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I've been thinking of getting DNA test and spoke to DH about it. He stated he didn't need one because his family has extensive records(they're Mormon.) I then told him that ancestry is the people you know as family but genealogy is people that actually are related. I was thinking of adoption, children who were passed off as the husbands but may have different paternal line, men with separate families, etc....
When I researched, it seems that ancestry and genealogy are synonymous. So, Im confused. Are Ancestry and Genealogy the same?
Genealogy (from Greek: γενεά, genea, "generation"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. (Whether they are biologically related or not)
Ancestry shows from whom a person is biologically descended, whether on the father's or mother's side, at any distance of time; a progenitor; a forefather.
(But AFAIK most people use the words interchangeably)
No, I would say that if you're studying genes and DNA, that would be "genetics" not "genealogy." Hell, the Bible talks a lot about genealogy, but genetics was not known back then.
In a nutshell, OP, ancestry is who you're descended from, and genealogy is the study of ancestry.
I've been thinking of getting DNA test and spoke to DH about it. He stated he didn't need one because his family has extensive records(they're Mormon.) I then told him that ancestry is the people you know as family but genealogy is people that actually are related. I was thinking of adoption, children who were passed off as the husbands but may have different paternal line, men with separate families, etc....
When I researched, it seems that ancestry and genealogy are synonymous. So, Im confused. Are Ancestry and Genealogy the same?
If you do one like the one on Ancestry where they link cousins, you might find the family story is not entirely accurate either. My mom and grandmother told me grandma's mom had a second husband after the first died, both sadly named Smith. My grandmother was the only child of the second, a very tall Englishman. The first was a short Irishman. The rest of her siblings were short and darker haired and her mom was 4'9. She was almost six foot.
But I look in records people have made available and it sounds like there was one. But then how did grandma happen?
My mom even said she'd read letters from *her* grandfather's sister from Manchester. I'd love there to be a test this for sure since I do believe Grandma and mom.
You can also get a feel for where way back then they came from. I might or might not have a drop or two of Viking in me. That would be neat to know.
I've been thinking of getting DNA test and spoke to DH about it. He stated he didn't need one because his family has extensive records(they're Mormon.) I then told him that ancestry is the people you know as family but genealogy is people that actually are related. I was thinking of adoption, children who were passed off as the husbands but may have different paternal line, men with separate families, etc....
When I researched, it seems that ancestry and genealogy are synonymous. So, Im confused. Are Ancestry and Genealogy the same?
I know a lot of people who were adopted and I know your comment about genealogy being people that are "actually related" would offend many of them. It would be better to say "biologically related".
Quote:
Originally Posted by TracySam
No, I would say that if you're studying genes and DNA, that would be "genetics" not "genealogy." Hell, the Bible talks a lot about genealogy, but genetics was not known back then.
But the Bible is a translation, not necessarily a literal one. And it's no coincidence that genealogy and genetics share the same root word. But that said, the definition of genealogy makes no mention of DNA or genetics or biological relations (see below).
Quote:
In a nutshell, OP, ancestry is who you're descended from, and genealogy is the study of ancestry.
"Genealogy" can have multiple meanings though. One meaning is indeed as a "study" but it can be used in other contexts. I could say "I enjoy researching my genealogy" just as I say "I enjoy researching my ancestry." So yes, they can be synonymous.
Here's what the dictionary says:
Quote:
genealogy[ jee-nee-ol-uh-jee, -al-, jen-ee-]
noun [plural ge·ne·al·o·gies.]
1. a record or account of the ancestry and descent of a person, family, group, etc.
2. the study of family ancestries and histories.
3. descent from an original form or progenitor; lineage; ancestry.
4. a group of individuals or species having a common ancestry: The various species of Darwin's finches form a closely knit genealogy.
The second definition is what you're talking about but it also has three other definitions.
Quote:
ancestry[ an-ses-tree or, esp. British, -suh-stree]
noun [plural an·ces·tries.]
1. family or ancestral descent; lineage.
2. honorable or distinguished descent: famous by title and ancestry.
3. a series of ancestors His ancestry settled Utah.
4. the inception or origin of a phenomenon, object, idea, or style.
5. the history or developmental process of a phenomenon, object, idea, or style.
Note that NEITHER of them say anything about DNA or biological relation. That's from Dictionary.com but Merriam Webster says pretty much the same thing. Only Oxford Dictionary mentions "genetics" in the definition of ancestry but that was only one definition, not all of them.
