Genealogy
Have you ever wondered who you could be related to? If so, keep on reading...
What is Genealogy?
Pronounced: [jee-nee-ol-uh-jee]
The Oxford Learner's Dictionaries has defined genealogy as: 'the study of family history, including the study of who the ancestors of a particualr person were.'
More simply, this means that genealogy is the study, or research, of a family's history. This research includes everyone in the family (brothers, sisters, great-cousins, great-great-great grandparents) and includes interesting facts such as: when and where each person was born, their jobs, and hobbies.
Stars' Unlikely Family Trees
Megan Markle and Sir Winston Churchill
Although born in different continents, it has been discovered that the Duchess of Sussex and the war time Prime Minister are in fact related!
Genealogists (researchers) at MyHeritage.com have discovered that Megan Markle, who was born in Los Angeles, and Sir Winston Churchill, who was born in Oxford, are in fact sixth cousins, five times removed. It is believed that the connection comes from Zachariah Howe, who came from a British family of American settlers that orignated from Essex.
Read more about Winston Churchill here: https://www.theschoolrun.com/homework-help/winston-churchill
Benedict Cumberbacth and King Richard III
It is estimated that in the UK alone there are 17 million people related to King Richard III. However actor Benedict Cumberbatch is more closely related than most.
Leading Historian and genealogist Kevin Schürer at the University of Leicester was tasked with finding modern-day relatives of Richard III when his remains (from 1485) were discovered in a car park in Leicester.
In this search he discovered that the Oscar-nominated actor and the King are second cousins, 16 times removed. Due to this, Cumberbacth was chosen to read a poem at King Richard's reburial.
Read more about King Richard III here: https://www.historyhit.com/facts-about-king-richard-iii/
Prince Charles and...Dracula?
So, Prince Charles (the heir of the British throne) isn't really related to Dracula but he is in fact related to Vlad the Impaler - who inspired Bram Stoker's novel Dracula.
The connection comes as Charles' great-grandmother, Mary of Teck, was believed to have descended from two of Vlad's sons.
Vlad the Impaler was best known for the grusome way he killed his enemies.
You can read more about Vlad the Impaler, however, please ask an adult before you do: https://study.com/academy/lesson/vlad-the-impaler-history-inspiration-of-dracula.html
How do I research my own family tree?
Starting to research your own family tree can be difficult. However if you follow these few simple steps, it can help you on the path to success!
1) The first step you need to take is to create a family tree of your relatives that you know. At this early stage, you just need to be writing down what you know about your relatives. Include as much information as possible - names, births, deaths, jobs and hobbies. The more information the better! See to the left for an example.
2) Now it's time to talk to your relatives. The best resource you have are your relative's memories, especially older relatives. They may have photographs, certificates...anything that can help you gain a greater knowledge of your family - but please be careful with anything you handle! It's also extremely important to remember that not everyone wants to talk about their family or discuss what they know. It's vital that you remain respectful of their wishes and don't force the conversation. There will be another way to find out this information, it just may be a little harder!
3) Now the difficult part begins. By now you should have as much information from your family as you can gather. It's now down to you to start researching your family history using records that you can find on the internet. The best way to start is by trying to fill in any gaps that you may have on your family tree.
For example, you may know that a relative in your family was married but you don't know who to. Using all of the information you know about your other family members (e.g. children, siblings, partents) you may be able to find the correct record which shows the unknown partner.
See below for the annotated version of a record. This should give you a good indication of how to use records to your advantage.
How do records help me find different relatives?
Records can seem endless if you don't know what you're looking for. Use this quick quide to your left to keep you on the right path!
Useful Websites
Free BMD is useful for looking up birth, death and marriage records.
Roots is a useful website to find all different types of information.
There are many websites that you can use to help research your family tree, however you need to pay to use their service. If this is something you may be interested in, please ask an adult first and never sign up to anything without telling an adult!
There are some common, 'must-know' terms that are used in the study of geneology. Use this jargon buster to become familliar with them!
Census
The UK census is a count of all the people in the United Kingdom on one particular day and is taken every ten years. The census is very useful tool when researching your family tree as it details who lives in each household, ages, jobs and places of birth.
Family Tree
A family tree is a diagram which shows the relationship between in several generations of the same family. A family tree allows you to clearly see how different people are related in your family. See above for a blank family tree to start your own geneaology journey!
Ancestor
An ancestor is a person in your family who lived a long time ago.
Abbreviation
Simply, an abbreviation is a shortended form of a word or phrase.
But how does this link to genealogy?
A lot of records that you will need to look at to research your family tree only a small amount of writing space. This means people used abbrievations for common words in order to save space. For example:
appr. = Born
bet. = Between
liv. = Living
Descendant
A descendant is a person who comes down in a line from another person. An example of this is that you are a descendant of your parents. Your parents are descendants of your grandparents.
Records
Records (usually documents) are the most useful way to research your family tree. There are many different types of records and they contain all different types of information. For example:
1) Birth records
2) Land records
3) Church records
4) Census
Heir
A heir is a person who inherits property after the death of its owner. You may have heard of 'an heir to the throne' when looking at the British Monarchy!
Ancestry
Ancestry is the whole of all of your ancestors as far back as they can be traced.
Watch as Danny Dyer finds out he is related to King Edward III!
Still not sure? Watch this clip of the BBC's 'Who Do You Think You Are?'
This shows that we never know what's in our History, unless we look!