*(Jody Gray) We are born (or placed) into a family, a place, a culture, a period in history; that shapes our story and we are shaped by their stories.
Lineage is a unilineal descent group that can demonstrate their common descent from a known apical ancestor. In genealogy and creating a “Pedigree Chart” the direct “father-to-son” lineage is considered the only “pure” bloodline. I’ve been working on the Woodhull branch of my paternal grandmother’s lineage; by which I am related to the monarchies and nobility of Europe. However, the blood-lineage is not direct “father-to-son” but from the apical ancestor; instead, it weaves itself back and forth between the father and mother. So, I was looking for a “term” that applied to a lineage that was both paternal and maternal. Wikipedia has a study called the Anthropology of Kinship, where I found the definition of the terms patrilineal, matrilineal and cognatic kinship. (Anthropology is the study of various aspects of humans within past and present societies).
As usual, I use Google Search and Results and I get taken to unexpected places. One result that I found especially interesting is a blog called, The Human Evolution Blog -Nathan H. Lents. [https://thehumanevolutionblog.] The Meaning and Meaninglessness of Genealogy. “The fact is, if you go back far enough, each one of us has a shared ancestor with every other person on earth. Scientists estimate that the most recent common ancestor of all humans lived just a few thousand years ago… The last common ancestor is simply the one who is an ancestor to all of us, in addition to our many other ancestors who are not common to everyone… If you take a country like Scotland, Sweden, or Poland, you really don’t have to go back very far before you discover someone that is a shared common ancestor to the vast majority of living citizens… In fact, everyone on earth with any trace of European ancestry probably has a shared ancestor who lived in the early Middle Ages. Charlemagne has been proposed as a possible candidate (he’s my 37th great-grandfather and basically he’s the reason I’m related to all the monarchs of England, France and Scotland).”
Here’s the tricky part (frustrating to those looking for the “pure” blood-lineage): Family trees aren’t correct anyway… Inferences have to be made when you are dealing with records that are hundreds of years old… Records were frequently lost, recreated, or even forged… Many families had secrets covered up with lies. Troubles with the law or social scandal often led families to relocate, change names, and invent a past… Blood type testing revealed that around 10% of the children born in England in the 1940s could not have been the biological offspring of their fathers… If your family tree goes back a few generations, it is almost certain to contain an error or two… So why are family trees needed to appreciate our forebears? Learning about the struggles and joys of generations past can resonate with all of us regardless of who is descended from whom.
Our experience is about culture, not genes… putting so much stock in our genealogy is that this over-emphasizes genetic relationships over social and cultural history. We draw our identity from our experiences and we are deeply imprinted by the cultural themes of our society and the parents that raised us, regardless of where we got our chromosomes…
The notion of “genetic stock” is spurious anyway. What sense does it make that I am called German because some ancestors, five or more generations back, emigrated from a region of the world that now called Germany. Germany wasn’t a single unified country at that time, nor was there a sole German culture.
Most Italian Americans are the descendants of immigrants that came to the US long before Italy was a unified country… They had different foods, customs, traditions, and even spoke different dialects of the Italian language. Only when they arrived in America did they establish a common culture in order to find solidarity in a country with deep ethnic and nationalist divisions. This common Italian American culture is quite distinct from the parent Italian cultures.
