. To do this, it is necessary to keep records of all links between dynasties.
The pedigree is the simplest genealogical table that lists the ancestors of the starting person (page) only along the paternal line. Thus, it monitors only male ancestors - father, grandfather, great-grandfather, etc., while only basic information (name, life dates) is given about wives. It is a genealogical table that provides an overview of only a part of the ancestor of the starting person, more often a pedigree is used to display the family tree, for which the designation pedigree is often used incorrectly.
Prior to the introduction of registries, the sources on which genealogy is based are limited to documents, official and public books. Only since the 18th century have the sources been more complete and systematic thanks to the compulsory keeping of registers.
indicates the relationship between persons who come from a single ancestor (the degree of blood supply is important).
(marriage) are relationships created by marriage (ie, relationships with a partner's blood relatives).
Ascendants and descendants
Genealogical research is based on an individual - a member of the family either as a breeder (parent) or as a begotten (born), and accordingly examines his relations either with his ancestors (ascendants) or with his descendants (descendants). The summary of an individual's ancestors is called a pedigree. The petition used to be evaluated mainly from the legal point of view, when it came to succession to the throne, trust, inheritance, etc. The incomplete part of the petition is called the probation. Today, the derivation is an important tool in biological and sociological genealogical research, shows the effects of heredity and shows the interpenetration of the most diverse social classes in individual genera. The offspring of an individual (pair of individuals) is called a birth if it is all the offspring after the sword and after the horsetail, or the pedigree, if only the offspring of male members are taken into account (ie persons usually of the same genus name).
GEDCOM (an acronym standing for Genealogical Data Communication) is an open de facto specification for exchanging genealogical data between different genealogy software.
A GEDCOM file is plain text (usually either UTF-8 or ASCII) containing genealogical information about individuals, and metadata linking these records together. Most genealogy software supports importing from and exporting to GEDCOM format. However, some genealogy software programs incorporate the use of proprietary extensions to the format, which are not always recognized by other genealogy programs.