In my mind, genealogy refers more to one's actual tree or pedigree whereas ancestry refers more to the people (or ancestors) within it. Family history refers to their stories and heritage refers to their culture or ethnicity. But that's just how I feel about the terminology. Obviously, whether or not any of those words distinguish between a biological tree/ancestors and an adoptive one is highly debatable and it may just come down to personal interpretation. One thing is for sure though, regardless of what I think, I would NEVER tell someone who was adopted that they are not actually studying their genealogy (or ancestry) by researching their adopted family tree. Even if I thought that a term like "family history" was more appropriate to a non-biological relation, I would not say so. It would just be pedantic and unnecessary and probably offend them.
Well I'm adopted on my paternal side, my FIL's mother was adopted and my in-laws adopted a son into their family. None of the talk about genetics/biology/nature vs. nurture ever bothered any of us. I know my BIL wanted to meet his bio mom but it never happened. I truly understand, family, blood or no blood. Having had this experience personally.
Having never laid eyes on my own father, I wonder when I do the testing if some cousins on my paternal line will pop up. I know I have 3 ( 1/2 ) siblings, somewhere out there.
I think for adopted children, DNA testing can give them some answers to questions they have had. I know nothing from my bio-fathers' family, where they came from, etc..Most people grow up hearing stories from both sets of parents. I know where my mom's ancestors came from(or I think I do) I never heard those kind of stories from my paternal line.
If you do one like the one on Ancestry where they link cousins, you might find the family story is not entirely accurate either. My mom and grandmother told me grandma's mom had a second husband after the first died, both sadly named Smith. My grandmother was the only child of the second, a very tall Englishman. The first was a short Irishman. The rest of her siblings were short and darker haired and her mom was 4'9. She was almost six foot.
But I look in records people have made available and it sounds like there was one. But then how did grandma happen?
My mom even said she'd read letters from *her* grandfather's sister from Manchester. I'd love there to be a test this for sure since I do believe Grandma and mom.
You can also get a feel for where way back then they came from. I might or might not have a drop or two of Viking in me. That would be neat to know.
Yes, absolutely, you have to be careful of what's out there on Ancestry. Someone gave my poor grandfather an extra wife, with a couple of children -- then he married my grandmother, and somewhere in between he also had an illegitimate child. Except . . . other than my grandmother, none of the info is accurate. Now it's gone viral and when I write to these folks and tell them that this information is totally false, IF I get a response (which is seldom), the response is, "Oh. We don't care if it's accurate." A lot of stuff is very, very helpful, but you do have to sift through a lot of dirt and garbage to find a diamond!
I've been doing genealogy for years and just recently got a DNA test done through 23andMe. I decided to go with that company because they do autosomal DNA testing, which covers all of your different ethnic composition from all the different lines of your families, and at $99 the price was within my budget. They also let you know about any genetic health problems that you may be predisposed to, for instance I carry a mutation that causes hemochromatosis (iron overload).
Anyway, they send you a plastic tube that you spit in and you mail it back and in about six weeks they upload your results onto your personal page on their website (no one can see it but you).
According to my DNA results, my Paternal haplogroup is R1b1b2a1a1* (U106), and my Maternal haplogroup is J1b1a. I am 99.9% European (50.9% British/Irish; 9.4% French/German; 1.3% Scandinavian; 35.3% Nonspecific Northern European; 0.6% Iberian; 1.8% Nonspecific Southern European; 0.6% Nonspecific European); 0.0% Ashkenazi; 0.0% Middle Eastern & North African; 0.0% Sub-Saharan African; 0.0% South Asian; 0.0% East Asian & Native American; 0.0% Oceanian; and 0.1% Unassigned. Oh, and I am 2.7% Neanderthal.
All of which pretty much bears out what I knew about my genealogy, which has most of my ancestors coming to the America mostly in the 1600's from the British Isles (Scotland, Wales, England and Ireland), along with a little bit of Huguenot French and a Venetian ancestor that settled in England in the 1500's a couple of generations before his grandson, Robert Taliaferro, made his was to Virginia before 1650. I assume the 0.6% Iberian ancestry comes through my descent from Isabella of Aragon in the 13th century.
Genealogy (from Greek: γενεά, genea, "generation"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. (Whether they are biologically related or not)
ancestor ultimately from from Latin antecedere "to precede," from ante- "before" + cedere "to go"
Personally, I have always regarded your ancestry as the sum of your knowledge about people you can name or if you can't name them you know something about.
Your "geneology" includes your ancestry plus the unnamed group of people that are part of your genetic makeup.
But that difference is probably just my opinion. Scientists talk about the "point of common ancestry" (PCA) which is the most recent point in time where every person alive falls into two categories (1) their bloodline dies out, (2) they are an ancestor of every single person alive on the planet in the present.
The PCA is estimated at between 5000 and 15000 years ago. Most people don't have a problem with the concept of PCA, but they assume that it was more like 100,000 years ago when there was only a few thousand people alive. They can't get used to the idea that the PCA was so recent, and that there were millions of people.
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) I never heard those kind of stories from my paternal line.
