Change is the Only Constant

No matter how hard you try to keep things the same, the family just keeps on changing.  The young grow up and start their own families.  There are new births, marriages, and more.  Trying to keep up is not a full time job.  It’s an impossible job.  The day you print a family tree is the day it becomes obsolete.

Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you spot a mistake or if a life event needs to be recorded.  There are bound to be plenty of both.  I don’t mind fixing them at all.

By the way, Mary Ann Otis’ marriage to Ted Mattingly and the the births of Christian and Alyssa are now properly recorded and will show up on the next printing of the ‘tree’, along with hundreds of other new entries and corrections added this summer.

Knowing When To Quit

I have heard plenty of comments regarding the practice, followed in the Otis Book and in most genealogical records, of not following the female line of descendants.  In other words, if a girl born with the surname of Otis marries a man named Jones and their children have the surname Jones, then they are not recorded in an Otis genealogy and they belong in a Jones genealogy instead.  A note may be made of her husband and children, but the lives and descendants of the children would not be recorded. These days the practice sounds sexist.  However there are practical considerations for doing it this way.  Suppose William Otis had attempted to follow the female line in his work on the descendants of Richard O. Otis.  Instead of a very large book, the work would have taken dozens of volumes to print and, more than likely, never would have been finished.  The resulting tree would probably encompass half the population of the country.

For the time being, I will include anybody in my family tree that desires to be mentioned, writes to me with updates or occasionally shows up at family reunions and the like.  If the tree needs pruning and non-Otises get removed because we never hear from them, so be it.

Ancestors are often entered in my database but don’t show up as descendants of anybody.  Ask about an Ancestor tree if you are interested.

Printing The Family Tree Chart is a bit pricey as the tree grows.  The current printout of the whole thing would be 55 feet long and might cost a couple of hundred dollars.  There is only one place to go if you want the best quality.  Contact me for the latest file and go to Ancestry Printing for more info.