Family Tree in Shastra

[Sunil Nakum]

Respected Scholars,

I'm looking for any reference to the system of "Family Tree" in shastra.

The requirement is to understand the concept better, as we are developing a simple plaything for Kids, to introduce them to their family, extended family, ancestors, gotra, etc. as usual in a playful way! Definitely, not a long term detailed research kind of thing.

The query is to know when this system got introduced, whether it has any direct references in Vedic context or was it a later introduction by scholars for easy reading/remembering of a family lineage? The query is not for "who's who" but for the "system" itself.

I usually encountered such references in the form of naming someone with his father's name or lineage, e.g. Rama as Dasharathanandan, Vishvamitra as Kaushika (a descendant of Kusha) or Son of Gaadhi, etc. but that limits the hierarchy to one person only such as father, grand father or Kula. Whereas the typical Family Tree (वंश वृक्ष) is rooted deeper and spreads across many generations (at the same time). In Ramayan there are references of Bhat (भाट) singing glories of the King's lineage, that indicates something similar should be there in those times but I fall short of knowledge to derive a clear conclusion. Any pointers will be helpful to understand the history of this concept.

We do have this system of keeping records (बही खाता) of a family lineage, as maintained at holy places like Haridwar, but not sure how it originated?

धन्योष्मि,

सुनिल: