2 Satnam Parmar is hereby declared not to be the lawful child and heir  of either Swarn Singh Parmar or Amarjit Parmar, and not to have any rights of inheritance from Swarn Singh Parmar or Amarjit Parmar that might otherwise devolve on him by law.


3 The filial relationship which existed between Satnam Parmar and his natural parents, Balbhadar Singh Parmar and Charan Kaur Parmar, prior to the Adoption Order, is hereby restored. [ 6 ]


Another instance involving the legal transfer of filiation in adoption occurs in cases where adult adoptees and their biological families restore their original filiation via  adult adoption . [ 7 ]


The  firstborn  or  firstborn son  (Hebrew בְּכוֹר  bəḵōr ) is an important concept in  Judaism . The role of firstborn son carries significance in the  redemption of the first-born son , in the allocation of a double portion of the  inheritance , and in the prophetic application of "firstborn" to the nation of Israel.


The  semitic root  B-K-R means "early" or "first" in  Ancient Near East  Semitic languages. [ citation needed ]   Biblical Hebrew  contains various verbs from the B-K-R stem with this association. The plural noun  bikkurim  (vegetable first fruits) also derives from this root. [ 1 ]  The masculine noun  bekhor  ( firstborn ) is used of sons, as "Canaan begat Sidon his firstborn", [ 2 ]  while the feminine equivalent is  bekhirah  (בְּכִירָה), firstborn daughter. [ 3 ]  Derived from  bechor  is the qualitative noun  bekhorah  (בְּכוֹרָה) (" birthright "), related to  primogeniture .


The earliest account of  primogeniture  to be widely known in modern times involved  Isaac 's son  Jacob  being born second ( Genesis 25:26 ) and Isaac's son,  Esau  being born first ( Genesis 25:25 ) and entitled to the birthright, but eventually selling it to Jacob for a small amount of food ( Genesis 25:31–34 ). A similar transfer appears in  1 Chronicles 5:1–2  where, although the  tribe of Judah  prevailed above their brethren, nevertheless the birthright (the double portion of two tribal allotments) was Joseph's.


According to the  Law of Moses , a father's firstborn is entitled to receive a  double portion  of his father's inheritance (compared to the other siblings).  Deuteronomy 21:15–17  prohibits a husband with more than one wife from declaring the first son of the favoured wife to be his firstborn, if the unfavored wife has an older son.


Firstborns had a special role in the sacrificial service. The  Torah  requires firstborn humans and animals to be "sanctified". [ 4 ]   Abel  brought the firstborns of his flock as a sacrifice, [ 5 ]  and the Torah requires firstborns of the flock and herd to be brought as sacrifices. [ 6 ]  Firstborn humans and firstborn non-kosher animals, being unsuitable for sacrifices, were to be redeemed; [ 7 ]   Levites  received the priestly role which originally belonged to firstborns. [ 8 ]


In Exodus,  Moses  is instructed to say to  Pharaoh  "Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, my firstborn." [ 9 ]  The death of Pharaoh and the Egyptians' firstborn sons at the first  Passover  is direct recompense for God's identification of Israel as his own firstborn. [ 10 ]


The understanding of Israel as the national firstborn of God is found in the  Dead Sea scrolls  1Q/4Q "Instruction," and probably 4Q369 the "Prayer of Enosh", [ 11 ]  as well as in  Ben Sira . [ 12 ]


The concept of the firstborn was heavily present in  Hellenistic Judaism  among the  Second Temple  Jewish diaspora. In the  Septuagint ,  Israel , then  Ephraim , are God's  prototokos  (πρωτότοκος) "firstborn." The use of "firstborn" is taken further along figurative lines. In the  pseudepigraphical   Testament of Abraham  disease is personified as the  prototokos  "firstborn" of  Thanatos , the  personification  of death. [ 13 ]  In  Joseph and Asenath  the converted Egyptian princess  Asenath  prepares to marry Joseph, the  prototokos  "firstborn" of the  god of Israel . [ 14 ]   Philo of Alexandria  comments on the inheritance rites of the firstborn in Deuteronomy, greatly emphasizing and embellishing the superiority of Mosaic Law over Egyptian models. [ 15 ]


In Judaism, firstborn male sons undergo a "redemption" ceremony, called  pidyon haben  (redemption of the son), when they turn 30 days old. This ceremony is not performed for all firstborns: for example, if a woman's first child was a girl, or born by  caesarean section , redemption is not performed for any of her sons. In the ceremony, a set of five silver coins is paid to a  kohen  to "redeem" the son.


Originally, the firstborn of every Jewish family was intended to serve as a  priest  in the  temple in Jerusalem  as priests to the Jewish people but they lost this role after the sin of the  golden calf  when this privilege was transferred to the male descendants of  Aaron . [ 16 ]  However, according to some, this role will be given back to the firstborn in a  Third Temple  when  Messiah  comes. [ 17 ]  Until this time, they say, a firstborn son still has certain other roles. Besides receiving double the father's inheritance and requiring a  pidyon haben ,  a firstborn son is supposed to  fast  on the eve of  Passover [ 18 ]  and in the absence of a  Levite , a  bechor  washes the hands of the Kohen prior to blessing the Israelites (see:  Priestly Blessing ).


In the Hebrew Bible, the feminine plural noun  bechorot  is used to describe "firstlings" of a flock. In rabbinical Hebrew, the masculine noun  bechor  is also used of the first born animal to open the womb of its mother. The animal "firstborn beast" (Hebrew  bechor behema  בכור בהמה) is listed as one of the  twenty-four priestly gifts . Today, when there is no  Temple in Jerusalem , most Jewish believers do not give first-born animals to Kohanim. Instead it is customary to sell the mother animal to a non-Jew before it gives birth to the firstborn, and then buy back both the animal and its firstborn. [ 19 ]


The importance of the literal firstborn son is not as greatly developed in Christianity and Islam as it is in Judaism.


Genealogy  (from  Ancient Greek     γενεαλογία  ( genealogía )  'the making of a pedigree') [ 2 ]  is the study of  families , family history, and the tracing of their  lineages . Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate  kinship  and  pedigrees  of its members. The results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives. The field of family history is broader than genealogy, and covers not just lineage but also family and community history and  biography . [ 3 ]


The record of genealogical work may be presented as a "genealogy", a "family history", or a " family tree ". In the narrow sense, a "genealogy" or a " family tree " traces the descendants of one person, whereas a "family history" traces the ancestors of one person, [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ]  but the terms are often used interchangeably. [ 7 ]  A family history may include additional biographical information, family traditions, and the like. [ 3 ]


The pursuit of family history and origins tends to be shaped by several motives, including the desire to carve out a place for one's family in the larger historical picture, a sense of responsibility to preserve the past for  future generations , and self-satisfaction in accurate storytelling. [ 8 ]  Genealogy research is also performed for scholarly or  forensic  purposes, or to trace legal next of kin to inherit under  intestacy  laws.


Amateur genealogists typically pursue their own ancestry and that of their spouses. Professional genealogists may also conduct research for others, publish books on genealogical methods, teach, or produce their own databases. They may work for companies that provide software or produce materials of use to other professionals and to amateurs. Both try to understand not just where and when people lived but also their lifestyles, biographies, and motivations. This often requires—or leads to—knowledge of antiquated laws, old political boundaries, migration trends, and historical socioeconomic or religious conditions.


Genealogists sometimes specialize in a particular group, e.g., a  Scottish clan ; a particular  surname , such as in a  one-name study ; a small community, e.g., a single village or parish, such as in a  one-place study ; or a particular, often famous, person.  Bloodlines of Salem  is an example of a specialized family-history group. It welcomes members who can prove descent from a participant of the  Salem Witch Trials  or who simply choose to support the group.


Genealogists and family historians often join  family history societies , where novices can learn from more experienced researchers. Such societies generally serve a specific geographical area. Their members may also index records to make them more accessible or engage in advocacy and other efforts to preserve public records and cemeteries. Some schools engage students in such projects as a means to reinforce lessons regarding immigration and history. [ 9 ]  Other benefits include family medical histories for families with serious medical conditions that are hereditary.


The terms "genealogy" and "family history" are often used synonymously, but some entities offer a slight difference in definition. The  Society of Genealogists , while also using the terms interchangeably, describes genealogy as the "establishment of a pedigree by extracting evidence, from valid sources, of how one generation is connected to the next" and family history as "a biographical study of a genealogically proven family and of the community and country in which they lived". [ 3 ]


Individuals conduct genealogical research for a number of reasons.


