Ancestors, Direct Ancestors and MRCAs

 I think everyone agrees that a descendant is "One whose descent can be traced to a particular individual or group" (American Heritage Dictionary). That same dictionary defines an ancestor as "A person from whom one is descended, especially if more remote than a grandparent; a forebear."

Many genealogists, although agreeing on the definition of "descendant," have a wider definition of "ancestor" which includes aunts and uncles, perhaps even some older cousins. They use the term "direct ancestor" when they want to weed out the avunculars and their female equivalents.

But I have yet to see any reference to a MRCDA - Most Recent Common DIRECT Ancestor - that basic target of much of our research. Genealogists use MRCA to define how two people are related. As in "Mordecai Meir Kwoczka is your great-grandfather and my great-great-grandfather" - our Most Recent Common Ancestor.

So Linda's father and my father are brothers. Both are more recent than our grandparents, who would be the traditional bearers of the MRCA title. So would their sister, our aunt. Our parents and their siblings are by definition more recent than our grandparents. That sounds silly and obvious, but it is equally true for more distant ancestors. Of course, no one - even those who would consider our aunt to be our ancestor -  would suggest that our most recent common ancestor would be our aunt, rather than our grandparents. That would be a useless designation.

So it seems to me that for the sake of consistency, a trait valued both by genealogists and by our research, people should choose one of two options. EITHER go back to the traditional definition of ancestors as the reverse of descendants, dropping the aunts and uncles (and the term "direct ancestor") OR start referring to your genealogical targets as MRCDA.

End of rant.

Because Genealogy Is More Than Just Names And Dates

 Monday evening, 4 Kislev, 28 November, at seven-thirty I shall be presenting 

WHY DID MY FATHER KNOW THAT HIS GRANDFATHER

HAD AN UNCLE SELIG?

for English Speakers of Ashkelon - Kehillat Netzach Israel,  Harel 8 (entrance on the side path..Yaakov Haham). Cost for ESOA members 20 shekels, non-members 25 shekels.

Please send an email to esoa972@gmail.com to reserve your spot!

 

 

 

This is not a genealogy group, so the presentation should interest non-genealogists as well. 

 

More than twenty years before Israel Pickholtz began doing serious genealogy, his father sent him a postcard with three bits of family information. One of those was that Israel's great-grandfather Hersch Pikholz had an uncle Zelig. That information was very important in Israel's research over the last twenty-five years, research that was helped along by traditional sources and more recently by genetic genealogy.

 

But even as he was progressing in his research, Israel could not shake the question "Why did my father know this?" Israel says "My father was eight years old when his grandfather Hersch Pikholz died and they never had any real conversation. None of the cousins knew about Uncle Zelig, not even the older one who lived in the same house as my great-grandfather. My father himself did not recall why he knew this."

 

And does it even matter? This evening, Israel tells the story of his great-great-great-uncle, what he learned about his family and why now he thinks he knows why (if not how) his father knew. And yes, it matters.

 

A European story with an Ashkelon connection.

 

Because genealogy is more than just names and dates.

 

The presentation will mark my father's forty-second yahrzeit.