The North Knapdale parish register shows the parents, farmstead, and birth date for John Campbell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nJust as documents provided evidence of time and space, maps were useful in verifying spacial proximity. In the John Campbell example, it was only through old ordnance maps of Scotland that we could establish the locations of farmsteads and their proximity to each other. The same goes for 19th century township or county atlases in the United States and Canada which showed farms by family name. They documented the clustering of families in the same vicinity and showed how many marriages were spawned by the collocation of the bride and groom\u2019s families in the area.<\/p>\n
The concept of proximity was a terrific tool, but it admittedly may apply less to modern times than it did in the past. Generations ago families lived and worked on farms and there were limited opportunities (i.e. small local populations) to establish relationships. In the modern era people live in densely populated urban communities and work away from home so there are far more social opportunities. Add to that the increased mobility of modern transportation, mega churches drawing wide-ranging congregations, e-learning replacing fixed location schools, and the prevalence of electronic interactions, such as dating sites, and spacial proximity expands exponentially, making it potentially less useful.<\/p>\n
In my own case, I met my wife on a blind date arranged by mutual friends. We didn\u2019t live close by, we didn\u2019t attend the same schools, we didn\u2019t work in the same location, and our birth families lived a couple of hundred miles apart. A future genealogist would have a hard time trying to reconstruct our family trees using proximity as a tool. But of course in the modern era, there’s no lack of official documentation, so proximity isn\u2019t as vital. As an aside, though, the proximity concept still applied, as it was through mutual friends (relationship<\/em>) that we met, and at the time she lived with her grandmother (relationship<\/em>), which placed us in adjoining counties of geographical (space<\/em>) proximity.<\/p>\nThere\u2019s an iconic moment in the movie The Graduate<\/em> when a family friend, Mr. McGuire, gives career advice to the newly minted college graduate Benjamin:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/genealogy.thundermoon.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/plastics-150x150.jpg\")
Mr. McGuire<\/em>: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.
\nBenjamin<\/em>: Yes, sir.
\nMr. McGuire<\/em>: Are you listening?
\nBenjamin<\/em>: Yes, I am.
\nMr. McGuire<\/em>: Plastics<\/span>.<\/p>\nI guess you could say that I\u2019ve found one word that has helped me a lot in family research. Are you listening? Yes? Proximity<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Oxford English Dictionary defines proximity as \u201cnearness in space, time, or relationship.\u201d That\u2019s a great definition for an important tool of genealogy. Proximity is useful in figuring out family history in the absence of direct evidence such as lineage notes or official records. Relationships are typically established between people who are proximate in space … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “Proximity”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.thundermoon.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.thundermoon.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.thundermoon.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.thundermoon.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.thundermoon.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.thundermoon.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247,"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.thundermoon.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions\/247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.thundermoon.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.thundermoon.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.thundermoon.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/genealogy.thundermoon.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/proximity-1-150x150.jpg\")
Proximity is useful in figuring out family history in the absence of direct evidence such as lineage notes or official records. Relationships are typically established between people who are proximate in space and time. Generations ago one\u2019s social environment would have been largely limited to a day\u2019s travel on horseback or foot. So if a genealogist is trying to deduce or confirm relationships, i.e. build family trees, it\u2019s helpful to establish that the people lived in the same area at the time in question.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/genealogy.thundermoon.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/campbell-john-bth-reg-1796.jpg\")
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