Private individuals research genealogy out of curiosity about their heritage. This curiosity can be particularly strong among those whose family histories were lost or unknown due to, for example,  adoption  or separation from family through divorce, death, or other situations. [ 10 ]  In addition to simply wanting to know more about who they are and where they came from, individuals may research their genealogy to learn about any  hereditary diseases  in their family history. [ 11 ]


There is a growing interest in family history in the media as a result of advertising and television shows sponsored by large genealogy companies, such as  Ancestry.com . This, coupled with easier access to online records and the affordability of  DNA tests , has both inspired curiosity and allowed those who are curious to easily start investigating their ancestry. [ 12 ] [ 13 ]


In  communitarian  societies, one's identity is defined as much by one's kin network as by individual achievement, and the question "Who are you?" would be answered by a description of father, mother, and tribe. New Zealand  Māori , for example, learn  whakapapa  (genealogies) to discover who they are. [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 16 ] [ 17 ]


Family history plays a part in the practice of some religious belief systems. For example,  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints  (LDS Church) has a doctrine of  baptism for the dead , which necessitates that members of that faith engage in family history research. [ 18 ] [ 19 ] [ 20 ]


In  East Asian  countries that were historically shaped by  Confucianism , many people follow a practice of  ancestor worship  as well as genealogical record-keeping. Ancestors' names are inscribed on  tablets  and placed in shrines, where rituals are performed. Genealogies are also recorded in  genealogy books . This practice is rooted in the belief that  respect for one's family  is a foundation for a healthy society. [ 21 ]


Royal families , both historically and in modern times, keep records of their genealogies in order to establish their  right to rule  and determine who will be the next sovereign. For centuries in various cultures, one's genealogy has been a source of political and social status. [ 22 ] [ 23 ]


Some countries and indigenous tribes allow individuals to obtain citizenship based on their genealogy. In  Ireland  and in  Greece , for example, an individual can become a citizen if one of their grandparents was born in that country, regardless of their own or their parents' birthplace. In societies such as Australia or the United States, by the 20th century, there was growing pride in the pioneers and nation-builders. Establishing descent from these was, and is, important to  lineage societies , such as the  Daughters of the American Revolution  and  The General Society of Mayflower Descendants . [ 24 ]   Modern family history explores new sources of status, such as celebrating the resilience of families that survived generations of poverty or slavery, or the success of families in integrating across racial or national boundaries. Some family histories even emphasize links to celebrity criminals, such as the bushranger  Ned Kelly  in Australia. [ 25 ]


Lawyers  involved in  probate cases  do genealogy to locate heirs of property. [ 26 ] [ 27 ]


Detectives  may perform genealogical research using  DNA evidence  to identify victims of  homicides  or perpetrators of crimes. [ 28 ] [ 29 ] [ 30 ] [ 31 ] [ 32 ]


Historians  and  geneticists  may carry out genealogical research to gain a greater understanding of specific topics in their respective fields, and some may employ professional genealogists in connection with specific aspects of their research. They also publish their research in peer-reviewed journals. [ 33 ]


The introduction of postgraduate courses in genealogy in recent years has given genealogy more of an academic focus, with the emergence of peer-reviewed journals in this area. Scholarly genealogy is beginning to emerge as a discipline in its own right, with an increasing number of individuals who have obtained genealogical qualifications carrying out research on a diverse range of topics related to genealogy, both within academic institutions and independently. [ 34 ]


In the US, the " one-drop rule " asserted that any person with even one ancestor of black ancestry ("one drop" of "black blood") was considered black. It was codified into the law of some States (e.g. the  Racial Integrity Act of 1924 ) to reinforce racial segregation.


Genealogy was also used in Nazi Germany to determine whether a person was considered a "Jew" or a "Mischling" ( Mischling Test ), and whether a person was considered as "Aryan" ( Ahnenpass ).


Hereditary emperors, kings and chiefs in several areas have long claimed descent from  gods  (thus establishing divine legitimacy). Court genealogists have preserved or invented appropriate genealogical pretensions - for example in  Japan , [ 35 ]
 Polynesia , [ 36 ]
and the  Indo-European  world from Scandinavia through ancient Greece to India. [ 37 ]


Historically, in Western societies, genealogy focused on the  kinship and descent  of rulers and nobles, often arguing or demonstrating the legitimacy of claims to wealth and power. Genealogy often overlapped with  heraldry , which reflected the ancestry of noble houses in their  coats of arms . Modern scholars regard many claimed noble ancestries as fabrications, such as the  Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 's tracing of the ancestry of several English kings to the god  Woden . [ 38 ]  With the coming of Christianity to northern Europe,  Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies  extended the kings' lines of ancestry from Woden back to reach the line of  Biblical patriarchs :  Noah [ 39 ]
and  Adam . (This extension offered the side-benefit of connecting pretentious rulers with the prestigious  genealogy of Jesus .) [ 40 ]


Modern historians and genealogists may regard manufactured pseudo-genealogies with a degree of scepticism. However, the desire to find ancestral links with prominent figures from a legendary or distant past has persisted. In the United States, for example, it does no harm to  establish one's links to ancestors  who boarded the  Mayflower . And the popularity of the genealogical hypothesis of  The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail  (1982) demonstrates popular interest in ancient bloodlines, however dubious.


Some family trees have been maintained for considerable periods. The family tree of  Confucius  has been maintained for over 2,500 years and is listed in the  Guinness Book of World Records  as the largest extant family tree. The fifth edition of the  Confucius Genealogy  was printed in 2009 by the  Confucius Genealogy Compilation Committee  (CGCC). [ 41 ] [ 42 ]


In modern times, genealogy has become more widespread, with commoners as well as nobility researching and maintaining their family trees. [ 43 ]  Genealogy received a boost in the late 1970s with the television broadcast of  Roots: The Saga of an American Family  by  Alex Haley . His account of his family's descent from the African tribesman  Kunta Kinte  inspired many others to study their own lines. [ 44 ]


With the advent of the  Internet , the number of resources readily accessible to genealogists has vastly increased, fostering an explosion of interest in the topic. [ 45 ]   Genealogy on the internet became increasingly popular starting in the early 2000s. [ 46 ]  The Internet has become a major source not only of data for genealogists but also of education and communication.


Some notable places where traditional genealogy records are kept include  Hindu genealogy registers at Haridwar (Uttarakhand) ,  Varanasi  and  Allahabad  ( Uttar Pradesh ),  Kurukshetra (Haryana) ,  Trimbakeshwar  ( Maharashtra ), and  Chintpurni  ( Himachal Pradesh ). [ 47 ]


Genealogical research in the United States was first systematized in the early 19th century, especially by  John Farmer  (1789–1838). [ 48 ]  Before Farmer's efforts, tracing one's genealogy was seen as an attempt by the American colonists to secure a measure of social standing, an aim that was counter to the new republic's egalitarian, future-oriented ideals (as outlined in the  Constitution ). [ 48 ]  As Fourth of July celebrations commemorating the Founding Fathers and the heroes of the Revolutionary War became increasingly popular, however, the pursuit of "antiquarianism", which focused on local history, became acceptable as a way to honor the achievements of early Americans. [ citation needed ]  Farmer capitalized on the acceptability of antiquarianism to frame genealogy within the early republic's ideological framework of pride in one's American ancestors. He corresponded with other antiquarians in New England, where antiquarianism and genealogy were well established, and became a coordinator, booster, and contributor to the growing movement. In the 1820s, he and fellow antiquarians began to produce genealogical and antiquarian tracts in earnest, slowly gaining a devoted audience among the American people. Though Farmer died in 1838, his efforts led to the founding in 1845 of the  New England Historic Genealogical Society  (NEHGS), one of New England's oldest and most prominent organizations dedicated to the preservation of public records. [ 49 ]  NEHGS publishes the  New England Historical and Genealogical Register.


The  Genealogical Society of Utah , founded in 1894, later became the Family History Department of  the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . The department's research facility, the  Family History Library , which Utah.com claims as "the largest genealogical library in the world", [ 50 ]  was established to assist in tracing family lineages for special religious ceremonies which Latter-day Saints believe will seal family units together for eternity. Latter-day Saints believe that this fulfilled a biblical prophecy stating that the prophet  Elijah  would return to "turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers." [ 51 ]  There is a network of church-operated  Family History Centers  all over the United States and around the world, where volunteers assist the public with tracing their ancestors. [ 52 ]   Brigham Young University  offers bachelor's degree, minor, and concentration programs in Family History and is the only school in North America to offer this. [ 53 ]


The  American Society of Genealogists  is the scholarly honorary society of the U.S. genealogical field. Founded by John Insley Coddington, Arthur Adams, and Meredith B. Colket Jr., in December 1940, its membership is limited to 50 living fellows. ASG has semi-annually published  The Genealogist , a scholarly journal of genealogical research, since 1980.  Fellows of the American Society of Genealogists , who bear the post-nominal acronym "FASG", have written some of the most notable genealogical materials of the last half-century. [ 54 ]


Some of the most notable scholarly American genealogical journals include  The American Genealogist ,  National Genealogical Society Quarterly ,  The New England Historical and Genealogical Register ,  The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record , and  The Genealogist . [ 55 ] [ 56 ]


Genealogical research is a complex process that uses historical records and sometimes genetic analysis to demonstrate kinship. Reliable conclusions are based on the quality of sources (ideally, original records), the information within those sources, (ideally, primary or firsthand information), and the evidence that can be drawn (directly or indirectly), from that information. In many instances, genealogists must skillfully assemble indirect or  circumstantial evidence  to build a case for identity and kinship. All evidence and conclusions, together with the documentation that supports them, is then assembled to create a cohesive genealogy or  family history . [ 58 ]


Genealogists begin their research by collecting family documents and stories. This creates a foundation for  documentary research , which involves examining and evaluating historical records for evidence about ancestors and other relatives, their kinship ties, and the events that occurred in their lives. As a rule, genealogists begin with the present and work backwards in time. Historical, social, and family context is essential to achieving correct identification of individuals and relationships. Source citation is also important when conducting genealogical research. [ 59 ] [ 60 ]  To keep track of collected material, family group sheets and  pedigree charts  are used. Formerly handwritten, these can now be generated by genealogical software. [ 61 ]


Because a person's  DNA  contains information that has been passed down relatively unchanged from early ancestors,  analysis of DNA  is sometimes used for genealogical research. Three DNA types are of particular interest.  Mitochondrial DNA  (mtDNA) is contained in the mitochondria of the egg cell and is passed down from a mother to all of her children, both male and female; however, only females pass it on to their children.  Y-DNA  is present only in males and is passed down from a father to his sons (direct male line) with only minor mutations occurring over time.  Autosomal DNA  (atDNA), is found in the 22 non-sex chromosomes (autosomes) and is inherited from both parents; thus, it can uncover relatives from any branch of the family. A  genealogical DNA test  allows two individuals to find the probability that they are, or are not, related within an estimated number of generations. Individual  genetic test results  are collected in databases to match people descended from a relatively recent common ancestor. See, for example, the  Molecular Genealogy Research Project . Some tests are limited to either the patrilineal or the matrilineal line. [ 62 ]


Most  genealogy software  programs can export information about persons and their relationships in a standardized format called a  GEDCOM . In that format, it can be shared with other genealogists, added to databases, or converted into family web sites.  Social networking service  (SNS) websites allow genealogists to share data and build their family trees online. Members can upload their family trees and contact other family historians to fill in gaps in their research. In addition to the (SNS) websites, there are other resources that encourage genealogists to connect and share information, such as rootsweb.ancestry.com [ 63 ]  and rsl.rootsweb.ancestry.com. [ 64 ]


Volunteer efforts  figure prominently in genealogy. [ 65 ]  These range from the extremely informal to the highly organized.


