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Background information used in life and health insurance underwriting to ascertain the probability of hereditary disease. The purpose is to determine if the disease is of such a nature that the life expectancy of an applicant will be adversely affected, and if so, to what degree.
Part of the medical history process; practitioner should ask patient about history of diseases or serious illness in family to determine if the patient might be predisposed to certain illnesses.
From earliest times, tracing ancestors and establishing proof of relationship had practical importance for the wealthy and privileged and, in particular, for the sovereign. Records of the aristocracy and royal families had always been maintained by the earl marshal and, in Scotland, by Lyon king-of-arms. However, in 1484, the College of Arms was incorporated as a permanent institution comprising heralds, who had the task of investigating descent and establishing incontestable rights to titles. Recognition of property rights guaranteed social status and acceptance. After the civil wars of the mid-17th cent. both aristocracy and gentry supported the publication of detailed histories of counties in England and Wales, which included family histories. These county histories focused on the wealthier residents of each county, giving little information about other levels of society.
In the 20th cent. interest in family history has become widespread. Tracing family history is a popular activity, as a recognition of the importance of family at all social levels. By 1960 county record offices had been established in all areas of England and Wales, providing readily available sources such as parish records, ancient wills, and, where they existed, family papers.
The noun has one meaning:
Meaning #1:
part of a patient's medical history in which questions are asked in an attempt to find out whether the patient has hereditary tendencies toward particular diseases
Family history is the systematic narrative and research of past events relating to a specific family, or specific families.
While genealogy is the convenient label for the field, family history is the over-arching term, since genealogy in the strict sense is only concerned with tracing unified lineages. Other sectors of family history, such as one-name studies, may pay only rudimentary attention to lineages, or may emphasize biography rather than vital data. Most genealogical societies in Britain are united in the Federation of Family History Societies.
Forms of family-history research include:
Unlike related forms of micro-history, such as corporate histories or local studies, family history research begins with only an approximate notion of the extent of the entity - the extended family - and never fully defines it, since the early origins of all families become invisible in prehistorical times. DNA genealogy offers some hope of moving this boundary further back into time.
Family history needs little justification in communitarian societies, where a person's identity is defined as much by their 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) in order to discover who they are.
Family history plays a part in the practice of some religious belief systems. For example, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have a doctrine of Baptism for the dead, which necessitates that member of that faith engage in family history research.
Until the late 19th century, family histories were almost exclusively of interest to persons who had obtained their wealth or rank by inheritance. Other people, who had inherited nothing, might, in extreme cases, suppress their family history as a matter of shame.
In immigrant societies such as the United States or Australia, there was by the 20th century growing pride in the pioneers and nation-builders. Establishing descent from these was a concern in groups such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, and helped differentiate those descendants from later immigrants with lower status.
In racist societies, such as Nazi Germany, family histories were compiled to affirm individuals' affiliation with the "master race".
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.
In Germany, family history was misused by the Nazis and today is still often perceived as a threat to privacy rather than as a
source of self-esteem. Most 20th-century sources remain
In the narrower sense of the term, a family history is a biography of a single family over several generations, based on a tested genealogy and fleshed out with the fuller story of the family's place in society, the dramas of its achievements or failures and its acquisition or loss of wealth and rank.
Such a study mainly draws on oral history for the recent period and archival records for the period beyond living memory. Where an individual's own story is unknown, much can be inferred from other literature. For example, a single soldier's experiences can be inferred from the history of his military unit, or a migrant's journey can be described from the shipboard diary of a fellow traveller.
Family history can either be in the form of a printed document, electronic document or sound or video recording that preserves this history for future generations. The readers will expect it to describe where the family originated from, name the members of the family and state who they married.
Family Histories are often created as a memorial for the deceased and are written to be passed down to future generations.
Some records that are used to create family histories are:
Today many people are using these old records to recover their family history. But most of these records include only technical details of a person's life, such as their birth date, whom they married, the jobs they did, and so forth, but they contain very little about the person themselves such as their likes, dislikes, hobbies, hopes and dreams.
Family History websites and indexes are also useful. These are made available so people can search for their ancestors and share their information with others.
The benefits of Family history projects may vary according to the people who pursue the hobby. Some schools engage students in such projects as a means to reinforce lessons regarding immigration and the history of the nation.[1]
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
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Copyrights:
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 | Insurance Dictionary. Dictionary of Insurance Terms. Copyright © 2000 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Dental Dictionary. Mosby's Dental Dictionary. Copyright © 2004 by Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| British History. A Dictionary of British History. Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Family history". Read more |
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