Genealogy is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members. The results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives. The field of family history is broader than genealogy, and covers not just lineage but also family and community history and biography.
Genetic genealogy is the use of genealogical DNA tests, i.e., DNA profiling and DNA testing, in combination with traditional genealogical methods, to infer genetic relationships between individuals. This application of genetics came to be used by family historians in the 21st century, as DNA tests became affordable. The tests have been promoted by amateur groups, such as surname study groups or regional genealogical groups, as well as research projects such as the Genographic Project.
The Society of Genealogists (SoG) is a UK-based educational charity, founded in 1911 to "promote, encourage and foster the study, science and knowledge of genealogy". The Society's Library is the largest specialist genealogical library outside North America. Membership is open to any adult who agrees to abide by the Society's rules and who pays the annual subscription. At the end of 2010, it had 11,014 members.
Peter Wilson Coldham, FASG, was a British genealogist. He was noted as a "distinguished scholar of colonial American immigration."
Cecil Raymond Julian Humphery-Smith was a British genealogist and heraldist.
Clan Gayre or Clan Gair purports to be a Highland Scottish clan.
Nicholas David Barratt is an English genealogist, broadcaster and historian and is currently the Executive Director of Student Journey at Royal Holloway University of London. He was the original genealogical consultant and on-screen expert for series 1 to 4 of the BBC show Who Do You Think You Are? and worked on the format in the Republic of Ireland and Australia. Barratt has made other TV appearances, written books and been the President of the Family History Federation, Trustee of the Society of Genealogists and board member for the Community Archives and Heritage Group. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Eric William Bradley Cordingly MBE was the Anglican Bishop of Thetford from 1963 until his death in 1976.
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, born October 9, is an American genealogist, author, and speaker. She is also a consultant for the FBI and NCIS.
The Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain (JGSGB) is a society for the study and encouragement of Jewish genealogy in Great Britain. The society is a member society of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies.
Maureen Alice Taylor, born April 14, 1956, is a genealogist, author, and speaker in Providence, Rhode Island with expertise in genealogy, art history, costume history and cultural anthropology. She is a blogger, and author of many books and magazine articles. The Wall Street Journal named her the "nation's foremost historical photo detective."
The Ontario Genealogical Society, operating as Ontario Ancestors since early 2019, is the largest organization devoted to research into family history in Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1961 as a Registered Charity corporation, the Society has grown by 2020 to include 30 local branches covering all of Ontario and five Special Interest Groups.
TheGenealogist is a family history website that provides subscriptions for researchers to help search genealogy records in the United Kingdom. The site is run by Genealogy Supplies (Jersey) Ltd which is part of the S&N Group. Among its accomplishments, the company has completely transcribed the England and Wales censuses from 1841 to 1911 inclusive. The site has been identified as among "the most prominent" subscription-based genealogy websites.
Lieutenant-Colonel John Lambrick Vivian (1830–1896), Inspector of Militia and Her Majesty's Superintendent of Police and Police Magistrate for St Kitts, West Indies, was an English genealogist and historian. He edited editions of the Heraldic Visitations of Devon and of Cornwall, standard reference works for historians of these two counties. Both contain an extensive pedigree of the Vivian family of Devon and Cornwall, produced largely by his own researches.
Malcolm Henry Stern was an American rabbi, historian, and genealogist. Through the work he did that supported secular genealogical communities and resources, as well as created what is the structure and backbone of current Jewish genealogical societies, Stern's efforts created long-lasting, far-reaching cooperative organizations. For these reasons, Stern has been described as the dean of American Jewish genealogy.
Frederick George "Derick" Emmison was a British archivist, author and historian. He was County Archivist for Bedfordshire between 1925 and 1938, County Archivist for Essex between 1938 and 1969, a founder member of the British Records Association and the Society of Archivists, and a winner of the John Bickersteth Medal in 1974 and the Medlicott Medal in 1987. He was also a prolific author who made a significant contribution to our understanding of the Elizabethan era through close analysis of the minutiae of local records of that age in Essex.
James Crofts was an officer of the British Army.
Miriam Weiner is an American genealogist, author, and lecturer who specializes in the research of Jewish roots in Poland and the former Soviet Union. Weiner is considered to be one of the pioneers of contemporary Jewish genealogy through her work to open up archives and is described as a trail-blazing, highly respected guide and leading authority on archival holdings and resources in pre-war Belarus, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, and Ukraine.
Joseph Gardner Bartlett was a prominent American genealogist, whose work focused on colonial New England and the English origins of colonial families. Trained as an architect at MIT, he gave up architecture for genealogy in his thirties. His best-known works include two genealogies of the Stone family and The Henry Adams Genealogy (1927), which treated the family of Henry Adams, immigrant ancestor of the two American presidents by this surname. Bartlett's paternal ancestors bore the surname Kilham until 1845, when his father changed his surname to Bartlett.
African American genealogy is a field of genealogy pertaining specifically to the African American population of the United States. African American genealogists who document the families, family histories, and lineages of African Americans are faced with unique challenges owing to the slave practices of the Antebellum South and North. These challenges rise from a range of events, including name changes following the American Civil War, the act of separating families for sale as slaves, lack of issued birth or death records for slaves, etc.
