Genealogy

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Genealogy \Gen`e*al"o*gy\, n.; pl. {Genealogies}. [OE.
     genealogi, genelogie, OF. genelogie, F. g['e]n['e]alogie, L.
     genealogia, fr. Gr. ?; ? birth, race, descent (akin to L.
     genus) + ? discourse.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. An account or history of the descent of a person or family


        from an ancestor; enumeration of ancestors and their
        children in the natural order of succession; a pedigree.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Regular descent of a person or family from a progenitor;
        pedigree; lineage.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  genealogy
       n : successive generations of kin [syn: {family tree}]

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  GENEALOGY. The summary history or table of a house or family, showing how 
  the persons there named are connected together. 
       2. It is founded on the idea of a lineage or family. Persons descended 
  from the common father constitute a family. Under the idea of degrees is 
  noted the nearness or remoteness, of relationship, in which one person 
  stands with respect to another. A series of several persons, descended from 
  a common progenitor, is called a line. (q. v.) Children stand to each other 
  in the relation either of full blood or half blood, according as they are 
  descended from the same parents, or have only one parent in common. For 
  illustrating descent and relationship, genealogical tables are constructed, 
  the order of which depends on the end in view. In tables, the object of 
  which is to show all the individuals embraced in a family, it is usual to 
  begin with the oldest progenitor, and to put all the persons of the male or 
  female sex in descending, and then in collateral lines. Other tables exhibit 
  the ancestors of a particular person in ascending lines both on the father's 
  and mother's side. In this way 4, 8, 16, 32- &c. ancestors are exhibited, 
  doubling at every degree. Some tables are constructed in the form of a tree, 
  after the. model of canonical law, (arbor consanguinitatis,) in which the 
  progenitor is placed beneath, as if for the root or stem. Vide Branch; Line. 
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  GENEALOGY, n.  An account of one's descent from an ancestor who did
  not particularly care to trace his own.