Fig. 41.—A living individual who was a lineal descendant of George Washington might well take pride in the fact, but genetically that fact might be of very little significance. The above chart shows graphically how small a part any single ancestor plays, a few generations back. A general high average of ability in an ancestry is much more important, eugenically, than the appearance of one or two distinguished individuals.
At any rate, it must be obvious that the ancestors of any person of old American stock living to-day must have included practically all the inhabitants of England and Normandy, in the eleventh century. Looking at the pedigree from the other end, William the Conqueror must have living to-day at least 16,000,000 descendants. Most of them can not trace back their pedigrees, but that does not alter the fact.
Such considerations give one a vivid realization of the brotherhood of man; but they can hardly be said to justify any great pride in descent from a family of crusaders for instance, except on purely sentimental grounds.
Descent from a famous man or woman should not be disparaged. It is a matter of legitimate pride and congratulation. But claims for respect made on that ground alone are, from a biological point of view, negligible, if the hero is several generations removed. What Sir Francis Galton wrote of the peers of England may, with slight alterations, be given general application to the descendants of famous people:
"An old peerage is a valueless title to natural gifts, except so far as it may have been furbished up by a succession of wise intermarriages.... I cannot think of any claim to respect, put forward in modern days, that is so entirely an imposture as that made by a peer on the ground of descent, who has neither been nobly educated, nor has any eminent kinsman within three degrees."
But, some one may protest, are we not shattering the very edifice of which we are professed defenders, in thus denying the force of heredity? Not at all. We wish merely to emphasize that a man has sixteen great-great-grandparents, instead of one, and that those in the maternal lines are too often overlooked, although from a biological point of view they are every bit as important as those in the paternal lines. And we wish further to emphasize the point that it is the near relatives who, on the whole, represent what one is. The great family which for a generation or two makes unwise marriages, must live on its past reputation and see the work of the world done and the prizes carried away by the children of wiser matings. No family can maintain its eugenic rank merely by the power of inertia. Every marriage that a member of the family makes is a matter of vital concern to the future of the family: and this is one of the lessons which a broad science of genealogy should inculcate in every youth.
Is it practicable to direct genealogy on this slightly different line? As to that, the genealogist must decide. These are the qualifications which old Professor William Chauncey Fowler laid down as essential for a successful genealogist:
Love of kindred.
Love of investigation.
Active imagination.
Sound and disciplined judgment.
Conscientious regard to truth.
A pleasing style as a writer.
With such qualifications, one can go far, and it would seem that one who possesses them has only to fix his attention upon the biological aspect of genealogy, to become convinced that his science is only part of a science, as long as it ignores eugenics. After all, nothing more is necessary than a slight change in the point of view; and if genealogists can adopt this new point of view, can add to their equipment some familiarity with the fundamental principles of biology as they apply to man and are laid down in the science of eugenics, the value of the science of genealogy to the world ought to increase at least five-fold within a generation.
What can be expected from a genealogy with eugenic foundation?