Genealogy is the path to knowledge of the genus

Without knowledge of the past, there is no path to the future. A well-known and popular term that is used in modern literature - genealogy - is the compilation of the ancestral tree and the search for its ancestors. In fact, everything is not so simple. Genealogy is a doctrine with its own laws and postulates, which are quite complex for the average person's consciousness.

Some terminology

Genealogy is an auxiliary historical discipline, which sets a goal - the study of the origin of genera and the mutual ties between them. Compiling the ancestral history of your family is also one of the tasks of genealogy. There is a word from the Greek genealogia, which is formed by the words "birth", "gender" and "word". Genealogy is not only a narrowly structured compilation of the ancestral tree, but an analysis of the historical and cultural development of any group.

Tasks and subject

The tasks of genealogy as a science are the analysis of the place and significance of one or another kind in history, the definition of the cultural environment of groups of people in the historical period, the identification of genetically fixed patterns, the solution of other anthropological, demographic and ethnographic tasks. The subject of studying the science of genealogy - the history of individual families and clans (including princely and boyar).

A bit of history

The history of practical genealogy in Russia begins in the XI century with genealogies preserved in the annals. These genealogies contained mainly information about the families of boyars and servants, who for many generations served with them. Since the XVI century, the maintenance of pedigrees becomes systematic, with only the descendants of the masculine gender being maintained. Later in the pedigrees are introduced and the wife as heirs of allotments and property on a par with children. Peter the First established the Heraldmasters office, which recorded and conducted genealogical documents of the origin of the families of the nobility. It is from this time that the genealogy acquires value as an indicator of the privilege of the genus.

The science of genealogy of the XIX-XX centuries

If we consider the topic of the article as a scientific discipline, it is worth remembering the scientists to whom it owes its development. At the end of the XIX and the beginning of the XX century, genealogy is a chronicle, represented by the works of Theophanes Prokopovich, "Pedigree painting of the Grand Dukes and Kings of Russia" (1719), books by MM Shcherbatov, AE Knyazev and others. Since 1797 the General Hermitage has been published, and in 1855 the edition of Prince PV Dolgoruky "The Russian Genealogical Book" is published, and the books of AB Lobanov-Rostovsky and VV Rummel supplement the information in this edition. After the 1917 revolution, genealogy in Russia is consigned to oblivion, and only in the late 90s of the last century interest in genealogy begins to grow.

DNA Genealogy

Molecular genetics, as genealogy is still called today, based on the analysis of the structure of DNA, in the broadest sense deals with the study and analysis of the dynamics of the accumulation of mutations in human DNA. The term "DNA genealogy" became widespread in 1992 during the period of active study of mitochondrial DNA by molecular genetics. It is this DNA that is transmitted from mother to child in an unchanged form, and an analysis of the dynamics of mutations in combination with structural features can provide information about the relationship of all inhabitants of the planet and the common origin of man as a biological species. The theory of a single "foremother Eve" has received a wide response in the last decade, and it is based precisely on the study of the structure of mitochondrial DNA of inhabitants of different corners of the planet.

Interest in his roots and the origins of the family was inherent in man always. In certain periods it was the genesis of the family, the chronicle of its heroes that determined the social status of a person and his belonging to a particular class group. Today, an increasing number of Russians are interested in the origins of their genera and the stories of distant ancestors. And although this knowledge is not determinative for the individual in society, but they give an understanding of the origins and are a source of pride.