The small bands of Jews that left the Levant mostly after 1000 AD, made settlements throughout Africa, Europe, and Asia. During nearly all of that time, Jewish law and custom strictly forbade intermarriage. A Jew that married a non-Jew would be shunned and forced to leave the community. Nevertheless, genetic testing has revealed that Jews throughout the world have, to varying degrees, the distinct genetic fingerprints of their non-Jewish neighbors… That genetics sometimes tells a different story doesn’t undermine that identity; it shows that genetics is meaningless, or nearly so, for establishing who can lay claim to a culture. Family ties are about shared culture, not genes…
Genealogy is often presented as a celebration of modern cultural diversity, particularly in the United States. If that were so, why does genealogy value genetics over cultural connections? Culture does or should encompass all individuals, regardless of their race or ancestry, but the implicit assumption in genealogy is that only those of the precise genetic stock are entitled to claim the patrimony. That would seem to promote racial and ethnic divisions, rather than diversity…
“What is the point of researching our precise ancestry at all?” The answer seems to be that a connection to our recent ancestors is what compels us to study our genealogy. It is their stories that fascinate us, not their genetic stock… something unique to hang our hats on, a story that belongs solely to our particular family…
Some uncomfortable realities about genealogy… until quite recently, only prominent families left much of a paper trail. The poor masses had their children in their homes unannounced in local papers. This means that Europeans and white North Americans will have an easier time finding at least some records for parts of their family tree… Children and adults who are raised by adoptive families already have a higher likelihood of feeling that they don’t quite fit in… It could even drive them toward a search for their biological families that may or may not prove fruitful and that may or may not result in healthy experiences for them…
We all search for connection to our roots, our past, and things we can take pride in. The flip side is that we may find things that we may feel shame for, a relative that committed heinous acts or was otherwise the subject of scandal. Upon reflection, neither of those reactions really makes sense to me. Are we guilty of the “sins of our fathers”? Can we take credit for their successes? If your great-great-great-grandmother was a suffragette and fought alongside Susan B. Anthony, that is her heroism to take pride in, not yours…
(The author gives an example from an episode of “Genealogy roadshow”) a woman seeking to learn if she was related to Jesse James (a man who killed many innocent civilians even after the Civil War through terrorism, lynchings, and large-scale massacres) -who was tremendously happy to learn that she was.. The genealogist was an African American woman…
(the author) I have enjoyed keeping up with the efforts of my relatives to trace our family tree. I have pictures on my bedroom wall of ancestors that I’ve never met, but whose story I tell. It’s natural and alluring to dive into the stories of our past. I do not feel that anyone should be made to feel guilty for enjoying their genealogy… Our history is very important to us and has shaped us in innumerable, unknowable ways. It is vial that we, as a people, know our history… There were many heroes and villains in ages past… There are also countless ordinary folks, now nameless, that did nothing more than struggle to get by and provide for their families. The mundane struggles of our forebears gave us a future… The stories are important and they belong to us all. Perhaps our particular ancestry should not be called a family tree, because it is not an independent structure with its own unique roots. It is rather just one branch, not all that different from the others, on the larger tree of the one human family. (Jody Gray) For me, researching ancestors and human history, helps me to understand “where things that exist today, e.g. racism, nationalism, religious persecution, etc. come from. (see, my comment, below, “we made it all up”)... I’m not interested in creating any “Pedigree Charts”... instead, I’m enjoying using of my cognate blood-lineage to the monarchs and nobility of Europe to provide a more human connection to history and our human evolution as different societies… When it comes to “pride” of ancestry, mine is grounded in the relatives I grew up with; more specifically, farm folks. Some cared about their reputation and status in the community; others, moved away to get away (some farther away than others) from those judgments… And, for me, to help me understand why (in some ways) I've felt like I don't belong, in my own family, in my community, in my society?
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*Origins, genealogical trees, lineage
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Nature of hero cult. Greek hero-cults were distinct from the clan-based ancestor worship from which they developed, in that as the city evolved, they became a civic rather than familiar affair, and in many cases none of the worshipers traced their descent back to the hero any longer -the earliest written reference to hero-cult is attributed to Dracon, the Athenian lawgiver of the late 7th century BC, who prescribed that gods and local heroes should both be honored according to ancestral custom… The written sources emphasize the importance of heroes’ tombs and the sanctuary, where chthonic rites (offering sacrifices to deity) appeased their spirits and induced them to continue to favor the people who looked to them as founders, of whom founding myths (established the special relationship between a deity and local people, who traced their origins from a hero and authenticated their ancestral rights through the founding myth - In the Greek view, the mythic past had deep roots in historic times, its legends treated as facts, its heroic protagonists seen as links between the “age of origins” and the moral, everyday world that succeeded it… not only to foundations or charter myths and genealogical trees [thus supporting family or territorial claims] but also to personal moral choices) of a ritual were related.
