Genealogy

Ancient family tree that used to own noble families.

Genealogy (from Latin genealogia, genos in Greek, γενεά, genea: race, birth, generation, descent + logos λόγος, logia: science, study) also known as family history, is the study and follow-up of the ancestry and descent of a person or family. This is also the name given to the document that records said study expressed as a family tree. Genealogy is one of the Auxiliary Sciences of History and is worked on by a genealogist. The main goal in genealogy is to identify all the ancestors and descendants in a particular family tree and collect personal data about them. At a minimum, this data includes the name of the person and the date and/or place of birth, marriage and death.

Getting Started

The first thing when starting a genealogical investigation is to collect as much information as possible through two sources: oral and documentary. These records must include names of people, places and dates. In case the exact date is unknown, an approximation can be used.

Oral sources

Oral sources are those that are obtained verbally from another person, generally within the family nucleus, parents, grandparents, uncles, cousins, great-grandparents... These sources, since they are nourished by family tradition, are usually inaccurate in regarding dates of birth, baptisms, marriages and deaths, professions and places of origin. However, they offer a wealth of information that is often not documented, in addition to making it possible to determine the general family framework as a starting point for subsequent work.

It is best to consult with those older members within the extended family, any antecedent, however insignificant it may seem, can be useful. If you also live within a small community, you should check with the older people who live in or near it.

There are data that can be obtained exclusively from oral sources, either because there is no documentation, for example the father of an unrecognized natural child, or because the document has been destroyed during natural catastrophes, accidents or wars, for which reason It is always recommendable to validate the information with contemporary people and authors, without this implying disregarding the oral primary source.

It is advisable to always systematize the information obtained, creating personal files for each person being investigated, and always leaving clearly defined who was the person who reported said data. These records can be in both a physical and electronic format, generally using, in the latter case, commercial genealogical programs or software (proprietary software) or free, some of them of high quality.

Documentary sources

Documentary sources are those that can be found in any written medium (whether printed or handwritten). Those who investigate a genealogy go to these once they have exhausted all the resources that the intrafamilial memory can provide, both to corroborate the verbal information, as well as to expand the information and go back the search in time.

Family and private archives

They are the written documents that are in the possession of a family or community and are transferred from one generation to another. These documents are generally unpublished and are unique copies of valuable information and in themselves constitute an archive. The content of these files ranges from personal letters to legal documents, such as copies of files, domain titles, family notebooks, etc. In some cases, these files, because they are in the hands of individuals, are not kept under library standards that allow their preservation over time, either by handling or storage. For these reasons, their owners in some cases donate these documents to some serious institution, such as the national archives, to avoid their destruction or loss, while in other cases they are so hidden that they are only known until the owner of them dies and in the Most of the time they are in a state of almost complete deterioration that makes it impossible to decipher.

Civil Identification Registries

Depending on the country, records can be traced in the Civil Registry offices up to approximately 1871 (although in France they exist since the time of the French Revolution, and in many places in Spain there are local records in the respective town halls, some from the 40s of the 19th century). The data handled by civil registries are births, deaths, marriages, divorces, legal sentences, nationalizations.

Ecclesiastical Archives

If you want to consult by people on dates prior to the creation of civil registries, it is advisable to go to the parishes that correspond to the address of the people investigated. In them are books of baptisms, deaths and marriages. All Parishes created from the 16th century onwards have the obligation to keep these books.

In 1563 the Council of Trent officially established the obligation to register baptism, wedding and death certificates in the parish books. From that moment on, the sacramental books record the vital facts of each individual baptized in the Christian faith. In this way, parish registers preserve a fundamental part of the historical memory of some countries, mainly those colonized by Spaniards. These population records were made by the mayor or highest authority of the enclosure and then delivered to a representative of the parish. Before 1563, record-keeping was not required, so ancestral searches sometimes stop at this date. However, there are some parishes where it is possible to find books from the 13th century onwards.

It must be taken into account that, in many countries, the information contained in the parish books is transferred periodically to the Diocesan Archives, normally located in the seat of the bishopric to which the parish belongs. This is important, because many times in the parishes the original books have been lost for various reasons (fires, wars, thefts, poor conservation). However, a copy of the inscriptions exists in the diocesan archives. On the other hand, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has made agreements with some bishoprics to microfilm both diocesan archives and parish books, in some cases this information is available online in its database. However, in the case of microfilms that have not been digitized, this information appears incomplete, since the names of witnesses or sponsors do not appear, and sometimes the names of people have been mistyped, making it impossible to find them in your search engine, reason For this reason, in some cases, these records must be consulted directly in their documentation centers.

Notarial files

Other important sources of data are the Notarial Archives, which keep information and documents issued by the current notaries and the old notaries, in which wills, letters of dowry, commercial transactions, sales, leases, etc. can be found. and in general all those documents signed between individuals.

State Administration Archives

In almost all countries there is a Historical Documents Fund or Historical Archive in which the documents generated by the various public or state organizations during their management are deposited every certain number of years, that is, judicial files, military files, sheets of life of public officials, payroll of immigrants, censuses, etc. Donations of documents from individuals are also received in these archives, which may contain letters, employee payrolls and a series of unpublished documents.

Many antecedents that concern the Spanish-American countries are found in the General Archive of the Indies, an organization that received the documentation generated by the Spanish colonies until their independence.

In more decentralized countries, such as Mexico and Spain, states or communities maintain their own archives where notarial files and documents related to land and water issues are usually found.

Genealogical publications

It is also advisable to consult the publications periodically produced by the institutes, associations and academies of genealogy, history and geography of each country where the research is being carried out: there is always the possibility that a study has already been carried out on the family or surname to be investigated. In addition, some universities and foundations maintain guides to documentary sources.

Other research aids

We must highlight the existence of mailing lists, in which the disinterested collaboration of other people who make their own family tree is usually found.

These lists are generally monographic by geographical areas, although there are also some dedicated to a specific surname.

Wikimedia Genealogy Projects

Currently there are several initiatives to be incorporated into the projects of the Wikimedia Foundation. All of them comply with the condition of being free and with free access to add, consult and edit records or genealogical files and use open-source MediaWiki software - the same type that is used in other research projects. the Wikimedia Foundation.

• Rodovid, multilingual genealogical portal that allows to organize genealogical information in very complete tabs and automatically creating very large genealogical trees that contain several thousand people. Available in 20 languages.
• WeRelateavailable only in English.

Software

Lists genealogy by type of license.

Free and free

• Ancestris
• GRAMPS
• Webtrees
• Family Search