Genealogy 101: what is a family group record?

Photo: flikr creative commons/stephYo/Stephanie Yoder

Someone challenged me recently: define “family.” This is a good exercise for someone calling themselves a family historian, and perhaps a good starting place for defining the family group record. However, I inferred from the rest of the email that I was being goaded into a debate about narrow, so-called conservative family values. Since I hold very broad views about family, and because I’m not a linguist, sociologist, or anthropologist, I turned to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and looked at the top five definitions:

Main Entry: fam•i•ly
Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English familie, from Latin familia household (including servants as well as kin of the householder), from famulus servant

1 : a group of individuals living under one roof and usually under one head : household

2 a : a group of persons of common ancestry : clan b : a people or group of peoples regarded as deriving from a common stock : race

3 a : a group of people united by certain convictions or a common affiliation : fellowship b : the staff of a high official (as the President)

4 : a group of things related by common characteristics: as a : a closely related series of elements or chemical compounds b : a group of soils with similar chemical and physical properties (as texture, pH, and mineral content) that comprise a category ranking above the series and below the subgroup in soil classification c : a group of related languages descended from a single ancestral language

5 a : the basic unit in society traditionally consisting of two parents rearing their children; also : any of various social units differing from but regarded as equivalent to the traditional family <a single-parent family> b : spouse and children <want to spend more time with my family>

There’s nothing new here, but it is interesting to take a close look at the etymology of “family” and note that it has more to do with servants than with blood relations. So a broad view in defining who is family and what is family seems historically as well as linguistically defensible.

Of course, for the purposes of this column and for genealogy in general, “family” typically refers to people sharing a common ancestry, linked by blood and/or marriage—but not always. Many people embrace family members who do not fit this narrow definition; as I myself do. And even though such relationships may not fall explicitly within my discussions, I want to state clearly that I honor these relationships and value their place in life and in society. So, in answer to my reader's challenge, my best reply is a question (actually, a quote from the British novelist and essayist, Rose Macaulay):

As to the family, I have never understood how that fits in with the other ideals. . . . A group of closely related persons living under one roof; it is a convenience, often a necessity, sometimes a pleasure, sometimes the reverse; but who first exalted it as admirable, an almost religious ideal?

In other words, I value family, but I don’t hold it—by my definition or another’s—sacrosanct.

I offer all of this as preamble to today’s topic: the family group record. In recent columns I have talked about tracing multiple generations in the family using descendant trees and ancestor trees. Today, I want to address a single “family group,” often typified as two parents and their children but, of course, some nuclear families do not fit this configuration.

To help us zoom in on a specific family group, we can use a family group record. As with family trees and other charts, the family group record lists places and dates of birth, marriage, and death. However, it is more like a worksheet than a graphic representation, and it is roomier than a tree. For this reason, many genealogists prefer to start recording family data with the family group record. Click here to download a basic family group record.

Essentially, there are three parts to this record: one for the husband, one for the wife, and one for the children. Enter the information requested in each box, writing out names in full and, if using abbreviations, use them consistently (e.g., don’t abbreviate Massachusetts as both Mass. and MA). Remember to use a 4-digit number for years and to spell out months in order to avoid confusion.

When you list the children, you will see that there is space to write marriage information, but no space is provided to list offspring. This is because a married child with offspring will require a separate family group sheet, listing that married child as either the husband or wife.

Because everyone has a different family configuration, you may want to modify this chart to suit your own needs. Essentially, this is a simple table created in Microsoft Word, consisting of 6 columns and 24 rows. The lines can be solid or dashed as you like, and some cells are merged to create larger sections for filling in data. Those of you using genealogy software can probably enter your data directly into your software program and let the software make modifications for you.

I prefer a less cluttered form, but you might want to use some of the extra fields included on the form provided on-line at Ancestry.com, such as:

City/county
Name of church/place of worship
Cause of death
Cemetery name/place

This more detailed family group record can be seen on-line at Ancestry.com, where you can download it if you wish.

Insider tip: The family group record makes a very handy companion piece to the Ahnentafel chart. When we discussed the Ahnentafel chart, we pointed out that it is a more compact tree than an ordinary ancestor tree because a number can represent names and dates. But how do you find out what names and dates are designated by any particular number? By having all that information on your family group record, along with the corresponding Ahnentafel number next to each name on the group record.