GENEALOGY (Lat. genealogia, Gk. yeyeaXo yta, pedigree, from -yepeaX6-yor, gcnealogos, one who draws up a pedigree, from 'wed, genea, fam ily + account, from Xe-yar, Logan, to say). The science whereby the history of the origin and descent of a family or race may be ascertained. In recent years there has been a growing interest, especially in the United States, in matters pertaining to genealogical research, and although in itself it is not of sufficient im portance to rank as an independent science, it forms a very important part of history. For the popular mind it has but small attraction, its literature being for the most part shut up in the archives of historical libraries, but that natural instinct which prompts one to love the place of his birth and the chief circumstances in the lives of his progenitors is gradually attracting the attention of the intelligent public.
From the earliest times, genealogy has always formed the basis of all true history. In the ancient records of Assyria, Egypt, and Arabia, the lineage of an individual was the thread upon which were strung the stirring events of cen turies, and so important a place did its preserva tion occupy among the Jewish people that it was established as a positive obligation upon every Levite of the Temple. Nor was this genealogical
form of history peculiar to Semitic races. The first Greek records were those of ancestry. The progress of civilization in States, and in par ticular the institution of corporations and guilds in the towns, afforded a wider scope for gene alogy. But the absence of criticism and the desire to flatter the great were the causes of introducing the most ridiculous fables into gene alogy. Ancestors were fabricated in the most impudently false manner, and families carried back in an unbroken line, not only to the age of Charlemagne, but even, in many cases, to the heroes of the Trojan War. The fact, however, is, that scarcely any family, however distin guished, can trace its ancestors even to the mid dle of the eleventh century.