Genealogy vs. Genetics — What's the Difference?

Genealogy (from Greek: γενεαλογία genealogia "study of family trees") is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members.

Genetics is a branch of biology concerned with the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Though heredity had been observed for millennia, Gregor Mendel, Moravian scientist and Augustinian friar working in the 19th century in Brno, was the first to study genetics scientifically. Mendel studied "trait inheritance", patterns in the way traits are handed down from parents to offspring.

A record or table of the descent of a person, family, or group from an ancestor or ancestors; a family tree.

(used with a sing. verb) The branch of biology that deals with heredity, especially the mechanisms of hereditary transmission and the variation of inherited characteristics among similar or related organisms.

Direct descent from an ancestor; lineage or pedigree.

(used with a pl. verb) The genetic constitution of an individual, group, or class.

The study or investigation of ancestry and family histories.

(biology) The branch of biology that deals with the transmission and variation of inherited characteristics, in particular chromosomes and DNA.

(countable) The descent of a person, family, or group from an ancestor or ancestors; lineage or pedigree.

(biology) The genetic makeup of a specific individual or species.

(countable) A record or table of such descent; a family tree.

The branch of biology that studies heredity and variation in organisms

(uncountable) The study, and formal recording of such descents.

An account or history of the descent of a person or family from an ancestor; enumeration of ancestors and their children in the natural order of succession; a pedigree.

Regular descent of a person or family from a progenitor; pedigree; lineage.

Successive generations of kin