Basic Unit of Society

-

Village, Generated with Bing ImageCreator AI 5 October 2024

What is the "basic unit of society"? It is often said to be the family. However, even in so-called Western societies, where families are often defined as a husband, wife and their children, about half the families I find in records do not meet the monogamy standard. Often one of the partners has died or divorced, and there are other family members living with them—parents or other relatives of one or more of the partners, former neighbors or their children, "fictive kin," such as a close neighbor or relative of an in-law or former spouse.

FAN Principle

The more we follow the FAN principle [1], and research all the people in and around the family, the more strongly we find that the basic unit is the village or neighborhood. While people do occasionally move somewhere new all by themselves, that is often impelled by personal danger of some sort, such as a crime or other threat. Mostly, people moved with others whom they knew; family, other kin, friends, those in their clubs and congregations, schools, guilds, unions and other shared groups. 

This explains pedigree collapse for the most part, especially for early pioneers to a distant place. Pedigree collapse is the term genealogists use when one or more ancestors are in the tree more than once, because you are descended from them from more than one line. Demographers call this "background relatedness" created by a small founding population. This is why AncestryDNA, 23andMe and MyHeritage can calculate our biogeographical ancestry; many people matching on the same few small DNA segments. These bits of DNA are too small to be useful for proving or even suggesting more recent relationships, but can be powerful tools for looking into the past. 

According to Demographic history of the United States, the population of the British colonies in 1700 was just 250,000 people. No wonder so many SKCGS Members are related! We descend from this relatively small group, mostly from the British Isles. They came here together, and lived together in colonial America for generations, intermarrying as the population slowly grew and eventually began to migrate south and west. 

Some say that this has changed, and that we have divided ourselves into rural versus city, North and South, coasts and "middle America." In general, even though we are more mobile than ever, we still "hang together" in communities where we attend church together, join the same genealogical societies, educate our children in common schools, go out to eat at the same restaurants, and attend the same civic and sports events together. This is why carpools work and how we care for one another when disasters strike. 


We are Founders

We are all pioneers, in a way. We're all exploring the future, the new millennium together. We are confronting climate change and other common threats together. We have voluntarily created insurance pools which protect us from natural (and unnatural) disaster. We have created a body of law which changes to meet new realities. We are even changing our language together. 

If you have not yet embraced the FAN principle and some pedigree collapse, I predict you will. Your research will prove, over and over again, that we each descend from some ancestors in multiple ways, and that we share them with others too. According to a 2013 [2] article, all Europeans (which would include many Americans) share one or more ancestors within the past 2500 years, most much more recently. 

Sometimes it seems like a huge lift to research the tree of a DNA match. But think of it this way: you probably have already done part of the research! In that way, pedigree collapse is a blessing in disguise. 

⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼

1. "QuickLesson 11: Identity Problems & the FAN Principle:" https://www.evidenceexplained.com/content/quicklesson-11-identity-problems-fan-principle

2. Callaway, E. Most Europeans share recent ancestors. Nature (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature.2013.12950

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Share your story with us! send to m.strickland@skcgs.org

Comment

Subscribe



Valorie Zimmerman

I was born in King County Washington, grew up in Issaquah and now live close to Black Diamond. My dad, Ted Cowan, used to bring me to SKCGS meetings, and I eventually served as editor of SoKing News for a bit. To honor my mother, Lola McBee Cowan, after her death, I became an SKCGS Life Member. I later served with the Resources, Publicity, Outreach, Bylaws, Education and Board teams.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Looking for a Needle in a Haystack? GAME CHANGER at FamilySearch

-
Image
Generated with Bing ImageCreator (AI), March 13, 2024 Where is YOUR Needle, Your Missing Record? Genealogical Proof Standard When we use the GPS (Genealogical Proof Standard) as our guide, we all know that "exhaustive research" can be both tedious and exhausting. Is life long enough to search page by page through all the counties where all the members of a family might have lived, paid taxes, bought, leased or sold property, made a will or died intestate? It is possible that the new Full Text Search at FamilySearch will  eventually  allow us to do just that. It has been estimated that 75% or more of the records at FamilySearch were browsable but not searchable; the only indexes those found in the records themselves. Those records are certainly attainable by using those indexes and browsing to the record of interest, but the process is tedious, often frustrating, and slow. And once found, the record must be read and transcribed to be useful. This new Full Text Search tackles a
Read more

What's the Question?

-
Image
We genealogists are often told by experienced researchers how important it is to begin with a research question. I resisted doing this for a long time, but now that I use a series of questions to guide my research, the search is more focused and actually finds more of the history of the family I'm investigating. I use a Google Doc as the  research proceeds, where I keep the question(s), the plan, timelines, checklist of resources to search, etc. all in one place. I've seen others use spreadsheets in the same way, perhaps splitting up things in tabs (Excel or Google Sheets). I prefer a document because I add source citations as I find them and I can begin writing up the case right there in the doc as the hypotheses are proven. Specific Questions in Previous Successes As beginners we often have no clue how much and what details we already know about a person, event or relationship, so it's hard to specify what we want to know. But when looking back at successful research, it
Read more

Help Save This Abused and Neglected Cemetery

-
Image
Screen capture from Google Maps History In an exchange of emails this past week in both the main SKCGS group, and in the Washington-State-Genealogy group, many facts were revealed about the history of the I.O.O.F. Comet Lodge Cemetery, also known as the Old Burying Ground, the Georgetown Cemetery, the Graham Street Burying Ground and maybe more.  FindAGrave sums it up this way: "Since it was established in 1881, the Comet Lodge cemetery site has been whittled away to less than half its original 5 acres. Records are sketchy but it's safe to say that some 500 pioneers were buried here, atop unknown numbers of native Duwamish people. New burials ended in the 1930s. Since then, homes and streets were built on top of many of the plots as the neighborhood around the cemetery grew.  "Upkeep and ownership of the cemetery bounced between the city, civic groups, relatives of Comet Lodge residents, and nearby neighbors. For years, much of the property was allowed to deteriorate int
Read more