Books about Family Trees

I recently picked up a couple of books about family trees. These books were not offering tips and advice as many of the others in my collection do, but were instead about the personal genealogies of the authors. Neither of the books are particularly recent, but having read both I wanted to write a couple of quick reviews.

The first book is Mad Dogs and Englishmen: An Expedition Round My Family by the famous explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes. Actually, to give him his proper name, Sir Ranulph Twistelton-Wykham-Fiennes. My first observation of this book is that I'm not sure how much genealogical research was involved. The author quite clearly knew much of his family history prior to beginning writing. The landed classes often have very detailed and extensive family trees, as much to do with marrying into a suitable family as taking pride in the achievements of ancestors.

This is by no means a criticism of the book, the purpose of which is to tell the stories of the author's ancestors. This he does extremely well. It is remarkable how many of history's important events Sir Ranulph's ancestors have been witness to. The book is really about history rather than genealogy, it just so happens that all of the characters share a common link. To give you some idea of the content of the family tree being discusses, those characters go all the way back to Charlemagne in the ninth century.

I really enjoyed this book. It shows just how interesting family trees, and history in general, can be.

The second book I read, whilst entertaining, was not as enjoyable as the previous. It is My Family and Other Strangers: Adventures in Family History by Jeremy Hardy. This book is much more about the ins and outs of conducting family history research, and that ironically is why I didn't enjoy it as much. Jeremy Hardy is a comedian by profession, and I felt that he didn't treat the subject with the respect it deserves. Throughout the book his attitude is one of condescension, and he seems to view the research as a chore. I'm not being precious about this, he's got every right to find genealogy less interesting than I do, but it doesn't make for a particularly good book about family history.

Perhaps I'm being a little unfair, as the book is well written, and the journey to discover the author's past does make for a good narrative. I just wish he would have enjoyed that journey a bit more.

Extending Your Family Tree

When you first start your genealogical research your family tree will naturally be very limited. It will most likely include only brothers and sisters, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. As you carry out your research your family tree will grow, or even blossom! As a result, it is important to be able to keep track of all of the links between ancestors.

Your genealogical direct line extends with every past generation that you discover. Your parents and grandparents are simple enough in the way that they are displayed in your family tree, but each successive generation has the prefix "great" added to it. As you research your ancestry you might discover your great-great-great-great-great grandfather. This is obviously quite a cumbersome way of recording an ancestor, and so it is common to write great (x5) grandfather. 

If you are anything like me your main interest will be trying to find ancestors going back as far as possible. I started my ancestry research by working backwards from my father, and then my mother. It was only when I started to struggle to discover a further generation that I turned my attention towards extended family members, such as my direct ancestors' brothers and sisters. When you are using pay to view websites such as Scotland's People it can be very expensive to research these extended family members. It is much more efficient to use subscription websites, or to spend a day at the Scotland's People Centre or the National Archives.

When it comes to cousins there is a slightly confusing method of recording relations. It is well known that the children of your aunts and uncles are your first cousins. Your child, and your first cousin's child, are second cousins to each other. However, your first cousin's child is your first cousin once removed. Your first cousin's grandchild would be your first cousin twice removed, etc. When describing the cousins of your direct ancestors it is common practise to write, for example, "great-grandfather's second cousin."

Marriages and remarriages due to bereavement can add a further complication. It is quite common to find ancestors with step-siblings or half-siblings due to their parents remarrying. One thing to be wary of is that nineteenth century census returns often list children in this situation as a son-in-law or daughter-in-law. This simply means step-son or step-daughter.

When all of these factors are taken into account it can be seen that extending your family tree can be a complicated business, but I find that that is what makes it so interesting.