Concept in Definition ABC

Genealogy is that science that is dedicated to the study of the ancestors and the descendants of a family or family line.

Science that studies the ancestors and descendants of a family

Etymologically, the term genealogy comes from the Greek language, according to which genos means offspring, birth and logos science of him.

Thus, genealogy is nothing more than the science or study of the descent and ancestry of an individual and his participation in a larger group to which it is related by blood ties.

It is transmitted orally and is linked to someone's identity and origins

Family genealogy can be known through oral accounts that come from the nucleus of the family itself.

These are transmitted from generation to generation and it is the oldest relatives who are transmitted to the youngest so that they later spread them to their descendants and thus successively.

Genealogy is a very interesting science since it has to do with identity of a person, the knowledge of the same and also of the origins of it.

Thus, people interested in knowing their identity or where they come from, resort to genealogical studies that not only they reveal the ancestors if not also the ties with other family lines, their origins or provenance, etc.

Unexpected information is often discovered.

Although genealogy is not extremely important or central as a science today, this type of study was in times when lineage and inheritance they were matters of life and death.

The importance of genealogy in the transmission of power

Here we can mention the Middle Ages, a stage in the history of Humanity in which marital and political ties were extremely important for the destiny of a nation, for which the knowledge of them was vital.

In the Middle Ages, on the other hand, there were monarchical forms of government that they involved limited access and were organized around coldly calculated political relationships and inheritances.

Because precisely most of the monarchies establish that power is transmitted by direct family inheritance, it is say, from a father to a son, a brother, a grandson, among other alternatives, but always respecting an order and consanguinity.

In those monarchies, which are the majority, and which transmit power by blood, all monarchs come from the same family and so it is guaranteed that the crown is always within it and is held by a member of said family.

This also guarantees continuity and stability, so if the king abdicates or dies, his descendants, in hierarchical order, come to power.

If the monarch has not had children, the throne will fall to another direct relative such as a brother, nephew, cousin.

Historically, the line of succession has been based on primogeniture, that is, the eldest child is the direct successor, however, they have also existed some differences in this regard, for example some monarchies limited access to the crown to male children and excluded descendants female.

The well-known law Salic has precisely made this difference and prohibited access to the succession to the female daughters of the monarchs.

At present it is not in force in any of the monarchies, although the Spanish and British monarchies, for example, follow the so-called agnatic law that establishes that female daughters they will be behind their male siblings in the line of succession, while if there is no male descendant and there is only female, the largest woman among their sisters of her.

The few existing monarchies today continue to be managed by this system that, among other things, establishes that the successors to a throne are the first-born and then the following.

Genealogy tends to take as a metaphor graph from its structure to the structure of a tree and thus we find that there are genealogical trees that represent a very abundant and varied number of members.

This is so because the tree with its branches and ramifications symbolizes the extensions of the bonds that can exist within a family, as well as its complexity and abundance.

Study containing the details of family genealogy

On the other hand, the study that contains the components of a family is called genealogy.

Document that certifies the ancestry of a purebred animal

And it is also designated as genealogy that document in which the ancestry of a purebred animal is recorded, acting as a guarantee of the reliability of its origin.

Topics in Genealogy