Why Genealogies?

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by shadowfax

What did Rosie Cotton's name mean if they didn't know what cotton was?

Well Shire names are "translated" and cotton was to pun with gamgee (for the encased cotton wool dressing Gamgee tissue) but maybe Alfirin's truly fascinating post explains that I was simply wrong about cotton.

The breadth and depth of knowledge round here never ceases to amaze me.

It may also be that in a relatively small and isolated community of the Shire it made sense to keep track of families so as to discourage too close intermarriage. Obviously they wouldnt' have known about genetics and I am not suggesting that but they may have observed problems when there was too much shared blood. I am not suggesting that they went in for hispanic Hapsburg style inbreeding but in small static communities the gene pool could get a bit murky.