From roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Tue Mar 21 09:13:18 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k2LGDIjb019315; Tue, 21 Mar 2006 09:13:18 -0700 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l.rootsweb.com [66.43.16.22]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k2LGDH5q028808 for ; Tue, 21 Mar 2006 09:13:17 -0700 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l [127.0.0.1]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id k2LDgNFI031253 for ; Tue, 21 Mar 2006 08:42:23 -0500 Received: (from roots-in@localhost) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.8/Submit) id k2LDgNv5031252 for roots-approved@rootsweb.com; Tue, 21 Mar 2006 08:42:23 -0500 Received: from lists5.rootsweb.com (lists5.rootsweb.com [66.43.27.41]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with SMTP id k2LA82FI030383 for ; Tue, 21 Mar 2006 05:08:02 -0500 Received: (from slist@localhost) by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) id k2LCckDG018571 for roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com; Tue, 21 Mar 2006 05:38:46 -0700 X-Envelope-From: PAULLEVALLEY@peoplepc.com Tue Mar 21 05:38:46 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k2LCckjb018562 for ; Tue, 21 Mar 2006 05:38:46 -0700 Received: from dickinson.mail.atl.earthlink.net (dickinson.mail.atl.earthlink.net [207.69.200.134]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k2LCchnO011812 for ; Tue, 21 Mar 2006 05:38:43 -0700 Received: from dialup-4.235.87.210.dial1.orlando1.level3.net ([4.235.87.210]) by dickinson.mail.atl.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 3.36 #10) id 1FLg88-0000xz-00 for ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com; Tue, 21 Mar 2006 07:38:33 -0500 Received: from 127.0.0.1 (AVG SMTP 7.1.385 [268.2.5/284]); Tue, 21 Mar 2006 07:38:25 -0500 Message-ID: <001e01c64ce4$58f6c6a0$d257eb04@your1sfdbkykfj> From: "Paul LeValley" To: References: <200603210407.k2L47n2c020315@lists5.rootsweb.com> Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 07:38:25 -0500 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2180 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2180 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=Windows-1252; reply-type=original X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 Sender: roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Subject: [ROOTS-L] Re: Limiting research This question is getting varried responses because there are three different kinds of genealogical research: 1. Pedigree: Tracing your 2 parents, 4 grandparents, etc., working back in time as far as you can go. Cousins do not appear on these charts, except as footnotes. This is what most people do, and this is where some of the answers are coming from. 2. Lineage: Tracing all of your cousins descended from a particular ancestor, and working forward in time to the present. The ancestry of spouses does not appeaer on these charts (which have to be drawn by hand because every family is different). Jo, this is the kind of research you and I are doing. When I started nearly 40 years ago, I wisely limited myself to the male line only, leaving the many, many female lines for somebody else's project. This is also called surname genealogy. I am handling seventh cousins twice removed, which is as many as have been born so far. This has still turned out to be a big job, but one that I can somewhat master during one lifetime. 3. Succession: Tracing a title or property which descends through various rules and mishaps. You don't need to worry much about this third kind of research until you link up to the nobility. Jo H. wrote: > When my database reached 15,000 individuals I decided that I just had to > draw a line for myself as to what is reasonable to research. At that > point I decided that I would stop with 4th cousins....