Gunnison Valley News | 1932-07-07 | Page 7 | "Ancient Family" Claims Scoffed at by Experts

"Ancient Family" Claims Scoffed At by Experts Persons who like to trace their ancestry an-cestry back to William the Conqueror, Conquer-or, or to some other famous hero of history, were ridiculed in a recent address before the Society of Genealogists Ge-nealogists in London by the British genealogical expert, T. R. Thomson. The majority of such claims rest, Mr. Thomson explained, upon similarity simi-larity of surnames, but this is of no value at all, since the general use of surnames or "family names" dates back only a little more than 200 years. Another difficulty is the fact established estab-lished by all genealogical researches that families and family names Invariably In-variably tend to become extinct in a relatively few generations. The family fam-ily blood may survive, more or less diluted by Intermarriage, but this usually is extremely difficult to trace, since the necessary exact records are lacking. m , "