A volunteer at the genealogy library told Tom he should summarize on a pedigree chart whatever information he had learned from his living grandparents.

For fourteen years Tom had owned a purebred dog, and he remembered that the breeder had furnished him a pedigree chart showing every dam and sire going back four generations.

After Tom had filled in his genealogical pedigree chart with the information he already knew, the remaining gaps revealed where he'd need to do some research to complete all his ancestral lines.

That poodle has an immaculate pedigree, with illustrious ancestors on both sides stretching back generations.