Should We Study Genealogy?

“Genealogy” is defined as the “line of descent traced continuously from an ancestor.”

My wife, Barbara, traced her family tree. Her mother hailed from an Adair family in Rutherford, NC. Her father, Mr. Walter Springfield, descended from a family traced to Mrs. Dicey Langston, a Revolutionary War heroine. She married Mr. Thomas Springfield, a patriot leader, on Jan. 9, 1783. 

Family history research is the second-most popular hobby in the U.S., after gardening, according to a 2017 article. 

“Genealogy received a boost in the late 1970s with the television broadcast of Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley,” sources say.

But there was a downside to that surge. 

“The irony of the watershed cultural moment surrounding ‘Roots’ was that a book about slavery and the African diaspora became a catalyst for a largely white ethnic revival,” wrote Ms. Honor Sachs in Dec. 2019. “As the nation embraced a new passion for genealogy, the narratives of African American experiences embedded in slavery were eclipsed by a new obsession with the white ethnic European immigrant.”

Renewed interest in genealogy perhaps enhanced potential for racial tensions. 

In the 1960s, the Mormon Church, which espouses “baptism of the dead” and encourages its members to research unbaptized ancestors, opened many branch genealogical libraries. In the 1970s, these libraries began receiving more and more non-Mormon patrons.

By the 1990s, digital technology made possible record-accessing online.

Many have taken AncestryDNA tests to discover distant cousins and genetic ethnic mix. 

“Ancestry.com has become a huge success, boasting millions of subscribers,” says Nathan H. Lents, Ph.D. “The fact is, if you go back far enough, each one of us has a shared ancestor with every other person on earth. … One thing that Ancestry.com won’t often tell you is that the genealogy you discover may not be accurate anyway. Inferences have to be made when you are dealing with records that are hundreds of years old. There are many surnames and first names that are quite common. There is no way to be sure that the ‘Jacob Carter’ that turns up in one record is the same ‘Jacob Carter’ that shows up in another from 15 years later, even in the same general area.”

Dr. Lents continues: 

“A problem with putting so much stock in our genealogy is that this over-emphasizes genetic relationships over social and cultural history (or at least attempts to). We draw our identity from our experiences and we are deeply imprinted by the cultural themes of our society and the parents that raised us, regardless of where we got our chromosomes. Family ties are about shared culture, not genes.”

Dr. Lents wonders: 

“I ask, ‘What is the point of researching our precise ancestry at all?’ The answer seems to be that a connection to our recent ancestors is what compels us to study our genealogy. It is their stories that fascinate us, not their genetic stock.”

Someone said, “In an age where many are looking to connect to something bigger than themselves — to have a deeper understanding of themselves and where they came from — it makes sense that genealogy would have grown more popular over the past few decades.”

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

“The Bible does not condemn all genealogy per se,” one writer says. “But it rejects the use of genealogy to ‘prove’ one’s righteousness.”

Genealogies help us follow priestly and royal lines through Israel’s story.

“Paul teaches us that the priesthood has its origins in the High Priesthood of Christ after the Order of Melchizedek,” sources say.

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke delineate Jesus’ ancestry. Paul indicates that the Aaronic priesthood was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Titus 3:9 (KJV) tells us, “But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.” 

During Early Church times, some teachers took pride in proving they were Abraham’s direct descendants.

“It [Titus 3:9] means don’t think you are something special because of who your family is and, in reverse, don’t think that just because you were not born into a good family that God doesn't love you as much,” Mark Hamric says. “It is saying that Christ has made you a joint heir with him, which is far better than any earthly genealogy.”