Why Genealogies?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Legolas

Living in a very small town with a lot of farmers and at best, a slow trickle of new faces, I can tell you that many of the people here of my grandparents' and to a somewhat lesser degree, my parents' generation aren't too different. It looks as though it'll be lost a bit with my generation with more of us getting jobs elsewhere, completing college, etc.

Just a part of small town life?

Perhaps part of it is because many of us live on the same family land, passed down and divided among the generations, so we have benefited quite tangibly from some of their toils.

I've been reading about how there were so many families with the same surname concentrated in the area where I grew up that some of them took on nicknames, so that one family could be distinguished from each other. For example, you might be a 'Yen Caunce', 'Moss Caunce', or you might be a 'Danny Leatherbarrow'. No doubt it was further complicated by parents using the traditional naming patterns for first names - e.g. first son named after his paternal grandfather, first daughter after her maternal grandmother etc.

I note that with Hobbits, they sometimes were identified not just by surname but by their location too. Though they seemed to have more variety of first names.

I just wish the Noldorian Elves had been more considerate, given how awkward it can be to discriminate between all the names beginning with F.