On the informal side are the many popular and useful  message boards  such as  Rootschat  and  mailing lists  on particular surnames, regions, and other topics. These forums can be used to try to find relatives, request record lookups, obtain research advice, and much more. Many genealogists participate in loosely organized projects, both online and off. These collaborations take numerous forms. Some projects prepare name indexes for records, such as  probate  cases, and publish the indexes, either online or off. These indexes can be used as  finding aids  to locate original records. Other projects transcribe or abstract records. Offering record lookups for particular geographic areas is another common service. Volunteers do record lookups or take photos in their home areas for researchers who are unable to travel. [ 66 ]


Those looking for a structured volunteer environment can join one of thousands of  genealogical societies  worldwide. Most societies have a unique area of focus, such as a particular surname,  ethnicity , geographic area, or  descendancy from participants in a given historical event . Genealogical societies are almost exclusively staffed by volunteers and may offer a broad range of services, including maintaining libraries for members' use, publishing newsletters, providing research assistance to the public, offering classes or seminars, and organizing record preservation or transcription projects. [ 67 ]


Genealogy software is used to collect, store, sort, and display genealogical data. At a minimum, genealogy software accommodates basic information about individuals, including births, marriages, and deaths. Many programs allow for additional biographical information, including occupation, residence, and notes, and most also offer a method for keeping track of the sources for each piece of evidence. [ 68 ]
Most programs can generate basic kinship charts and reports, allow for the import of digital photographs and the export of data in the  GEDCOM  format (short for GEnealogical Data COMmunication) so that data can be shared with those using other genealogy software. More advanced features include the ability to restrict the information that is shared, usually by removing information about living people out of  privacy  concerns; the import of sound files; the generation of family history books, web pages and other publications; the ability to handle  same-sex marriages  and children born out of wedlock; searching the Internet for data; and the provision of research guidance.  Programs may be geared toward a specific religion, with fields relevant to that religion, or to specific nationalities or ethnic groups, with source types relevant for those groups. Online resources involve complex programming and large data bases, such as censuses. [ 69 ]


Genealogists use a wide variety of records in their research. To effectively conduct genealogical research, it is important to understand how the records were created, what information is included in them, and how and where to access them. [ 70 ] [ 71 ]


Records that are used in genealogy research include:


To keep track of their citizens, governments began keeping  records  of persons who were neither  royalty  nor  nobility . In England and Germany, for example, such record keeping started with parish registers in the 16th century. [ 74 ]  As more of the population was recorded, there were sufficient records to follow a family. Major life events, such as births, marriages, and deaths, were often documented with a license, permit, or report. Genealogists locate these records in local, regional or national offices or  archives  and extract information about family relationships and recreate  timelines  of persons' lives.


In China, India and other Asian countries,  genealogy books  are used to record the names, occupations, and other information about family members, with some books dating back hundreds or even thousands of years. In the eastern Indian state of  Bihar , there is a written tradition of genealogical records among Maithil Brahmins and Karna Kayasthas called " Panjis ", dating to the 12th century CE. Even today these records are consulted prior to marriages. [ 75 ] [ 76 ] [ 77 ]


In Ireland, genealogical records were recorded by professional families of  senchaidh  (historians) until as late as the mid-17th century. Perhaps the most outstanding example of this genre is  Leabhar na nGenealach / The Great Book of Irish Genealogies , by  Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh  (d. 1671), published in 2004.


The LDS Church has engaged in large-scale microfilming of records of genealogical value. Its Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, houses over 2 million microfiche and microfilms of genealogically relevant material, which are also available for on-site research at over 4,500 Family History Centers worldwide. [ 78 ]


FamilySearch 's website includes many resources for genealogists: a FamilyTree database, historical records, [ 79 ]  digitized family history books, [ 80 ]  resources and indexing for African American genealogy such as slave and bank records, [ 81 ]  and a  Family History Research Wiki  containing research guidance articles. [ 82 ]


Indexing is the process of transcribing parish records, city vital records, and other reports, to a digital database for searching.  Volunteers and professionals participate in the indexing process.  Since 2006, the microfilm in the FamilySearch granite mountain vault is in the process of being digitally scanned, available online, and eventually indexed. [ 83 ] [ 84 ]


For example, after the 72-year legal limit for releasing personal information for the  United States Census  was reached in 2012, genealogical groups cooperated to index the 132 million residents registered in the  1940 United States census . [ 85 ]


Between 2006 and 2012, the FamilySearch indexing effort produced more than 1 billion searchable records. [ 86 ]


In 2022, FamilySearch and Ancestry partnered to use   Artificial Intelligence  (AI) technology to help the process of indexing more records. The process first began with the public release of the  1950 United States Census . The index of the census would at first be created by an AI trained on handwriting in old documents and then reviewed by thousands of volunteers using FamilySearch.


Sometimes genealogical records are destroyed, whether accidentally or on purpose. In order to do thorough research, genealogists keep track of which records have been destroyed so they know when information they need may be missing. Of particular note for North American genealogy is the  1890 United States census , which was destroyed in a fire in 1921. Although fragments survive, most of the 1890 census no longer exists. Those looking for genealogical information for families that lived in the United States in 1890 must rely on other information to fill that gap. [ 87 ]


War is another cause of record destruction. During World War II, many European records were destroyed. [ 88 ]  Communists in China during the  Cultural Revolution  and in Korea during the  Korean War  destroyed genealogy books kept by families. [ 89 ] [ 90 ]


Often records are destroyed due to accident or neglect. Since genealogical records are often kept on paper and stacked in high-density storage, they are prone to fire, mold, insect damage, and eventual disintegration. Sometimes records of genealogical value are deliberately destroyed by governments or organizations because the records are considered to be unimportant or a privacy risk. Because of this, genealogists often organize efforts to preserve records that are at risk of destruction. FamilySearch has an ongoing program that assesses what useful genealogical records have the most risk of being destroyed, and sends volunteers to digitize such records. [ 88 ]  In 2017, the government of  Sierra Leone  asked FamilySearch for help preserving their rapidly deteriorating vital records. FamilySearch has begun digitizing the records and making them available online. [ 91 ]  The  Federation of Genealogical Societies  also organized an effort to preserve and digitize United States  War of 1812  pension records. In 2010, they began raising funds, which were contribute by genealogists around the United States and matched by  Ancestry.com . Their goal was achieved and the process of digitization was able to begin. The digitized records are available for free online. [ 92 ]


Genealogists who seek to reconstruct the lives of each ancestor consider all historical information to be "genealogical" information. Traditionally, the basic information needed to ensure correct identification of each person are place names, occupations,  family names , first names, and dates. However, modern genealogists greatly expand this list, recognizing the need to place this information in its historical context in order to properly evaluate genealogical evidence and distinguish between same-name individuals. A great deal of information is available for British ancestry [ 93 ]  with growing resources for other ethnic groups. [ 94 ]


Family names are simultaneously one of the most important pieces of genealogical information, and a source of significant confusion for researchers. [ 95 ]


In many cultures, the name of a person refers to the family to which they belong. This is called the  family name ,  surname , or  last name .  Patronymics  are names that identify an individual based on the father's name. For example, Marga Olafsdottir is Marga, daughter of Olaf, and Olaf Thorsson is Olaf, son of Thor. Many cultures used patronymics before surnames were adopted or came into use. The Dutch in New York, for example, used the patronymic system of names until 1687 when the advent of English rule mandated surname usage. [ 96 ]  In Iceland, patronymics are used by a majority of the population. [ 97 ]  In Denmark and Norway patronymics and farm names were generally in use through the 19th century and beyond, though surnames began to come into fashion toward the end of the 19th century in some parts of the country. Not until 1856 in Denmark [ 98 ]  and 1923 in Norway [ 99 ]  were there laws requiring surnames.


The transmission of names across generations, marriages and other relationships, and immigration may cause difficulty in genealogical research. For instance, women in many cultures have routinely used their spouse's surnames. When a woman remarried, she may have changed her name and the names of her children; only her name; or changed no names. Her birth name ( maiden name ) may be reflected in her children's middle names; her own middle name; or dropped entirely. [ 100 ]  Children may sometimes assume stepparent, foster parent, or adoptive parent names. Because official records may reflect many kinds of surname change, without explaining the underlying reason for the change, the correct identification of a person recorded identified with more than one name is challenging.  Immigrants to America often Americanized their names. [ 101 ]


Surname data may be found in trade directories, census returns, birth, death, and marriage records.


Genealogical data regarding  given names  (first names) is subject to many of the same problems as are family names and place names. Additionally, the use of  nicknames  is very common. For example, Beth, Lizzie or Betty are all common for Elizabeth, and Jack, John and Jonathan may be interchanged.


Middle names provide additional information. Middle names may be inherited, follow naming customs, or be treated as part of the family name. For instance, in some Latin cultures, both the mother's family name and the father's family name are used by the children.


Historically, naming traditions existed in some places and cultures. Even in areas that tended to use naming conventions, however, they were by no means universal. Families may have used them some of the time, among some of their children, or not at all. A pattern might also be broken to name a newborn after a recently deceased sibling, aunt or uncle.


