Genealogy Committee
Most of the genealogical activities of The Augustan Society, Inc., are conducted by the Genealogy Committee. It is headed by the Genealogy Committee Chairman appointed by the President and serves at his pleasure. The Chairman may appoint such additional members as he sees fit, subject to the Policy on Committee Membership, with the President and Headquarters Staff as ex officio members.
Note that some programs formerly assigned to the Genealogy Committee are now Study Groups under the Dean of Studies. This should not be taken as an excuse to avoid working together on activities of mutual interest.
Specific programs presently active are:
Contents
Approved Lineages
This program receives all lineages submitted to the Society, and reviews them for substantial (but not necessarily complete) compliance with genealogical standards as defined by the Board of Certified Genealogists termed the Genealogical Proof Standard or GPS. The result is a recommendation for Board acceptance of the lineage submitted. Note that a favorable recommendation requires assent from two members of the Committee who have examined the lineage and sources. Headquarters must be informed in writing (email is acceptable) of the approval and provided a copy of the lineage in standard format.
Lineages accepted by the Board are required for admission to the Society's Lineage Groups, Registration of Arms for inherited arms, and publication in The Augustan Omnibus. A Genealogist Fee is assessed for each lineage on a per-generation basis, with a credit being issued for early generations documented by Wikipedia or a previously accepted lineage.
The Genealogy Committee Chairman, at his discretion, may waive fees for lineages submitted by Directors or members of the Genealogy Committee.
Tips for petitioners:
- The generation of the most-distant ancestors listed in your petition must be assigned the number 1. You—and, where appropriate, your spouse—should receive the highest number assigned to a generation in your chart.
- Each generation must include at least one citation to a source that is accessible, that is:
- Online and available (however, FamilySearch requires a username/password, but it’s free);
- Within a book that we hold in the Society library (check our online catalog, available soon); or
- A scanned copy of a birth, marriage, or death certificate.
- For our purposes, a Wikipedia listing is considered a legitimate genealogical source. If an ancestor has an appropriate listing at en.wikipedia.org, supplying the full URL--as well as the date accessed--will likely suffice. {1}
- Citations to records such as the Census must include the actual source. This is particularly necessary for scans of pages, where citations are needed for both the original record and for the website where it was found (as well as the date it was accessed). If the FamilySearch website is accessed for such a record, the name of the original source may be included there. {2}
- Citations to books must include the date of publication or edition, as well as volume and page. Accurate titles are needed, not abbreviations or nicknames (very long titles may usually be truncated after a dozen words). Citations to periodicals must include the volume and issue no., date, and page. {3}
- In accordance with federal laws intended to preserve an individual’s privacy, any event pertaining to genealogy occurring within the past 75 years does not need to be specified. For example, most applicants do not need to specify their own date of birth, nor supply a copy of their birth certificate. Just your name—listed within the final generation—should suffice. If any further information is included, the Society may deem that a right to confidentiality has been waived.
- Citations to petitions submitted to other organizations are not acceptable. If such an application lists sources, please copy that information into your own lineage.
Footnotes:
1. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Wikipedia. “William the Conqueror” <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Conqueror>. Accessed 1 Aug 2024.
2. Genealogical Society of Utah. FamilySearch <https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8KY-SJW>. Accessed 1 Aug 2024.
New York, Ulster Co., U.S. Census, 1870, population schedule. Image. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington DC.
3. William Bruce. “Memoirs of the Bruce Family.” Indiana Magazine of History, 23:1 (Mar. 1927), 63.
Certified Lineages
This proposed project would review lineages as above, but to academic standards fully compliant with the best professional genealogical standards, presently the GPS. The results would be a certificate putting the credibility of the Society behind the lineages.
Obviously, this would also qualify for any Society purpose, but might well come to have value outside the Society.
The results (certification and lineages) will be published in a register, and such may be published either individually or collectively.
Lineage Research
Genealogical research for hire. There is, at present, no adopted procedure for this activity. It is hoped that the Committee will create and document such a procedure.
Standard Lineage Format
The goal of this project is to define a standard lineage format sufficient to the needs of all Society programs, but especially that of Certified Lineages. It is also desired that the form will be acceptable to the majority of the major lineage groups operating in the US.
A draft of this format is being developed.
Lineage Report Generator
The goal of this project is to develop a software program that would generate lineages in our Standard Lineage Format from a properly formatted GED file and the numbers of the first and last individuals to be listed. It is expected this will be done by offering a financial reward to attract software writers.
