Abusua: how matrilineal descent shapes an Akan family tree
Among the Akan, a child belongs to the mother's clan. Here is what that means for recording an Akan family tree, and why most genealogy software gets it wrong.
6 min read
Read moreAfrican family history guides
Genealogy advice is usually written for families whose records sit in parish registers and censuses. These guides are for the rest: families whose history lives in memory, in funeral brochures, and in systems of descent that most family tree software was never designed to hold.
Akan day names: what Kwame, Ama and Yaa tell you about an ancestor
An Akan day name records the weekday a person was born. For a genealogist working from thin records, that is a verifiable fact hiding in plain sight.
5 min read
Read moreStarting a family tree when the records are oral
Much African family history was never written down in a registry. A practical method for building a reliable tree from living memory, funeral programmes and church books.
7 min read
Read moreUmndeni: patrilineal descent, ukugena and recording a Zulu family
Zulu families reckon descent through the father, the opposite of the Akan. What that means for recording an umndeni, and how ukugena, bridewealth and chiefdom authority fit into the record.
6 min read
Read moreÌdílé: the Yoruba lineage, oríkì praise names and òrúkọ ọmọ naming
Yoruba families are organised around the ìdílé, and their naming system is unusually rich in genealogical information. How oríkì, òrúkọ ọmọ and orílẹ̀ encode lineage, and how to read them.
6 min read
Read moreGEDCOM for African family trees: what it carries, and what it loses
GEDCOM is the only way to move a family tree between programs, but it was designed around European assumptions. What survives the transfer, what silently does not, and how to protect the parts that matter.
7 min read
Read moreChurch and mission registers: the written record that does exist
Civil registration came late to much of Africa, but mission churches were keeping baptism, marriage and burial books decades earlier. Where these registers are, what they contain, and how to read them.
6 min read
Read moreUkoo: Swahili lineage and the patriline on the East African coast
Swahili families on the coast and islands reckon descent through the father, like the Zulu, but Arab and Islamic influence adds complexity. What ukoo means and how to record it.
6 min read
Read morePatrilineal and matrilineal: which African descent system your family uses
Africa has multiple descent systems, and the biggest mistake in genealogy is treating them as interchangeable. How to tell whether your family is patrilineal, matrilineal, or operating both.
5 min read
Read moreNaming ceremonies and how to read them as genealogical facts
Across Africa, naming ceremonies are often the first written record of a person. Day names, lineage names, and Europe-or-Africa registration each carry genealogical weight when you know what they encode.
5 min read
Read moreSource citation for African genealogy: writing down where facts come from
vague sources and guessed dates are how family trees go wrong. A simple practice for tracking informants, dates, and originals that keeps an oral genealogy verifiable.
5 min read
Read moreColonial records, court files and land documents: where African genealogy/archive material
Colonial administrations, courts and land systems generated documents that still exist. How to find census rolls, chief's court records, and title deeds that anchor a family in a particular place and date.
6 min read
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