direct male line of ascent—the line that bears the family name, or what animal breeders call the tail-male. In this case, it is not too much to say that they are nearly devoid of genuine value. It is customary to imagine that there is some special virtue inherent in that line of descent which carries the family name. Some one remarks, for instance, to Mr. Jones that he seems to be fond of the sea.
"Yes," he replies, "You know the Joneses have been sailors for many generations."
But the small contribution of heredity made to an individual by the line of descent carrying his family name, in comparison with the rest of his ancestry, may be seen from Fig. 40.
Such incomplete pedigrees are rarely published nowadays, but in studying historic characters, one frequently finds nothing more than the single line of ascent in the family name. Fortunately, American genealogies