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*Pedigree chart [https://en.wikipedia.] is a diagram that shows the occurrence and appearance or phenotypes or a particular gene or organism and its ancestors from one generation to the next, most commonly humans, show dogs, and race horses. In human use. In England and Wales pedigrees are officially recorded in the College of Arms, which has records going back to the Middle Ages, including pedigrees collected during roving inquiries by its heralds during the 16th and 17th centuries. The purpose of these heraldic visitations was to register and regulate the use of coats of arms. Those who claimed the right to bear arms had to provide proof either of a grant of arms to them by the College, or of descent to an ancestor entitled to arms. It was for this reason that the pedigrees were recorded by the visitations. Pedigrees continue to be registered at the College of Arms and kept up to date on a voluntary basis but they are not accessible to the general public without payment of a fee.
More visible, therefore, are the pedigrees recorded in published works, such as Burke’s Peerage and Burke’s Landed Gentry in the United Kingdom and, in continental Europe by the Almanach de Gotha.
A pedigree may be used to establish the probability of a child having a particular disorder or condition. It may be used to discover where the genes in question are located (x, y, or autosome chromosome), and to determine whether a trait is dominant or recessive. When a pedigree shows a condition appearing in a 50:50 ratio between men and women it is considered autosomal. When the condition predominantly affects males in the pedigree it is considered x-linked.
Some examples of Dominant traits include: Baldness (male), astigmatism (blurred vision, in Europe and Asia it affects 30 and 60% of adults), and dwarfism. Some examples of Recessive traits include: small eyes, little body hair, and tall stature.
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*Lineage (anthropology) [https://en.wikipedia.] is a unilineal descent group that can demonstrate their common descent from a known apical ancestor. Unilineal lineages can be matrilineal or patrilineal, depending on whether they are traced through mothers or fathers, respectively. (definition) uni-lineality: a system of determining descent groups in which one belongs to one’s father’s or mother’s line, whereby one’s descent is traced either exclusively through male ancestors (patriline), or exclusively through female ancestors (matriline). (definition) apical ancestor: (the last) common ancestor of an entire group from whom a lineage or clan may trace its descent.
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*Matrilineal [https://en.wikipedia.] describes kin (relatives) “on the mother’s side”. To belong to the same descent group as the mother.
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*Patrilineality [https://en.wikipedia.], also known as the male line, the spear side, or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual’s family membership derives from and is recorded through his or her father’s lineage. It generally involves the inheritance of property, rights, names, or titles by persons related through male kin. A patriline (“father line”) is a person’s father, and additional ancestors, as traced only through males. In the Bible. In the Bible the family membership and tribe membership is through the fathers, for example a person will be a Jew if his father is a Jew. And all the tribes are called Israelites because their father is Israel (Jacob). Because of this they are called the “chosen people” (not the “chosen religion”) by virtue of being “sons of Israel”, that is, the biological male descendants of Israel, their “father” in the sense of lineal male ancestor.
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*Cognatic kinship [https://en.wikipedia.] is a mode of descent calculated from an ancestor or ancestress counted through any combination of male and female links, or a system of bilateral kinship where relations are traced through both a father and mother. Such relatives may be known as cognates.
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*Bilateral descent [https://en.wikipedia.] is a system of family lineage in which the relatives on the mother’s side and father’s side are equally important for emotional ties or for transfer of property or wealth. It is a family arrangement where descent and inheritance are passed equally through both parents. Families who use this system trace descent through both parents simultaneously and recognize multiple ancestors, but unlike with cognatic descent it is not used to form descent groups. (allows individuals to rely on two sets of families dispersed over a wide area).
