Pedigree

Pedigree (possibly from ped de grue, 'crane's foot,' from the slender lines used in drawing pedigrees), a tabular view of the members of a particular family, with the relations in which they stand to each other, accompanied or unaccompanied by a notice of the chief events in the life of each, with their dates, and the evidence of the facts stated. Pedigrees are indispensable aids to the student of history. The materials to be used in the formation of a pedigree are notes of the facts to be set forth, and a recognised series of signs and abbreviations. These notes comprise the name of every person who is to appear in the pedigree, with such dates and circumstances as it may be considered desirable to record. Among the commonest abbreviations are dau., for daughter of; s. and h., son and heir of; coh., coheir of; w., wife of; s. p. (sine prole), without issue; v. p. (vitâ patris), in his father's lifetime; b., born; d., died; dep., deposed; K., king; E., earl, &c. The sign = placed between two names indicates that they were husband and wife; $\backslash updownarrow$ indicates that they had children; $\backslash downarrow$ under a name signifies that the person had children. Men are frequently indicated by small squares, women by circles or lozenges. All persons of the same generation are to be kept in the same horizontal line; and the main line of descent is, wherever possible, to be indicated by keeping the successive names in a vertical column. Continuous lines indicate the succession of the different generations. The members of the same family are generally arranged in their order of birth in two groups—the sons first, and then the daughters; but where the same father or mother has children by more than one marriage, the children of each marriage ought to form distinct groups. The actual arrangement, however, of a pedigree must always depend on the leading object which it is intended to illustrate. Specimens may be seen in the articles BONAPARTE and BOURBON.

Tabular genealogies, generally brief, and meant to illustrate some particular claim of right, are found among the records, public and private, of the early middle ages; but after the incorporation of the English Herald's College far more attention was devoted to the compilation of pedigrees of families, more particularly with reference to their claims to dignities and heraldic insignia. In the course of the 16th century the heralds obtained copies of all such accounts of the English families of any distinction as could be supplied to them, and entered them in the books which contain the records of their official proceedings. Royal commissions were issued till 1704 to the two provincial kings-of-arms, empowering them to visit in turn the several counties of England, in order to collect from the principal persons of each county an account of the changes which had taken place in their respective families in the interval since the last preceding visitation, and to inquire what account could be given of themselves by families who had stepped into the rank of gentry, or had become settled in the county since that period. The register-books kept by the heralds and their assistants contain the pedigrees and arms collected in the course of the visitations, with the signatures of the heads of the families. See HERALDRY, Vol. V. p. 660.

In Scotland, in the absence of the regular system of visitations which prevailed in England, there is a great deal of evidence regarding the pedigrees of the historical families of the country scattered here and there in public and private collections, including the Advocates' Library and Lyon Office. A register of genealogies exists in the Lyon Office, in which the pedigrees of applicants, after being proved to the satisfaction of the heraldic authorities, are inserted with the accompanying evidence; and the Register of Arms contains much valuable information. To what extent the register of genealogies in the Lyon Office may be admitted as a probative document, conclusive of the facts which it sets forth, has not been ascertained by actual decision; but there can be no doubt that, in questions both as to property and honours, it would be regarded as a most important adminicle of proof.

See the works of Sir Bernard Burke (q.v.) and Sir Harris Nicolas (q.v.); Doyle, Official Baronage (1886); Foster, Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage (1883), and Collectanea Genealogica (1882); Marshall, The Genealogist's Guide (1879; 2d ed. 1885); Roberts, Calendarium Genealogicum (1865); G. Burnett, Popular Genealogist, or the Art of Pedigree-making (Edin. 1865); Rye, Records and Record Searching (1888); Whitmore, The American Genealogist (1862; 2d ed. 1875); Durrie, Bibliographia Genealogica Americana (1868).