I found the following review published in the Sunday Times on February 19, 1888 and which may be of interest to some of you.....
How to Write the History of a Family. A Guide for the Genealogist. By W.P.W. Phillimore, M.A., B.C.L. (Elliot Stock.)
Those politicians grievously err who tell us that the world is losing its interest in the principle of birth, and the present work is a proof of the fact. The number of people who spend their time in tracing out their pedigrees and writing their family histories, has increased so much that here we have a competent and scholarly man publishing a manual for the express purpose of guiding them in their work. In fact, it is in democratic America that family pride is at present most active, and Bishop Stubbs has said that the study of genealogy, which is sometimes thought here to be the sign of an effete and worn-out nation, is at the present time in America "drawing a larger expenditure of money, investigation, and literary power than any other country in the world." Mr. Phillimore gives us many interesting details about this new Republican taste. It is common in America to organise a family gathering, or reunion, on a very extensive scale, of all the descendants of an emigr!
ant ancestor, and the assembly usually ends in forming an association for the purpose of collecting for publication all historical matter relating to the family. Mr. Phillimore's object in writing this guide is to make genealogical work more scientific and more ready and generally valuable. He is impressed in particular with the use family histories might be of in showing the influence and laws of heredity, and urges strongly the desirability of obtaining all such biographical details as would throw light on the mental and physical qualities of a race. The height and weight of an individual should be recorded, their intellectual and moral characteristics, and even "the statistics of each man's conduct in small everyday affairs," and a family album should be kept from generation to generation containing two photographs of every member - a full face and a profile. Mr. Phillimore gives many useful hints about the matter of surnames, and, indeed, the genealogist will find hi!
m a careful, serviceable, and well-informed guide on every branch of his subject.
A century later, should we be encouraging genealogists to be more "scientific" in their research?
Happy Easter to all.
Nick Mays
Nicholas Mays
Deputy Archivist
Archives & Record Office
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