What is it about
It is the research that deals with finding the males of the family, going back from father to father, that is the direct ancestors.
You go backwards from a known element, for example your father or grandfather, and go up through the municipal and diocesan archives, back to where you can go back.
Agnatic research is the most used and most requested type of research.
Its popularity is mostly due to the fact that it is usually a very fast type of search, as the number of individuals to search is well defined.
Being the search tree linear, we proceed backwards towards the most remote point up to where we can go back up.
You can usually go back to 1500.
The limitations of this research may mostly be due to lack of acts (randomness due to fires, wars or natural events); finding of the progenitor, or the ultimate goal of the search.