Friday, May 28, 2004

Finding Your Folks

By JUDY FOWLER KILGORE
jkilgore@thecitizennews.

Genealogy, like many hobbies, has a whole world of terminology unto itself. When you first get into this stuff, the language alone can be quite puzzling. People speak of their “direct” lines, their “collateral” lines and their “allied” lines as if they were discussing the weather or something equally as ordinary. But, for beginners, it can be confusing. I was totally in the dark for a long time and not many people could explain those terms to me; at least explain them so I could understand them.

So, what do these terms mean and why should you “explore” them?

The best definition I have seen came recently in a little tabloid newsletter I receive every other month called “The Family Tree, News from the Ellen Payne Odom Genealogy Library.” It is published in Moultrie and is mostly for those with Scottish backgrounds. There’s a lot of clan stuff, but a lot of general stuff too and, every now and then a real gem will appear.

This definition actually came through The Family Tree from the Whittier Area Genealogical Society newsletter in Whittier, Calif. I quote: “In genealogy, the term ‘lineal’ means either ascending or descending to a direct line. ‘Collateral’ means descended from the same ancestor, but not in a direct line of descent. ‘Allied’ families are families related usually through marriage.”

I might add that “lineal” and “direct” are the same thing. So, what does this mean?

Your direct line is, of course your immediate ancestors ... parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so forth, right straight up the trunk of the family tree.

Your collateral lines are your cousins, aunts and uncles and those families you are related to by blood. You may not be related to your uncle or aunt by blood, but you are related to all their children.

Your allied lines are your “in-law” relatives or those who aren’t really related, but are only connected — ancestors and relatives of spouses of your brothers and sisters, ancestors and relatives of spouses of your blood-related aunts and uncles, and ancestors and relatives of spouses of your cousins.

Now, why bother with all this? Because exploring and unraveling family trees of your collateral and allied lines can sometimes lead you to information on your direct line.

(Huh? Run that by me again.)

In other words, families often married into other families several times, at least prior to the early 1900s when everybody started getting mobile. Studying your in-law’s relatives could show that family married into your family more than once.

Everybody keeps their direct line of descent, many keep their collateral lines, and some keep allied lines in their family trees. But, how many generations should you keep on these allied lines, if, indeed, you decide to keep records of them at all?

As a general rule, I usually keep two generations off of an allied line. What that means is, I keep my great-grandfather’s brothers and sisters, their spouses, and the parents and grandparents of their spouses, even though they are not related to me at all.

One lady wrote me last week, after finding her relatives on my online family tree. She wanted to know if I wanted their spouses, siblings, and birth and death dates. It was really way off my direct line and I saw no feasible reason to clutter my family tree with more unrelated people. So, I wrote and said thanks, but no thanks, explaining to her that it was only an allied line. She understood perfectly and said she usually liked to at least keep birth and death dates on her “far outs.” That is a good way to refer to these allied lines and it made me chuckle.

But ... she mentioned the names of two more families who were related to this allied line and I did a double take. These two families were related to my direct lines. Oops! I changed my mind and took her information. You never know when additional information may be helpful.

Another instance resulted in my connecting a direct line back into a collateral line, and gave me more cousins.

Everybody knows I have researched my Dormans to pieces, tracking them from Georgia into Alabama, even doing children and spouses of a first wife who was not related to me. I tracked some of these half-relatives to Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, leaving things dangling when I came to the 1930 census which is the end of the line for current census research.

When I was contacted recently by a distant cousin in New York about her Howle-Hilton-Blake line, I did a little research on that family and turned up Dormans marrying into the Howle family (the same Dormans I had left dangling in Lousiana) and connected them back into my Blake line, which is a direct line. Boy! Was I glad I had tracked those Louisiana Dormans!

The whole point of this is, if you are doing your direct line only, you are going to have a hard time putting your family tree together. If you do only direct and collateral lines, it will help. But when you add those allied lines, sometimes it will open up a whole new family for you. Plus, it’s a lot more fun and you meet more people!

Gosh! I love this genealogy stuff!

I welcome your letters about genealogy and info on south metro Atlanta families. Send them to The Citizen, Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214; e-mail jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com. Any letters and/or e-mails I receive are subject to being used in the column.

Until next week, happy hunting!

(Judy regrets that time does not permit her to do personal research for others.)