Originally Posted by American Cornsnake Registry

Q- What is the point of a registry?
A- Some people simply enjoy being able to see a family tree. It’s just “cool,” and that’s enough of a reason for many people. Apart from its “coolness” the ACR creates a "chain of custody" for information, which has several other benefits, especially to people whose corns come from registered stock.

1. Anyone can look up the ancestry on their snakes and see what known morphs were in the bloodlines of the ancestors. Many breeders/sellers do not mention hets or possible hets, and these can be researched through a family tree.

2. Anyone can do research on the inheritance patterns of recognized traits, or use the database to discover inheritance patterns in traits that are currently not recognized or even noticed.

3. When a new trait appears, the ancestors can more easily be located, and the spread of the gene throughout the gene pool could be tracked. Ancestors of the first specimen found to exhibit the trait would be possible carriers, and could be located and test-bred to help prove out and propagate that trait.

4. For those who care about breeding animals from specific localities and keeping their bloodlines true to that locality, they would no longer need to directly contact the original breeder to find out the important information about a specific animal.

5. Many smaller hobbyist/breeders come and go. When they leave, their information is often completely lost. A registry allows important information to be accessible forever.

6. Information about a snake can be kept with the snake much more easily. For example, breeder A (who is very well known) hatches a snake and registers it. He later does not need it and sells it to reseller B with the registration certificate. Reseller B sells it to buyer C, showing with the registration certificate that the snake originally came from breeder A. If buyer C then wants to sell the snake, he can show the registration certificate to potential customer D to prove that the snake really is from breeder A’s stock. Nobody has to say, “that’s what I was told” and there is no information lost from the "telephone" effect. Additionally, persons A, B, and C do not have to go to the trouble of telling each of their buyers all about the snake, since that information is available on the registration certificate and through the ACR website.