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*Ambilineality [https://en.wikipedia.] is a system containing both unilineal descent groups -i.e. Both patrilineal and matrilineal groups - in which one belongs to one’s father’s and/or mother’s descent group (lineage). In traditional ambilineal cultures the individual has the option of choosing their own lineage.
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*Anthropology [https://en.wikipedia.] is the study of various aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology and cultural anthropology study the norms and values of societies. Linguistic anthropology studies how language affects social life. Biological or physical anthropology studies the biological development of humans. Archaeology, which studies past human cultures through investigation of physical evidence, is thought of as a branch of anthropology in the United States, while in Europe, it is viewed as a discipline in its own right, or grouped under other related disciplines such as history.
*Contemporary society views the family as a haven from the world…
*(Jody Gray): (my quote) “we made it all up” - “we”, human beings: philosophers, officials that govern people, lawmakers (both civil and religious), theorists… presented us with “good and bad” (morals) with which we base our ideologies and romanticism (fantasy, I call “in a perfect world” -the perfect man, mother, etc)... the section, below, pertains to Family: Contemporary society generally views the family as a haven from the world, supplying absolute fulfillment. Zinn and Eitzen discuss the image of the "family as haven [...] a place of intimacy, love and trust where individuals may escape the competition of dehumanizing forces in modern society". I think there’s trouble brewing in those ideological words; people feel not only burdened by them but also develop expectations and feelings of entitlement… well, we all know what that can lead to… “justification” of all sorts of bad feelings and actions… Most importantly, these are beliefs are not facts, and people should not be harmed by another person's beliefs… I include the following section, without personal input, hoping only that it will might lead to better understanding of “where things come from” and how “we made it all up”... hopefully, leading to a kinder, more compassionate view…
*Family Kinship terminology. [https://en.wikipedia.] (part of a wikipedia series on the Anthropology of kinship) American anthropologist Lewis H. Morgan published Ancient Society in 1877 based on his theory of the three stages of human progress from Savagery through Barbarism to Civilization. Morgan's book was the "inspiration for Friedrich Engels' book" The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State published in 1884.
Engels expanded Morgan's hypothesis that economic factors caused the transformation of primitive community into a class-divided society. Engels' theory of resource control, and later that of Karl Marx, was used to explain the cause and effect of change in family structure and function. The popularity of this theory was largely unmatched until the 1980s, when other sociological theories, most notably structural functionalism, gained acceptance.
Contemporary society generally views the family as a haven from the world, supplying absolute fulfillment. Zinn and Eitzen discuss the image of the "family as haven [...] a place of intimacy, love and trust where individuals may escape the competition of dehumanizing forces in modern society". During industrialization, "the family as a repository of warmth and tenderness (embodied by the mother) stands in opposition to the competitive and aggressive world of commerce (embodied by the father). The family's task was to protect against the outside world." However, Zinn and Eitzen note, "The protective image of the family has waned in recent years as the ideals of family fulfillment have taken shape. Today, the family is more compensatory than protective. It supplies what is vitally needed but missing in other social arrangements."
"The popular wisdom", according to Zinn and Eitzen, sees the family structures of the past as superior to those today, and families as more stable and happier at a time when they did not have to contend with problems such as illegitimate children and divorce. They respond to this, saying, "there is no golden age of the family gleaming at us in the far back historical past." "Desertion by spouses, illegitimate children, and other conditions that are considered characteristics of modern times existed in the past as well."
Others argue that whether or not one views the family as "declining" depends on one's definition of "family". "Married couples have dropped below half of all American households. This drop is shocking from traditional forms of the family system. Only a fifth of households were following traditional ways of having married couples raising a family together." In the Western World, marriages are no longer arranged for economic, social or political gain, and children are no longer expected to contribute to family income. Instead, people choose mates based on love. This increased role of love indicates a societal shift toward favoring emotional fulfilment and relationships within a family, and this shift necessarily weakens the institution of the family.
