Genealogy Now A Booming Business

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31994, 22 May 1969, Page 2

Genealogy Now A Booming Business

(N.Z.P.A. staff Correspondent) LONDON, May 20. Many do it in the hope of claiming money, others to boast illustrious descent. Some treat it as a religious practice, and - others do it as they do the crossword—just for fun.

You will find them perched on tall stools in draughty libraries, sift- | ing dusty documents, or touring country churches to pore over parish . registers. Some take years to complete the task, others never finish it It is the search for the past, the quest for the family tree, the "genealogical jamboree.” Membership of the Society of Genealogists, which has the most comprehensive genealogical library in Britain, has doubled in the last 10 years to 3000. Somerset House reports an annual 170,000 enquiries, and small firms advertising ancestral research spring up every year. Among the most exhaustive genealogical researchers is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, whose practise of baptising forbears by proxy has brought many protests from English clergy. The Mormons claim to have photostat copies of more than 40 per cent of Britain’s parish registers, in special tempera-ture-controlled vaults in Salt Lake City, Utah. Eighty per cent of the members of the church have their origins in Britain and the Mormons estimate they perform more than a million vicarious baptisms every year. President Collister, the head of the Central London Mission, says he has undergone baptism on behalf of “a couple of hundred ancestors” who died before the church’s establishment in 1830.

Backing up this effort is a research programme held in 20 countries over the last 30 years. The Salt Lake City Library now has the largest archive collection in the world, housing some 5m volumes of records and employing 500 researchers and a huge tabulating machine. Not everyone takes their

genealogy so seriously, however, although Mrs Mackay,

the secretary of the society of Genealogists, says 25 per cent of its enquiries come from Americans. "Most Americans who think they have ancestors here make ancestry research the main object of their visit. “Many cherish rumours of nobility in their families although more often than not they are disappointed in their findings.

“Blue blood is hard to come by and many emigrants have adopted crests to which they have no legitimate claim.” The Soicety of Genealogists has 32,000 volumes of documents, datihg back to 1500 and Including the largest collection of parish registers in Britain, a general index of more than 3m names, and a marriage index of 7m names.