The Washington herald., 1915-08-08
ey Nico11, New York Society
Up Genea1ogy for Blue and
White Costume in French War
Zone and Sticks at It.

70 know IL eno knew OF any cases OF I'M.
becility, degeneracy or prediction to-
ward crime.
It certainly was a question to arouse
any woman into action. Mrs. Nicoll was
never more astounded in her life. The
very absurdity of his question started her
to thinking of what her real Inheritance
was from her ancestors. and almost be-
fore she knew 1t she was making little in
vestigations of her own.
She went to Holland to look up one
branch Of her family, and to Belgium to
trace another. She has spent months on
the trail of the early Nicolls in England
and Scotland, and has even followed faint
clews to Switzerland and Germany.
There are two kinds of genealogy
building, she says. lone Is much more
easy, much less interesting and much
more commonly used than the other. That
Is what is known as the descent chart.
when people start out to trace their
family tree they set out with John Smith
and they trace themselves back to John
Smith by tracing John Smiths family
down to the present day. They establish
the fact that they are descended from
John Smith, but they overlook the equal
ly potent fact that they are descended
from thousands Of other persons besides.
John Smith isn't their only ancestor, but
he is in most cases the only ancestor they
take the time to trouble about.
II believe in heredity. As said was
most anxious to find out what my chill
dren's Inheritance actually was. 1t did
not seem to me of any particular conse-
Quence that my son and daughter were
descended from John Nicoll, who was
buried in Islip in 1647, or from one of his
more remote forebears. wanted to know
all there was to know, so I chose the
ascending chart"
The ascending chart, 1t seems. goes to
work in Just the opposite way. Instead
Of proving that he is descended from John
Smith a man sets to work to find out who
were all his ancestors all the way back.
step by step. It shows all the families.
all the nationalities, all the lines Of in
heritance. 1t finds things that are very
good and things that are very bad.
"Genealogy has fastened itself upon
me SO that can't get away from it,"
Mrs. Nicoll continues. II bore my family
nearly to extinction with 1t. They call 1t
bore-ology. And you know genealogy
seeking is simply dreadful In CONVERSE
ton. One is always talking about ones
own family, when the people one is with
are dying to talk about their own.
ut really is not hard to become a gene
alogist and I would recommend 1t most
warmly as q hobby for those who have q
little spare time on their hands. began
with the things I could reach first, the
people who were alive, the recent records
that have been kept, the authenticated
traditions. / found out all that I could
find out about my parents and grand
parents. When 1 got back to my great
grandparents found it was necessary to
do detective work. I struck a mystery
right away.
II got as far as Henry Young. who was
q self-made man. Henry Young had
lived for some years apart from his wife.
and so he was always held in deep dis
grace and never mentioned. In order to
trace his ancestry and that of his wife
I had to do my first real sleuth work. I
never found that he had done anything
disgraceful except live away from his
wife. 1 consulted first the archives. Then
looked up contemporary records Of
transfer Of property in New York state.
Then I got to wills and went to Troy
and puzzled out inscriptions in an old
graveyard there.
IT have knelt in damp churchyards till
I have been a-shiver with the cold. I
have scrubbed the moss off ancient stones
and fairly secured them in order to read
the inscriptions better. have taken i'm
pressions of them with chalk. There's
not one thing don't know about -eading
epitaphs. 1t is great fun.
Through will in an old American
line Of descent found that have an In
dian ancestor. There was a dispute over
a legacy, and 1t Is recorded that my an
cestors claimed 1t on account Of their d.
rect line Of descent / looked up the In
dian line and found it authenticated.
when / was building up my tree In
England I made a record for quick work
one day In London in Somerset House,
where old records are kept. You can't
imagine how intricate a performance IL
Is to get anything out OF old documents
at Somerset House.
"Of course the books are very old and
absolutely irreplaceable. So the greatest
amount Of care is taken and the greatest
amount Of red tape is thought necessary.
You have to get permits from an er dless
line Of officials, and after this you get q
searcher. The searcher accompanies you
to a room where your permit authorizes
you to look up your documents In an in
dex.
After you nnd them you have to have
another long series Of papers in order to
get the books themselves. And then you
discover that the books are of course in
Latin. A translator Is necessary, and
another long list of permits must be OBJ
tanned from q different set Of officials.
The searcher stays with yor sll the time.
1T was in a terrible hurry. and Of
fered the people anything on earth II
they would only set aside some Of their
long drawn out formalities Of permits and
officials and let me get At the documents
quickly. But you can imagine how en-
tirely immovable those English were! I
got my information In three hours,
though, and do feel that that sets q rec
ord for research work at Somerset
House.
''Of course in this work there 10 COED
deal Of exchange possible. You run
across people who havs the whole Of .
certain line. They probably want 10
know something that you can tell them
and probably have something that you
want to know. II - impossible to fol-
low ont your own ancestry vssy far