An example of a naming tradition from England, Scotland and Ireland:


Another example is in some areas of Germany, where siblings were given the same first name, often of a favourite saint or local nobility, but different second names by which they were known ( Rufname ). If a child died, the next child of the same gender that was born may have been given the same name. It is not uncommon that a list of a particular couple's children will show one or two names repeated.


Personal names have periods of popularity, so it is not uncommon to find many similarly named people in a generation, and even similarly named families; e.g., "William and Mary and their children David, Mary, and John".


Many names may be identified strongly with a particular gender; e.g., William for boys, and Mary for girls. Others may be  ambiguous , e.g., Lee, or have only slightly variant spellings based on gender, e.g., Frances (usually female) and Francis (usually male).


While the locations of ancestors' residences and life events are core elements of the genealogist's quest, they can often be confusing. Place names may be subject to variant spellings by partially literate scribes. Locations may have identical or very similar names. For example, the village name  Brockton  occurs six times in the border area between the English counties of  Shropshire  and  Staffordshire . Shifts in political borders must also be understood. Parish, county, and national borders have frequently been modified. Old records may contain references to farms and villages that have ceased to exist. When working with older records from Poland, where borders and place names have changed frequently in past centuries, a source with maps and sample records such as  A Translation Guide to 19th-Century Polish-Language Civil-Registration Documents  can be invaluable.


Available sources may include vital records (civil or church registration), censuses, and tax assessments. Oral tradition is also an important source, although it must be used with caution. When no source information is available for a location, circumstantial evidence may provide a probable answer based on a person's or a family's place of residence at the time of the event.


Maps and gazetteers are important sources for understanding the places researched. They show the relationship of an area to neighboring communities and may be of help in understanding migration patterns.  Family tree mapping  using online mapping tools such as  Google Earth  (particularly when used with Historical Map overlays such as those from the  David Rumsey Historical Map Collection ) assist in the process of understanding the significance of geographical locations.


It is wise to exercise extreme caution with dates. Dates are more difficult to recall years after an event, and are more easily mistranscribed than other types of genealogical data. [ 102 ]  Therefore, one should determine whether the date was recorded at the time of the event or at a later date. Dates of birth in vital records or civil registrations and in church records at baptism are generally accurate because they were usually recorded near the time of the event. Family Bibles are often a source for dates, but can be written from memory long after the event. When the same ink and handwriting is used for all entries, the dates were probably written at the same time and therefore will be less reliable since the earlier dates were probably recorded well after the event. The publication date of the Bible also provides a clue about when the dates were recorded since they could not have been recorded at any earlier date.


People sometimes reduce their age on marriage, and those under "full age" may increase their age in order to marry or to join the armed forces.  Census  returns are notoriously unreliable for ages or for assuming an approximate death date. Ages over 15 in the  1841 census in the UK  are rounded down to the next lower multiple of five years.


Although baptismal dates are often used to approximate birth dates, some families waited years before baptizing children, and adult baptisms are the norm in some religions. Both birth and marriage dates may have been adjusted to cover for pre-wedding pregnancies.


Calendar changes must also be considered. In 1752, England and her American colonies changed from the  Julian  to the  Gregorian calendar . In the same year, the date the new year began was changed. Prior to 1752 it was  25 March ; this was changed to 1 January. Many other European countries had already made the calendar changes before England had, sometimes centuries earlier. By 1751 there was an 11-day discrepancy between the date in England and the date in other European countries.


For further detail on the changes involved in moving from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, see:  Gregorian calendar .


The  French Republican Calendar  or French Revolutionary Calendar was a calendar proposed during the French Revolution, and used by the French government for about 12 years from late 1793 to 1805, and for 18 days in 1871 in Paris. Dates in official records at this time use the revolutionary calendar and need "translating" into the Gregorian calendar for calculating ages etc. There are various websites which do this. [ 103 ]


Occupational information may be important to understanding an ancestor's life and for distinguishing two people with the same name. A person's occupation may have been related to his or her social status, political interest, and migration pattern. Since skilled trades are often passed from father to son, occupation may also be indirect evidence of a family relationship.


It is important to remember that a person may change occupations, and that titles change over time as well. Some workers no longer fit for their primary trade often took less prestigious jobs later in life, while others moved upwards in prestige. [ 104 ]  Many unskilled ancestors had a variety of jobs depending on the season and local trade requirements. Census returns may contain some embellishment; e.g., from  labourer  to  mason , or from  journeyman  to  master craftsman . Names for old or unfamiliar local occupations may cause confusion if poorly legible. For example, an ostler (a keeper of horses) and a hostler (an innkeeper) could easily be confused for one another. Likewise, descriptions of such occupations may also be problematic. The perplexing description "ironer of rabbit burrows" may turn out to describe an ironer (profession) in the  Bristol  district named Rabbit Burrows. Several trades have regionally preferred terms. For example, "shoemaker" and "cordwainer" have the same meaning. Finally, many apparently obscure jobs are part of a larger trade community, such as watchmaking,  framework knitting  or gunmaking.


Occupational data may be reported in occupational licences, tax assessments, membership records of professional organizations, trade directories, census returns, and vital records (civil registration). Occupational dictionaries are available to explain many obscure and archaic trades. [ 105 ]


Information found in historical or genealogical sources can be unreliable and it is good practice to evaluate all sources with a critical eye. Factors influencing the reliability of genealogical information include: the knowledge of the informant (or writer); the bias and mental state of the informant (or writer); the passage of time and the potential for copying and compiling errors.


The quality of census data has been of special interest to historians, who have investigated reliability issues. [ 102 ] [ 106 ]


The informant is the individual who provided the recorded information. Genealogists must carefully consider who provided the information and what they knew. In many cases the informant is identified in the record itself. For example, a death certificate usually has two informants: a physician who provides information about the time and cause of death and a family member who provides the birth date, names of parents, etc.


When the informant is not identified, one can sometimes deduce information about the identity of the person by careful examination of the source. One should first consider who was alive (and nearby) when the record was created. When the informant is also the person recording the information, the handwriting can be compared to other handwriting samples.


When a source does not provide clues about the informant, genealogists should treat the source with caution. These sources can be useful if they can be compared with independent sources. For example, a census record by itself cannot be given much weight because the informant is unknown. However, when censuses for several years concur on a piece of information that would not likely be guessed by a neighbor, it is likely that the information in these censuses was provided by a family member or other informed person. On the other hand, information in a single census cannot be confirmed by information in an undocumented compiled genealogy since the genealogy may have used the census record as its source and might therefore be dependent on the same misinformed individual.


Even individuals who had knowledge of the fact, sometimes intentionally or unintentionally provided false or misleading information. A person may have lied in order to obtain a government benefit (such as a military pension), avoid taxation, or cover up an embarrassing situation (such as the existence of a non-marital child). A person with a distressed state of mind may not be able to accurately recall information. Many genealogical records were recorded at the time of a loved one's death, and so genealogists should consider the effect that grief may have had on the informant of these records.


The passage of time often affects a person's ability to recall information. Therefore, as a general rule, data recorded soon after the event are usually more reliable than data recorded many years later. However, some types of data are more difficult to recall after many years than others. One type especially prone to recollection errors is dates. Also the ability to recall is affected by the significance that the event had to the individual. These values may have been affected by cultural or individual preferences.


Genealogists must consider the effects that copying and compiling errors may have had on the information in a source. For this reason, sources are generally categorized in two categories: original and derivative. An original source is one that is not based on another source. A derivative source is information taken from another source. This distinction is important because each time a source is copied, information about the record may be lost and errors may result from the copyist misreading, mistyping, or miswriting the information. Genealogists should consider the number of times information has been copied and the types of derivation a piece of information has undergone. The types of derivatives include: photocopies, transcriptions, abstracts, translations, extractions, and compilations.


In addition to copying errors, compiled sources (such as published genealogies and online pedigree databases) are susceptible to misidentification errors and incorrect conclusions based on circumstantial evidence. Identity errors usually occur when two or more individuals are assumed to be the same person. Circumstantial or indirect evidence does not explicitly answer a genealogical question, but either may be used with other sources to answer the question, suggest a probable answer, or eliminate certain possibilities. Compilers sometimes draw hasty conclusions from circumstantial evidence without sufficiently examining all available sources, without properly understanding the evidence, and without appropriately indicating the level of uncertainty.


In genealogical research, information can be obtained from primary or secondary sources. Primary sources are records that were made at the time of the event, for example a death certificate would be a primary source for a person's death date and place. Secondary sources are records that are made days, weeks, months, or even years after an event.


Organizations that educate and certify genealogists have established standards and ethical guidelines they instruct genealogists to follow.


Genealogy research requires analyzing documents and drawing conclusions based on the evidence provided in the available documents. Genealogists need standards to determine whether or not their evaluation of the evidence is accurate. In the past, genealogists in the United States borrowed terms from  judicial law  to examine evidence found in documents and how they relate to the researcher's conclusions. However, the differences between the two disciplines created a need for genealogists to develop their own standards. In 2000, the  Board for Certification of Genealogists  published their first manual of standards. The  Genealogical Proof Standard  created by the Board for Certification of Genealogists is widely distributed in seminars, workshops, and educational materials for genealogists in the United States. Other genealogical organizations around the world have created similar standards they invite genealogists to follow. Such standards provide guidelines for genealogists to evaluate their own research as well as the research of others.


