We live in a paternalistic, patriarchal society in which the male of the family dominates the scene, whether in politics, war or genealogy. Despite valued attempts to rectify the order of things we must acknowledge here that information on the wife and mother's side of each family is often harder to ``uncover'' and record. In these pages we want to help open up these allied lines--which are genetically and socially just as important as the ``name giving'' lineage of the husband-father.
The neglect of the maternal lineage is partly because of the ``lost connections'' in patriarchal name usage. In Spanish and Portugese the use of double last names helps identify persons by the mother's family name as well as the father's. My name would thus be Elton Watlington Hammond in Spanish and Elton Hammond Watlington in Portuguese. Note that the order places the mother's name in the preferential (for filing) position. When speaking of the specific family the family names of both are used, as ``Watlington-Hammond'' family in Spanish.
Whatever the problems, we must seek to learn about the maternal lineage and their history as it interweaves itself with the paternal lineage in each successive generation.