Genealogy Defined
What is genealogy?
Genealogy is the art of trying to find out who your relatives were, and bring them together in a family tree. It's your personal heritage meeting your family history.
What is a genealogist?
A Genealogist is professional who would undertake genealogy and start investigating family history on behalf of another person or organization.
What does a genealogist do?
Genealogists spend a lot of time in archives, libraries, museums and institutions uncovering the past by undertaking detailed research in official sources such as certificates, census returns, wills and probate documents and using the information they gather from this research to build a family tree.
Why would I need genealogists?
People need genealogists for all sorts of reasons. Either to get started and save a lot of time or to get a family tree that they can show off to other people or they've got stuck in their research. They've reached the brick wall they can not break down and need the professional expert help to start looking at more difficult or more sophisticated documents.
How long has genealogy been around?
Genealogy dates back to the time of the Normal Conquest when it was effectively established by the knights in aristocracy, who founded their empire at the expense of the Anglo Saxons. Since then, there has been an attempt to find links to these ancient people year after year through written records.
Is genealogy a science?
Is genealogy a science? I would say probably not. Although you do employ certain scientific techniques within genealogy. It's a history, and it's the pursuit of the past. It's not scientific in the sense that a science or a scientist would set an experiment to try to prove a theory. We're actually investigating the past through a detail process of research. So, it's not really a science, but it does employ some scientific techniques.