Standards for genealogical research include: [ 107 ] [ 108 ] [ 109 ]


Genealogists often handle sensitive information and share and publish such information. Because of this, there is a need for ethical standards and boundaries for when information is too sensitive to be published. Historically, some genealogists have fabricated information or have otherwise been untrustworthy. Genealogical organizations around the world have outlined ethical standards as an attempt to eliminate such problems. Ethical standards adopted by various genealogical organizations include: [ 110 ] [ 111 ] [ 109 ] [ 108 ] [ 112 ]


In 2015, a committee presented standards for  genetic genealogy  at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. The standards emphasize that genealogists and testing companies should respect the privacy of clients and recognize the limits of DNA tests. It also discusses how genealogists should thoroughly document conclusions made using DNA evidence. [ 113 ]  In 2019, the Board for the Certification of Genealogists officially updated their standards and code of ethics to include standards for genetic genealogy. [ 107 ]


General


British Isles


China


Continental Europe


North America


The  get  of an animal are the offspring of a particular individual male animal.  It is derived from the term "beget", meaning to father  offspring . The term is frequently used in livestock raising and informal  animal husbandry , notably  horse breeding  to describe the offspring of a  stallion  or sire [ 1 ]  In  show  competition, a "get of sire" class evaluates a group of animals who have the same sire and evaluates the consistency with which a given sire is able to pass on desirable characteristics to his offspring.


This  zoology –related article is a  stub . You can help Wikipedia by  expanding it .


A  gotra  is equivalent to a  lineage , akin to a family name, but the given name of a family is often different from its gotra, and may reflect the traditional occupation, place of residence or other important family characteristic rather than the lineage.


People belonging to a particular gotra may not be of the same caste (as there are many gotras which are part of different castes) in the  Hindu  social system. However, there is a notable exception among matrilineal  Tulu  speakers, for whom the lineages are the same across the castes.


People of the same gotra are generally not allowed to marry. At weddings, the gotras of the bride and the groom are read aloud to verify that they are not breaking this rule.


A list of major Brahmin gotras according to the  Sutras : [ 1 ]


Hawaiian kinship , also referred to as the  generational system , is a  kinship terminology  system used to define  family  within  languages . Identified by  Lewis H. Morgan  in his 1871 work  Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family , the Hawaiian system is one of the six major kinship systems ( Inuit , Hawaiian,  Iroquois ,  Crow ,  Omaha , and  Sudanese ). [ 1 ]


Within common typologies, the Hawaiian system is the simplest classificatory system of  kinship . Relatives are distinguished only by generation and by gender. There is a parental generation and a generation of children.  In this system, a person (called  Ego  in  anthropology ) refers to all females of his parents' generation (mother, aunts, and the wives of men in this generation) as "Mother" and all of the males (father, uncles, and husbands of the women in this generation) as "Father".  In the generation of children, all brothers and male cousins are referred to as "Brother", and all sisters and female cousins as "Sister". [ 2 ]


In this way, a cross-cousin will be referred to as a "sibling". A correlation was found between the Hawaiian system and the prohibition of  cross‐cousin marriage , as the  incest taboo  is reflected in the semantics. [ 3 ]


The Hawaiian system is named for the pre-contact kinship system of  Native Hawaiian  people in the  Hawaiian Islands . Today, the Hawaiian system is most common among  Malayo-Polynesian-speaking  cultures; the  Hawaiian language  itself is Malayo-Polynesian.


This system is usually associated with  ambilineal descent  groups, where economic production and child-rearing are shared between the genders. The Hawaiian system is found in approximately one-third of the world's societies, although usually small societies. [ 4 ]


Heir and spare , or  the heir and the spare , is a term referring to first-born and second-born children,  usually male , in patrilineal  inheritance  systems. The first-born is  heir apparent  or  heir presumptive . The second-born is  redundancy  should there ever be a catastrophic incident involving the first-born. [ 1 ]  The brutal clarity of this  winner-takes-all system  contrasts with other, more ambiguous systems where heirs are never told what, how much, or if they will inherit at all. [ 2 ]


Historically, it was the duty of women to deliver these heirs for the sake of the  perpetuation of the extant economic and social system. For example, before  Geneviève d'Arconville  began her scientific work, she married and, while still a teenager, "had produced for him an heir, a spare, and even a third son for good measure." [ 3 ]


In modern times, the phrase was the inspiration for the title of  Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex 's 2023 memoir  Spare ,  as he is the younger brother of  William, Prince of Wales , the current heir apparent to the British throne. [ 1 ]


Conceiving children to provide bone marrow or organs for their sickly older siblings, a concept known as " savior siblings ", has been derisively described by a derivative phrase: "the heir and the spare parts." [ 4 ]


The  hereditary peers  form part of the  peerage in the United Kingdom . As of November 2024, there are 801 hereditary peers:  30 dukes  (including six royal dukes),  34 marquesses ,  189 earls ,  109 viscounts , and  439 barons  (not counting  subsidiary titles ).


As a result of the  Peerage Act 1963 , all peers except those in the  peerage of Ireland  were entitled to sit in the  House of Lords . Since the  House of Lords Act 1999  came into force only 92 hereditary peers, elected from all hereditary peers, are permitted to do so, unless they are also life peers. [ 1 ]  Peers are called to the House of Lords with a  writ of summons .


Not all hereditary titles are titles of the peerage. For instance,  baronets and baronetesses  may pass on their titles, but they are not peers. Conversely, the holder of a non-hereditary title may belong to the peerage, as with  life peers . Peerages may be created by means of  letters patent , but the granting of new hereditary peerages has largely dwindled; only seven hereditary peerages have been created since 1965, four of them for members of the  British royal family . The most recent grant of a hereditary peerage was in 2019 for the youngest child of  Elizabeth II ,  Prince Edward , who was created  Earl of Forfar ; the most recent grant of a hereditary peerage to a non-royal was in 1984 for former Prime Minister  Harold Macmillan , who was created  Earl of Stockton  with the subsidiary title of Viscount Macmillan.


The hereditary peerage, as it now exists, combines several different English institutions with analogues from Scotland and Ireland.


English  earls  are an  Anglo-Saxon  institution. Around 1014, England was divided into  shires  or counties, largely to defend against the  Danes ; each shire was led by a local great man, called an earl; the same man could be earl of several shires. When the  Normans invaded England , they continued to appoint earls, but not for all counties; the administrative head of the county became the  sheriff . Earldoms began as offices, with a perquisite of a share of the legal fees in the county; they gradually became honours, with a stipend of  £ 20 a year. Like most feudal offices, earldoms were inherited, but the kings frequently asked earls to resign or exchange earldoms. Usually there were few earls in England, and they were men of great wealth in the shire from which they held title, or an adjacent one, but it depended on circumstances: during the civil war between  Stephen  and the  Empress Matilda , nine earls were created in three years.


William the Conqueror  and his great-grandson  Henry II  did not make dukes; they were themselves only Dukes of Normandy or  Aquitaine . But when  Edward III of England  declared himself King of France, he made his sons dukes, to distinguish them from other noblemen, much as royal dukes are now distinguished from other dukes. Later kings created  marquesses  and  viscounts  to make finer gradations of honour: a rank something more than an earl and something less than an earl, respectively.


When  Henry III  or  Edward I  wanted money or advice from his subjects, he would order great churchmen, earls, and other great men to come to his  Great Council  (some of these are now considered the first  parliaments ); he would generally order lesser men from towns and counties to gather and pick some men to represent them. The English Order of  Barons  evolved from those men who were individually ordered to attend Parliament, but held no other title; the chosen representatives, on the other hand, became the  House of Commons . This order, called a  writ , was not originally hereditary, or even a privilege; the recipient had to come to the Great Council at his own expense, vote on taxes on himself and his neighbours, acknowledge that he was the king's  tenant-in-chief  (which might cost him special taxes), and risk involvement in royal politics—or a request from the king for a personal loan ( benevolence ). Which men were ordered to council varied from council to council; a man might be so ordered once and never again, or all his life, but his son and heir might never go.


Under  Henry VI of England , in the 15th century, just before the  Wars of the Roses , attendance at Parliament became more valuable. The first claim of hereditary right to a writ comes from this reign; so does the first  patent , or charter declaring a man to be a baron. The five orders began to be called peers. Holders of older peerages also began to receive greater honour than peers of the same rank just created.


If a man held a peerage, his son would succeed to it; if he had no children, his brother would succeed. If he had a single daughter, his son-in-law would inherit the family lands, and usually the same peerage; more complex cases were decided depending on circumstances. Customs changed with time; earldoms were the first to be hereditary, and three different rules can be traced for the case of an earl who left no sons and several married daughters. In the 13th century, the husband of the eldest daughter inherited the earldom automatically; in the 15th century, the earldom reverted to the Crown, who might re-grant it (often to the eldest son-in-law); in the 17th century,  it would not be inherited by anybody  unless all but one of the daughters died and left no descendants, in which case the remaining daughter (or her heir) would inherit.


After Henry II became the  Lord of Ireland , he and his successors began to imitate the English system as it was in their time. Irish earls were first created in the 13th century, and Irish parliaments began later in the same century; until Henry VIII declared himself King of Ireland, these parliaments were small bodies, representing only the  Irish Pale . A writ does not create a peerage in Ireland; all Irish peerages are by patent or charter, although some early patents have been lost. After James II left England, he was King of Ireland alone for a time; three creations he ordered then are in the Irish Patent Roll, although the patents were never issued; but these are treated as valid.


The Irish peers were in a peculiar political position: because they were subjects of the King of England, but peers in a different kingdom, they could sit in the English House of Commons, and many did. In the 18th century, Irish peerages became rewards for English politicians, limited only by the concern that they might go to Dublin and interfere with the Irish Government.


Scotland evolved a similar system, differing in points of detail. The first Scottish earldoms derive from the seven  mormaers , of immemorial antiquity; they were named earls by Queen Margaret. The  Parliament of Scotland  is as old as the English; the Scottish equivalent of baronies are called  lordships of Parliament .


