Nor must it be forgotten that the geneticist is often as much interested in knowing that a given character is not inherited under certain conditions, as that it is.
It is highly desirable that genealogists should acquire the habit of stating the traits of their subjects in quantitative terms. They too often state that a certain amount is "much"; what should be told is "how much." Instead of saying that an individual had fairly good health, tell exactly what diseases he had during his lifetime; instead of remarking that he was a good mathematician, tell some anecdote or fact that will allow judgment of the extent of his ability in this line. Did he keep record of his bank balance in his head instead of on paper? Was he fond of mathematical puzzles? Did he revel in statistics? Was the study of calculus a recreation to him? Such things probably will appear trivial to the genealogist, but to the eugenist they are sometimes important.
Aside from biology, or as much of it as is comprised in eugenics, genealogy may also serve medicine, jurisprudence, sociology, statistics, and various other sciences as well as the ones which it now serves. But in most cases, such service will have a eugenic aspect. The alliance between eugenics and genealogy is so logical that it can not be put off much longer.
Genealogists may well ask what facilities there are for receiving and using pedigrees such as we have been outlining, if they were made up. All are, of course, familiar with the repositories which the different patriotic societies, the National Genealogical Society, and similar organizations maintain, as well as the collections of the Library of Congress and other great public institutions. Anything deposited in such a place can be found by investigators who are actively engaged in eugenic research.
In addition to this, there are certain establishments founded for the sole purpose of analyzing genealogies from a biological or statistical point of view. The first of these was the Galton Laboratory of the University of London, directed by Karl Pearson. There are two such at work in the United States. The larger is the Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York, directed by Charles B. Davenport. Blank schedules are sent to all applicants, in which the pedigree of an individual may be easily set down, with reference particularly to the traits of eugenic importance. When desired, the office will send duplicate schedules, one of which may be retained by the applicant for his own files. The schedules filed at the Eugenics Record Office are treated as confidential, access to them being given only to accredited investigators.
The second institution of this kind is the Genealogical Record Office, founded and directed by Alexander Graham Bell at 1601 Thirty-fifth Street N. W., Washington D. C. This devotes itself solely to the collection of data regarding longevity, and sends out schedules to all those in whose families there have been individuals attaining the age of 80 or over. It welcomes correspondence on the subject from all who know of cases of long life, and endeavors to put the particulars on record, especially with reference to the ancestry and habits of the long-lived individual.
The Eugenics Registry at Battle Creek, Mich., likewise receives pedigrees, which it refers to Cold Spring Harbor for analysis.
Persons intelligently interested in their ancestry might well consider it a duty to society, and to their own posterity, to send for one of the Eugenics Record Office schedules, fill it out and place it on file there, and to do the same with the Genealogical Record Office, if they are so fortunate as to come of a stock characterized by longevity. The filling out of these schedules would be likely to lead to a new view of genealogy; and when this point of view is once gained, the student will find it adds immensely to his interest in his pursuit.
Genealogists are all familiar with the charge of long standing that genealogy is a subject of no use, a fad of a privileged class. They do not need to be told that such a charge is untrue. But genealogy can be made a much more useful science than it now is, and it will be at the same time more interesting to its followers, if it is no longer looked upon as an end in itself, nor solely as a minister to family pride. We hope to see it regarded as a handmaid of evolution, just as are the other sciences; we hope to see it linked with the great biological movement of the present day, for the betterment of mankind.
So much for the science as a whole. What can the individual do? Nothing better than to broaden his outlook so that he may view his family not as an exclusive entity, centered in a name, dependent on some illustrious man or men of the past; but rather as an integral part of the great fabric of human life, its warp and woof continuous from the dawn of creation and criss-crossed at each generation. When he gets this vision, he will desire to make his family tree as full as possible, to include his collaterals, to note every trait which he can find on record, to preserve the photographs and measurements of his own contemporaries, and to take pleasure in feeling that the history of his family is a contribution to human knowledge, as well as to the pride of the family.