Evening star., 1924-04-27
LOOKING UP FAMILY TREES
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN.

| the Smiths than about any other
| name, and next in number come the
histories of the White and Clark
| families
! These books. with their facts about
| births, deaths and marriages, char
| acteristics and careers, are really
popular. Attendants at the Library
of Congress are often asked what
Visitors are surprised at the answer
that after fiction, books on genealogy
| are most often called for.
Some amateur searchers come to
the Library with enthusiastic plans
| for proving relationship with q Saxon
king or medieval conqueror. One
Maryland congressman spent some
time at the library struggling with
! the problem Of tracing his line back
to King Solomon and thence on back
to Adam: Available records proved
| inadequate for this interesting piece
| of research. The congressman soon
! ran UP against some persistently
| missing links In his ancestral chain.
Other ambitious researchers have
had better luck. One expert who
tury used the government reference
books to settle many important
points.
| The difficulty of tracing line of
ancestry can scarcely be appreciated
by any one who has not attempted
from complete and family histories
are not always conveniently COM
pied in bound volumes and waiting
r,ta on li9rarg 3n y uiin shelves Genealogists
formation and they consult old
| Bibles. copies of land grants, tomb
| stone inscriptions, county tax records
| marriage registers, contracts, wills
diplomas, military rosters and pen
sion lists.
Now an Exact Science.
| Some states and towns and some
families have kept their records
much more accurately and complete
ly than others. Fires have DESTROYED
archives that can never be replaced
Mfschievous boys have changed dates
on old colonial tombstones. Romantic
chroniclers have tampered with fac,
In recording family exploits. 1t is
only in the past few decades tba,
genealogy has begun to be restricted
TO the rules of an exact science. The
| geneaiogist of today finds il neces.
sary to distinguish carefully between
rehaole and questionable sources and
TO- verify facts as he goes.
How complicated the matter OF
tracing genealogy may become If it is
searcher is readily apparent from the
mathematical facts alone. Each in
dividual has two parents, four grand.
parents, eight great-grandparents
and so on in progression. BY the time
the tenth generation of ancestors is
reached the complete collection of di-
rect forebears numbers 2,o46. Go
back about forty generations and the
number would be in excess of the
worlds population. Intermarriage and
multiple relationships explain the
| contradictory situation.
| According to Miss L. 8. Kimball, a
| genealogist, "the entire English
| speaking population of the world
consists of inbred descendants OF
Charlemagne through Isabel de Yer
mandois, who died in 1131, and who
| was descended from Charlemagne
| through six separate strains"
| If the meaning of this statement is
grasped it is not surprising to learn
| that among the persons whose line
1 age can be traced back to Charlie
magne are George Washington, Abra.
ham Lincoln, Grover Cleveland. Theo-
dore Roosevelt, John d. Rockefeller
Patrick Henry and Aaron Burr.
To claim descent from CharlemaEne