The  Act of Union 1707 , between England and Scotland, provided that future peerages should be  peers of Great Britain , and the rules covering the peers should follow the English model; because there were proportionately many more Scottish peers, they chose a number of representatives to sit in the British House of Lords. The  Acts of Union 1800  changed this to  peers of the United Kingdom , but provided that Irish peerages could still be created; but the Irish peers were concerned that their honours would be diluted as cheap prizes, and insisted that an Irish peerage could be created only when three Irish peerages had gone extinct (until there were only a hundred Irish peers left). In the early 19th century, Irish creations were as frequent as this allowed; but only three have been created since 1863, and none since 1898. As of 2011, only 66 "only-Irish" peers remain. [ a ]


The law applicable to a British hereditary peerage depends on which Kingdom it belongs to. Peerages of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom follow English law; the difference between them is that peerages of England were created before the  Act of Union 1707 , peerages of Great Britain between 1707 and the Union with Ireland in 1800, and peerages of the United Kingdom since 1800. Irish peerages follow the law of the  Kingdom of Ireland , which is very much similar to English law, except in referring to the  Irish Parliament  and Irish officials, generally no longer appointed; no Irish peers have been created since 1898, and they have no part in the present governance of the United Kingdom. Scottish peerage law is generally similar to English law, but differs in innumerable points of detail, often being more similar to medieval practice.


Women are ineligible to succeed to the majority of English, Irish, and British hereditary peerages, but may inherit certain English baronies by writ and Scottish peerages in the absence of a male heir. [ 2 ]


The ranks of the peerage in most of the United Kingdom are, in descending order of rank,  duke ,  marquess ,  earl ,  viscount  and  baron ; [ 3 ]  the female equivalents are duchess, marchioness, countess, viscountess and baroness respectively. Women typically do not hold hereditary titles in their own right, except for certain peerages in the peerage of Scotland. One significant change to the status quo in England was in 1532 when  Henry VIII  created the  Marquess of Pembroke  title for his soon-to-be wife,  Anne Boleyn ; she held this title in her own right and was therefore ennobled with the same rank as a male. [ further explanation needed ]


In the Scottish peerage, the lowest rank is  lordship of Parliament , the male holder thereof being known as a  lord of Parliament . [ 4 ]  A Scottish  barony  is a  feudal  rank, and not of the Peerage. The  barony by tenure  or feudal barony in England and Wales was similar to a  Scottish feudal barony , in being hereditary, but is long obsolete, the last full summons of the English feudal barons to military service having occurred in 1327. [ 5 ]  The  Tenures Abolition Act 1660  finally quashed any remaining doubt as to their continued status.


Peerage dignities are created by the  sovereign  by either writs of summons or  letters patent . Under modern constitutional conventions, no peerage dignity, with the possible exception of those given to members of the royal family, would be created if not upon the advice of the  prime minister .


Many peers hold more than one hereditary title; for example, the same individual may be a duke, a marquess, an earl, a viscount, and a baron by virtue of different peerages. If such a person is entitled to sit in the House of Lords, he still only has one vote. However, until the  House of Lords Act 1999  it was possible for one of the peer's subsidiary titles to be passed to his heir before his death by means of a  writ of acceleration , in which case the peer and his heir would have one vote each. Where this is not done, the heir may still use one of the father's subsidiary titles as a " courtesy title ", but he is not considered a peer. [ 6 ]


The mode of inheritance of an hereditary peerage is determined by the method of its creation. Titles may be created by writ of summons or by  letters patent . The former is merely a summons of an individual to Parliament and does not explicitly confer a peerage; descent is always to the  heirs of the body , male and female. The latter method explicitly creates a peerage and names the dignity in question. Letters patent may state the course of descent; usually, this is only to male heirs, but by a  special remainder  other descents can be specified. The  Gender Recognition Act 2004  regulates  acquired gender  and provides that acquiring a new gender under the Act does not affect the descent of any peerage. [ 7 ]


A child is deemed to be  legitimate  if its parents are married at the time of its birth or marry later; only legitimate children may succeed to a title, and furthermore, an English, Irish, or British (but not Scottish) peerage can only be inherited by a child born legitimate, not legitimated by a later marriage. An example of this can be seen in the film director  Christopher Guest , who bypassed his older half-brother  Anthony  to became the 5th Baron Haden-Guest as the 4th Baron Haden-Guest was not married to Anthony's mother at the time of his birth. [ 8 ]


Normally, a peerage passes to the next holder on the death of the previous holder. However,  Edward IV  introduced a procedure known as a  writ of acceleration , whereby it was possible for the eldest son of a peer holding more than one peerage to sit in the House of Lords by virtue of one of his father's subsidiary dignities.


A person who is a possible heir to a peerage is said to be "in remainder". A title becomes  extinct  (an opposite to  extant , alive) when all possible heirs (as provided by the letters patent) have died out; i.e., there is nobody in remainder at the death of the holder. A title becomes  dormant  if nobody has claimed the title, or if no claim has been satisfactorily proven. A title goes into  abeyance  if there is more than one person equally entitled to be the holder.


In the past, peerages were sometimes  forfeit  or  attainted  under Acts of Parliament, most often as the result of  treason  on the part of the holder. The blood of an attainted peer was considered "corrupted", consequently his or her descendants could not inherit the title. If all descendants of the attainted peer were to die out, however, then an heir from another branch of the family not affected by the attainder could take the title. The  Forfeiture Act 1870  abolished corruption of blood; instead of losing the peerage, a peer convicted of treason would be disqualified from sitting in Parliament for the period of imprisonment.


The  Titles Deprivation Act 1917  permitted the Crown to  suspend  peerages if their holders had fought against the United Kingdom during the  First World War . Guilt was to be determined by a committee of the  Privy Council ; either House of Parliament could reject the committee's report within 40 days of its presentation. In 1919, King  George V  issued an  Order in Council  suspending the  Dukedom of Albany  (together with its subsidiary peerages, the Earldom of Clarence and the  Barony of Arklow ), the  Dukedom of Cumberland and Teviotdale  (along with the Earldom of Armagh) and the  Viscountcy of Taaffe  (along with the  Barony of Ballymote ). Under the Titles Deprivation Act, the successors to the peerages may petition the Crown for a reinstatement of the titles; so far, none of them has chosen to do so (the Taaffe and Ballymote peerages would have become extinct in 1967).


Nothing prevents a British peerage from being held by a foreign citizen (although such peers cannot sit in the House of Lords, while the term  foreign  does not include Irish or Commonwealth citizens). Several descendants of  George III  were British peers and German subjects; the  Lords Fairfax of Cameron  were American citizens for several generations.


A peer may also  disclaim  an hereditary peerage under the  Peerage Act 1963 . To do so, the peer must deliver an instrument of disclaimer to the  Lord Chancellor  within 12 months of succeeding to the peerage, or, if under the age of 21 at the time of succession, within 12 months of becoming 21 years old. If, at the time of succession, the peer is a member of the  House of Commons , then the instrument must be delivered within one month of succession; meanwhile, the peer may not sit or vote in the House of Commons. Prior to the House of Lords Act 1999, a hereditary peer could not disclaim a peerage after having applied for a writ of summons to Parliament; now, however, hereditary peers do not have the automatic right to a writ of summons to the House. Irish peerages may not be disclaimed. A peer who disclaims the peerage loses all titles, rights and privileges associated with the peerage; his wife or her husband is similarly affected. No further hereditary peerages may be conferred upon the person, but life peerages may be. The peerage remains without a holder until the death of the peer making the disclaimer, when it descends normally.


A title held by someone who becomes monarch is said to  merge in the Crown  and therefore ceases to exist, because the sovereign cannot hold a dignity from himself.


The  Dukedoms of Cornwall  and of  Rothesay , and the  Earldom of Carrick , are special cases, which when not in use are said to  lapse to the Crown : they are construed as existing, but held by no one, during such periods. These peerages are also special in that they are never directly inherited. The Dukedom of Cornwall was held formerly by the eldest son of the King of England, and the Dukedom of Rothesay, the Earldom of Carrick, and certain non-peerage titles ( Baron of Renfrew ,  Lord of the Isles  and Prince and  Great Steward of Scotland ) by the eldest son of the  King of Scotland . Since those titles have been united, the dukedoms and associated subsidiary titles are held by the eldest son of the monarch. In Scotland, the title  Duke of Rothesay  is used for life or until accession. In England and  Northern Ireland , the title  Duke of Cornwall  is used until the heir apparent is created  Prince of Wales ; at the same time as the principality is created, the duke is also created  Earl of Chester . The earldom is a special case, because it is not hereditary, instead revesting or merging in the Crown if the prince succeeds to the Crown or predeceases the monarch: thus  George III  (then the grandson of the reigning monarch) was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester a month after the death of his father  Frederick, Prince of Wales .


The Dukedom of Cornwall is associated with the  Duchy of Cornwall ; the former is a peerage dignity, while the latter is an estate held by the Duke of Cornwall. Income from the duchy goes to the Duke of Cornwall, or, when there is no duke, to the sovereign (but the money is then paid to the heir to the throne under the  Sovereign Grant Act 2011 ).


The only other duchy in the United Kingdom is the  Duchy of Lancaster , which is also an estate rather than a peerage dignity. The Dukedom of Lancaster merged in  the Crown  when  Henry of Monmouth, Duke of Lancaster  became King Henry V. Nonetheless, the  Duchy  of Lancaster continues to exist, theoretically run by the  Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster  (which is normally a  sinecure  position with no actual duties related to the duchy and is used to appoint a  minister without portfolio ). The Duchy of Lancaster is the inherited property that belongs personally to the monarch, rather than to the Crown. Thus, while income from the  Crown Estate  is turned over to the Exchequer in return for a  sovereign grant  payment, the income from the duchy forms a part of the  Privy Purse , the personal funds of the Sovereign.


At the beginning of each new parliament, each peer who has established his or her right to attend Parliament is issued a  writ  of summons. Without the writ, no peer may sit or vote in Parliament. [ 9 ]  The form of writs of summons has changed little over the centuries. It is established precedent that the sovereign may not deny writs of summons to qualified peers.