Margaret Mead considers the family as a main safeguard to continuing human progress. Observing, "Human beings have learned, laboriously, to be human", she adds: "we hold our present form of humanity on trust, [and] it is possible to lose it" ... "It is not without significance that the most successful large-scale abrogations of the family have occurred not among simple savages, living close to the subsistence edge, but among great nations and strong empires, the resources of which were ample, the populations huge, and the power almost unlimited"
Many countries (particularly Western) have, in recent years, changed their family laws in order to accommodate diverse family models. For instance, in the United Kingdom, in Scotland, the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006 provides cohabitants with some limited rights. In 2010, Ireland enacted the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010. There have also been moves at an international level, most notably, the Council of Europe European Convention on the Legal Status of Children Born out of Wedlock which came into force in 1978. Countries which ratify it must ensure that children born outside marriage are provided with legal rights as stipulated in the text of this Convention. The Convention was ratified by the UK in 1981 and by Ireland in 1988.
Oedipal family model and fascism. The model, common in the western societies, of the family triangle, husband-wife-children isolated from the outside, is also called the oedipal model of the family, and it is a form of patriarchal family. Many philosophers and psychiatrists have analyzed such a model. In such a family, they argue, the young develop in a perverse relationship, wherein they learn to love the same person who beats and oppresses them. They believe that young children grow up and develop loving a person who is oppressing them physically or mentally, and that these children are not taught in a way that will raise affectionate children. Such philosophers claim that the family therefore constitutes the first cell of the fascist society, as the children will carry this attitude of love for oppressive figures in their adult life. They claim that fathers torment their sons. Deleuze and Guattari, in their analysis of the dynamics at work within a family, "track down all varieties of fascism, from the enormous ones that surround and crush us to the petty ones that constitute the tyrannical bitterness of our everyday lives".
As it has been explained by Deleuze, Guattari and Foucault, as well as other philosophers and psychiatrists such as Laing and Reich, the patriarchal-family conceived in the West tradition serves the purpose of perpetuating a propertarian and authoritarian society. The child grows according to the oedipal model, which is typical of the structure of capitalist societies, and he becomes in turn owner of submissive children and protector of the woman.
As the young undergoes physical and psychological repression from someone for whom they develop love, they develop a loving attitude towards authority figures. They will bring such attitude in their adult life, when they will desire social repression and will form docile subjects for society. Michel Foucault, in his systematic study of sexuality, argued that rather than being merely repressed, the desires of the individual are efficiently mobilized and used, to control the individual, alter interpersonal relationships and control the masses. Foucault believed organized religion, through moral prohibitions, and economic powers, through advertising, make use of unconscious sex drives. Dominating desire, they dominate individuals…
Domestic violence…
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*Genealogy Reference Books, available online.
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https://books. A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. By John Burke, Esq.
http://www.ebooksread Joseph Foster, The Royal Lineage of Our Noble and Gentle Families. Read the ebook online… Free ebook download…
https://books. Americans of Royal Descent: A Collection of Genealogies of American Families Whose Lineage is Traced to the Legitimate Issue of Kings. pub. 1891.
https://familysearch. *Family Search, same book.
https://books. *Debrett’s Baronetage of England. Alphabetical Lists… (pg iii) Preface. The title of Baronet is an hereditary dignity, intermediate in rank between Peerage and Knighthood. The Order was founded by King James the First in 1611, and owes its origin to the laudable anxiety of that monarch for the settlement and civilization of Ireland.
https://archive.org *Betham, The Rev. William, The Baronetage of England of The History of English Baronets and such Baronets of Scotland as are of English Families, with Genealogical Tables and Engravings of their Armorial Bearings, 1801-5.
*appears that FamilySearch also has the book.
https://familysearch. Lineage book, National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
http://search.ancestry. U.S, Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970.
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Related:
*BP: Genetics, Trait Inheritance. *Nature and nurture. http://historicalandmisc. * 
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