By modern English law, if a writ of summons was issued to a person who was not a peer, that person took his seat in Parliament, and the parliament was a parliament in the modern sense (including representatives of the Commons), that single writ created a  barony , a perpetual peerage inheritable by male-preference  primogeniture . This was not medieval practice, and it is doubtful whether any writ was ever issued with the intent of creating such a peerage. The last instance of a man being summoned by writ without already holding a peerage was under the early Tudors; the first clear decision that a single writ (as opposed to a long succession of writs) created a peerage was in  Lord Abergavenny 's case of 1610. The  House of Lords Act 1999  also renders it doubtful that such a writ would now create a peer if one were now issued; however, this doctrine is applied retrospectively: if it can be shown that a writ  was  issued, that the recipient sat and that the council in question was a parliament, the Committee of Privileges of the House of Lords determines who is now entitled to the peerage as though modern law had always applied. Several such long-lost baronies were claimed in the 19th and 20th centuries, though the committee was not consistent on what constituted proof of a writ, what constituted proof of sitting, and which 13th-century assemblages were actually parliaments. [ 10 ]  Even a writ issued in error is held to create a peerage unless the writ was cancelled before the recipient took his seat; the cancellation was performed by the now obsolete writ of  supersedeas .


Peerages created by writ of summons are presumed to be inheritable only by the recipient's  heirs of the body.  The House of Lords has settled such a presumption in several cases, including  Lord Grey's Case   (1640) Cro Cas 601 , the  Clifton Barony Case  (1673), the  Vaux Peerage Case  (1837) 5 Cl & Fin 526, the  Braye Peerage Case  (1839) 6 Cl & Fin 757 and the  Hastings Peerage Case  (1841) 8 Cl & Fin 144. The meaning of  heir of the body  is determined by common law. Essentially, descent is by the rules of  male primogeniture , a mechanism whereby normally, male descendants of the peer take precedence over female descendants, with children representing their deceased ancestors, and wherein the senior line of descent always takes precedence over the junior line per each gender. These rules, however, are amended by the proviso whereby sisters (and their heirs) are considered  co-heirs ; seniority of the line is irrelevant when succession is through a female line. In other words, no woman inherits because she is older than her sisters. If all of the co-heirs but one die, then the surviving co-heir succeeds to the title. Otherwise, the title remains  abeyant  until the sovereign "terminates" the abeyance in favour of one of the co-heirs. The termination of an abeyance is entirely at the discretion of the Crown.


A  writ of acceleration  is a type of writ of summons that enables the eldest son of a peer to attend the House of Lords using one of his father's subsidiary titles. The title is strictly not inherited by the eldest son, however; it remains vested in the father. A writ may be granted only if the title being accelerated is a subsidiary one, and not the main title, and if the beneficiary of the writ is the heir-apparent of the actual holder of the title. A total of ninety-four  writs of acceleration  have been issued since  Edward IV  issued the first one, including four writs issued in the 20th century. The only individual who recently sat in the House of Lords by writ of acceleration is  Viscount Cranborne  in 1992, through the  Barony of Cecil  which was actually being held by his father, the  Marquess of Salisbury . (Viscount Cranborne succeeded to the marquessate on the death of his father in 2003.)


There are no Scottish peerages created by writ; neither can Scottish baronies go into abeyance, for Scots law does not hold sisters as equal heirs regardless of age. Furthermore, there is only one extant barony by writ in the  Peerage of Ireland , that of  La Poer , now held by the  Marquess of Waterford . (Certain other baronies were originally created by writ but later confirmed by letters patent.)


More often,  letters patent  are used to create peerages. Letters patent must explicitly name the recipient of the title and specify the course of descent; the exact meaning of the term is determined by  common law . For  remainders  in the  Peerage of the United Kingdom , the most common wording is "to have and to hold unto him and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten and to be begotten". Where the letters patent specifies the peer's  heirs male of the body  as successors, the rules of  agnatic  succession apply, meaning that succession is through the male line only. Some very old titles, like the  Earldom of Arlington , may pass to  heirs of the body  (not just heirs-male), these follow the same rules of descent as do baronies by writ and seem able to fall into abeyance as well. Many Scottish titles allow for passage to  heirs general of the body , in which case the rules of male  primogeniture  apply; they do not fall into abeyance, as under Scots law, sisters are not treated as equal co-heirs. English and British letters patent that do not specify a course of descent are invalid, though the same is not true for the letters patent creating peers in the  Peerage of Scotland . The House of Lords has ruled in certain cases that when the course of descent is not specified, or when the letters patent are lost, the title descends to heirs-male.


It is generally necessary for English patents to include limitation to heirs "of the body", unless a  special remainder  is specified (see below). The limitation indicates that only lineal descendants of the original peer may succeed to the peerage. In some very rare instances, the limitation was left out. In the  Devon Peerage Case   (1831) 2 Dow & Cl 200 , the House of Lords permitted an heir who was a  collateral descendant  of the original peer to take his seat. The precedent, however, was reversed in 1859, when the House of Lords decided in the  Wiltes Peerage Case   (1869) LR 4 HL 126  that a patent that did not include the words "of the body" would be held  void .


It is possible for a patent to allow for succession by someone other than an heir-male or heir of the body, under a so-called  special remainder . Several instances may be cited: the  Barony of Nelson  (to an elder brother and his heirs-male), the  Earldom of Roberts  (to a daughter and her heirs-male), the  Barony of Amherst  (to a nephew and his heirs-male) and the  Dukedom of Dover  (to a younger son and his heirs-male while the eldest son is still alive). In many cases, at the time of the grant the proposed peer in question had no sons, nor any prospect of producing any, and the special remainder was made to allow remembrance of his personal honour to continue after his death and to preclude an otherwise certain rapid extinction of the peerage. However, in all cases the course of descent specified in the patent must be known in common law. For instance, the Crown may not make a "shifting limitation" in the letters patent; in other words, the patent may not vest the peerage in an individual and then, before that person's death, shift the title to another person. The doctrine was established in the  Buckhurst Peerage Case   (1876) 2 App Cas 1 , in which the House of Lords deemed invalid the clause intended to keep the  Barony of Buckhurst  separate from the  Earldom of De La Warr  (the invalidation of clause may not affect the validity of the letters patent itself). The patent stipulated that if the holder of the barony should ever inherit the earldom, then he would be deprived of the barony, which would instead pass to the next successor as if the deprived holder had died without issue.


Letters patent are not absolute; they may be amended or revoked by  Act of Parliament . For example, Parliament amended the letters patent creating the  Dukedom of Marlborough  in 1706. The patent originally provided that the dukedom could be inherited by the heirs-male of the body of the first duke,  Captain-General  Sir  John Churchill . One son had died in infancy and the other died in 1703 from  smallpox . Under Parliament's amendment to the patent, designed to allow the famous general's honour to survive after his death, the dukedom was allowed to pass to the Duke's daughters;  Lady Henrietta , the  Countess of Sunderland , the  Countess of Bridgewater  and  Lady Mary  and their heirs-male—and thereafter "to all and every other the issue male and female, lineally descending of or from the said Duke of Marlborough, in such manner and for such estate as the same are before limited to the before-mentioned issue of the said Duke, it being intended that the said honours shall continue, remain, and be invested in all the issue of the said Duke, so long as any such issue male or female shall continue, and be held by them severally and successively in manner and form aforesaid, the elder and the descendants of every elder issue to be preferred before the younger of such issue."


The number of peers has varied considerably with time. At the end of the  Wars of the Roses , which killed many peers, and degraded or attainted many others, there were only 29 Lords Temporal; but the population of England was also much smaller then. The Tudors doubled the number of Peers, creating many but executing others; at the death of Queen Elizabeth I, there were 59.


The number of peers then grew under the Stuarts and all later monarchs. By the time of Queen  Anne 's death in 1714, there were 168 peers. In 1712, Queen Anne was called upon to create 12 peers in one day in order to pass a government measure, [ 11 ] [ 12 ]  more than Queen  Elizabeth I  had created during a 45-year reign.


Several peers were alarmed at the rapid increase in the size of the Peerage, fearing that their individual importance and power would decrease as the number of peers increased. Therefore, in 1719, a  bill  was introduced in the House of Lords to place a limitation on the Crown's power. It sought to permit no more than six new creations, and thereafter one new creation for each other title that became extinct. But it did allow the Crown to bestow titles on members of the  Royal Family  without any such limitation. The Bill was rejected in its final stage in the Lords, but it was passed in the Lords when it was reintroduced in the next year. Nonetheless, the House of Commons rejected the  Peerage Bill  by 269 to 177.


George III  was especially profuse with the creation of titles, mainly due to the desire of some of his Prime Ministers to obtain a majority in the House of Lords. During his 12 years in power,  Lord North  had about 30 new peerages created. During  William Pitt the Younger 's 17-year tenure, over 140 new peerages were awarded.


A restriction on the creation of peerages, but only in the Peerage of Ireland, was enacted under the  Acts of Union 1800  that combined Ireland and Great Britain into the United Kingdom in 1801. New creations were restricted to a maximum of one new Irish peerage for every three existing Irish peerages that became extinct, excluding those held concurrently with an English or British peerage; only if the total number of Irish peers dropped below 100 could the Sovereign create one new Irish peerage for each extinction.


There were no restrictions on creations in the  Peerage of the United Kingdom . The Peerage continued to swell through the 19th century. In the 20th century, there were even more creations, as Prime Ministers were again eager to secure majorities in the House of Lords. Peerages were handed out not to honour the recipient but to give him a seat in the House of Lords.


Since the start of the  Labour  government of  Harold Wilson  in  1964 , the practice of granting hereditary peerages has largely ceased except for members of the  royal family . Only seven hereditary peers have been created since 1965: four in the royal family (the  Duke of York , the  Earl of Wessex , the  Duke of Cambridge , and the  Duke of Sussex ) and three additional creations under  Margaret Thatcher 's government (the  Viscount Whitelaw  [had four daughters], the  Viscount Tonypandy  [had no issue] and the  Earl of Stockton  [with issue]). The two viscounts died without male heirs, extinguishing their titles.  Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton  received the earldom customarily bestowed on former  prime ministers  after he retired from the  House of Commons . As for the practice of granting hereditary titles (usually earldoms) to male commoners who married into the royal family, the latest offer of such peerage was in 1973 to Captain  Mark Phillips  (husband of  The Princess Anne ) who declined, and the most recent to accept was the  Earl of Snowdon  (husband of  The Princess Margaret ) in 1961.


There is no statute that prevents the creation of new hereditary peerages; they may technically be created at any time, and the government continues to maintain pro forma letters patent for their creation. The most recent policies outlining the creation of new peerages, the  Royal Warrant of 2004 , explicitly apply to both hereditary and life peers. [ 13 ]  However, successive governments have largely disowned the practice, and the Royal Household website currently describes the King as the  fount of honour  for "life peerages, knighthoods and gallantry awards", with no mention of hereditary titles. [ 14 ]


In 2024, the  Starmer Labour government  announced in the  King's speech  that they would bring in legislation to abolish the remaining hereditary peers' rights to sit in the House of Lords. [ 15 ]


Until the coming into force of the  Peerage Act 1963 , peers could not disclaim their peerage in order to sit in the  House of Commons , and thus a peerage was sometimes seen as an impediment to a future political career. The law changed due to an agreement that the Labour MP  Tony Benn  (formerly the  Viscount Stansgate ) having been deprived of his seat due to an inadvertent inheritance was undemocratic, and the desire of the Conservatives to put their choice of prime minister (ultimately  Alec Douglas-Home ) into the House of Commons, which by that time was deemed politically necessary.


In 1999, the  House of Lords Act  abolished the automatic right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords. Out of about 750 hereditary peers, only 92 may sit in the House of Lords. The Act provides that 90 of those 92 seats are to be elected by other members of the House: 15 by vote of the whole house (including life peers), 42 by the Conservative hereditary peers, two by the Labour hereditary peers, three by the Liberal Democrat hereditary peers, and 28 by the  crossbench  hereditary peers. Elections were held in October and November 1999 to choose those initial 90 peers, with all hereditary peers eligible to vote. Hereditary peers elected hold their seats until their death, resignation or exclusion for non-attendance (the latter two means introduced by the  House of Lords Reform Act 2014 ), at which point  by-elections  are held to maintain the number at 92.


The remaining two hold their seats by right of the hereditary offices of  Earl Marshal  and  Lord Great Chamberlain . These offices are hereditary in themselves, and in recent times have been held by the  Dukes of Norfolk  and the  Barons Carrington  respectively. These are the only two hereditary peers whose right to sit is automatic.


The Government reserves a number of political and ceremonial positions for hereditary peers. To encourage hereditary peers in the House of Lords to follow the party line, a number of  lords-in-waiting  (government whips) are usually hereditary peers. This practice was not adhered to by the  Labour government  of  1997–2010  due to the small number of Labour hereditary peers in the House of Lords.


The peerage has traditionally been associated with high gentry, the  British nobility , and in recent times, the  Conservative Party . Only a tiny proportion of wealthy people are peers, but the peerage includes a few of the very wealthiest people in the UK, such as  Hugh Grosvenor  (the Duke of Westminster) and  Lord Salisbury , and indeed the world in the case of  David Thomson, 3rd Baron Thomson of Fleet . A few peers own one or more of England's largest estates passed down through inheritance, particularly those with medieval roots: until the late 19th century the dominant English and Scottish land division on death was  primogeniture .


However, the proliferation of peerage creations in the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century resulted in even minor political figures entering the ranks of the peerage; these included newspaper owners (e.g.  Alfred Harmsworth ) and  trade union  leaders (e.g.  Walter Citrine ). As a result, there are many hereditary peers who have taken up careers which do not fit traditional conceptions of aristocracy. For example, Arup Kumar Sinha, 6th  Baron Sinha , is a computer technician working for a travel agency;  Matt Ridley , 5th  Viscount Ridley , is a popular science writer;  Timothy Bentinck, 12th Earl of Portland , is an actor and plays David Archer in the  BBC 's long-running radio  soap opera ,  The Archers ; and  Peter St Clair-Erskine , 7th  Earl of Rosslyn , is a former  Metropolitan Police Service  Commander. The  Earl of Longford  was a socialist and prison reformer, while  Tony Benn , who renounced his peerage as  Viscount Stansgate  (only for his son to reclaim the family title after his death) was a senior government minister (later a writer and orator) with  left-wing  policies.


As the vast majority of hereditary peerages can only be inherited by men, the number of peeresses in their own right is very small; only 18 out of 758 hereditary peers by succession, or 2.4%, were female, as of 1992. [ 16 ]
All female hereditary peers succeeding after 1980 have been to English or Scottish peerages originally created before 1700. Of the over 800 hereditary peerages created since 1863, only 13 could be inherited by daughters of the original recipient, and none can be inherited by granddaughters or higher-order female descendants of the original recipient. [ 17 ]  The  2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma  was the last woman to hold such a post-1900 title from 1979 until her death in 2017.


From 1963 (when female hereditary peers were allowed to enter the House of Lords) to 1999, there has been a total of 25 female hereditary peers. [ 18 ]


Of those  92 currently sitting in the House of Lords , none are female, since the retirement of  Margaret of Mar, 31st Countess of Mar , in 2020. [ 19 ]  Originally five female peers were elected under the  House of Lords Act 1999  (out of seven female candidates; [ 20 ]  all of them  crossbenchers ). But all of these have since died or resigned, [ 21 ]  and no woman has stood in a by-election to a vacant Lords seat since 1999. [ 22 ]
A single female peer, the 29th  Baroness Dacre , is listed in the "Register of Hereditary Peers" among about 200 male peers as willing to stand in by-elections, as of October 2020. [ 23 ]


Traditional


In  Hindu culture , a  Pravara  (Sanskrit for "most excellent") refers to a system of identity, particularly a family line. [ 1 ]  The Pravar system is based on the descendants of a  rishi  (sage) after whom a " gotra " (clan) is named, and these descendants are considered eponyms by the members of the "gotra." [ 2 ]  It represents a secondary level of segmentation within the gotra system. The Pravara is a significant aspect of the exogamous system in ancient Brahmanical families. [ 3 ]


The significance of Pravara lies in its role in establishing the worth or fitness of the sacrificer as a descendant of the rishis named in the Pravara. It serves as a means of identifying the lineage and ancestry of the individual, particularly during sacred rituals and prayers. The recitation of the Pravara during these rituals is a way of declaring that the individual is as worthy as their ancestors to offer sacrifices and perform sacred acts. Furthermore, the Pravara is intricately linked to the exogamous structure of ancient Brahmanical families. It provides a clear and precise method of determining a person's position within the exogamous system, guiding marriage practices and ensuring that individuals do not marry within the same Pravara. In addition to its role in ritualistic practices and exogamy, the Pravara also holds a wider application in modern times, where it is used to establish the lineage of the family and is recited during daily prayers to demonstrate the fitness of the individual to perform sacred acts. [ 3 ]  In the past, it referred to the invocation of the deity Agni (Fire) by the name of the rishi-ancestors of a Brahmin who consecrates the sacrificial fire. Pravara names were used by the priest to prove his authenticity to the deity  Havya-Vahana , who carries the libations to heaven. It was a law that the number of Pravara-rishis pronounced during the invocation could be one to five. In later times, the pravara came to have a wider application, particularly in the context of regulating marriage and asserting one's lineage as a descendant of worthy ancestors. People belonging to the same gotra or having the same pravara, even if they had only one in common, were not allowed to intermarry. [ 4 ] [ 3 ]


The pravara system has a long history within the Brahmanical tradition of India. The literary sources regarding Pravara are primarily found in the ancient  Vedic texts ,  Brahmanas , and  Sutras , as well as in later medieval texts. Some scholars believe that it originated during the  Rig-vedic  period, which dates back to around 1500 BCE., and the system gradually came into use during the formative period of the  Yajur-veda . However, Ghurye claims that the system of Pravara emerged and took shape after the formation of Gotras, which is estimated to have occurred around 800 BCE. The understanding and development of Pravara seem to have evolved gradually over time, with different texts and traditions adding to their complexity and significance. The Brahmanas and Sutras provide detailed expositions of the Pravara system and its use in regulating marriage practices and establishing lineage. The  Baudhayana's Srauta Sutra , dated around 600 BCE, is the earliest known text that provides a list of 91 pravara-rishis associated with the various Gotras. During the period of Apastamba's Srauta Sutra, estimated to have been composed around 450 BCE, the Pravara system underwent significant development and gained a more organized framework within the broader context of the Gotra system. [ 3 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ]  Later medieval texts, such as the  Pravara-manjari , provide lists of Pravaras and their respective rishis, as well as detailed accounts of the Pravara system and its use in exogamy and ritualistic practices. The  Smrtyarthasdra  of Sridhara, composed between A.D. 1150 and 1200, is another important medieval text that discusses the Pravara system and its use in regulating marriage practices. The  Pravara-darpana  offers a more explicit account of the pravara lists and is dated before 1612. [ 3 ]


The Kalachuri inscriptions revealed the mention of various Gotras and Pravaras with corresponding Veda Sakhas. The historical sources include inscriptions such as the Bheraghat Stone Inscription of Narasimha, the Jabalpur Stone Inscription of Jayasimha, the Amoda Plates of Prithvideva, and others, along with scholarly interpretations. Inscriptions from ancient India, such as the Maitraka and Gurjara-Pratihara charters, also provide information about the pravara system and its use in establishing ancestral lineages and social identities. These inscriptions often include the recitation of pravaras and the establishment of gotras. [ 5 ] [ 7 ]