Flat Earth Kyle
Well-Known Member
Is it possible to trace one's family history to Noah and then down to Adam and Eve?
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How far back is it possible to trace one's family history?
- Thread starter Flat Earth Kyle
- Start date
Flat Earth Kyle
Well-Known Member
Is it possible to trace one's family history to the Neanderthals?
Flat Earth Kyle
Well-Known Member
How far can someone credibly trace their family history?
I think a person can only trace back their family history as far back as it was written down. That can go back quite a ways, but not to a time when there was either no written language or a written language so long ago no one can decipher it.
Shuddhasattva
Well-Known Member
Only for young earth creationists. Strangely, everyone else appears to descend from the Cro-Mags.
sojourner
Annoyingly Progressive Since 2006
Would those be the Newport Cro-Mags, or the Atlanta Cro-Mags?
Gjallarhorn
N'yog-Sothep
Only if you're non-African.
There's a point where you don't need to any more. It doesn't take that many generations before the number of people on a particular level of your family tree exceeds the number of people living on Earth at the time.
This is explained, of course, by the fact that all of our family trees converge back together a fair bit. A great-great-great-great-great grandfather on your father's side may also be your great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather on your mother's side, for instance.
But really, the number that I've heard thrown around is that you only have to go back about 2000 years at most before you get to the common ancestor for you and any other given person alive on the planet today.
And that's at most. You don't have to go anywhere near that far back to find a common ancestor for every US president but Martin van Buren, for instance: Are all the US Presidents related to each other? - Quora
Flat Earth Kyle
Well-Known Member
I have mine back to Adam and Eve 3 different times connected through royalty who can trace their lineage to Noah. It is very well documented and is not as unusual a claim as many might think. For example I am pretty sure the Queen of England can do the same. I have English, dutch, and Swedish Ancestory lines. The big question is how far back do you need to go before doubts creep in and what works for proof? Do I really need to go and dig up every ancestor's grave and perform DNA tests before it is believeable?
Cromagnon and all these discoveries don't count unless you have your family history completely conected and can name every ancestor that connects you (family tree style)
Cromagnon and all these discoveries don't count unless you have your family history completely conected and can name every ancestor that connects you (family tree style)
tumbleweed41
Resident Liberal Hippie
I highly doubt that.
Since this lineage you're claiming includes several characters who, IMO, are known to be fictional, the bar of evidence is going to be set pretty high.
How much evidence would I need to convince you that I'm descended from Hercules or Han Solo?
Orias
Left Hand Path
I'm not sure, my lineage traces back to the pagans of Scandinavia. If they can envelope the tale of Adam and Eve, then I am by all means a descent of them.
But I am not one to believe that the entire human race was created by two. It is in my opinion that Adam and Eve were descended from God, and they were leaders of the first tribe of man.
Flat Earth Kyle
Well-Known Member
You can doubt it if you want but I do have it. I am a very avid geneologist. I am just curious about where you doubters believe it crosses over from fact to fiction. Do you believe a group of kings decided to write a fake geneology linking them to Adam and Eve? If so which kings? What is fact and what is fiction? I wish I could upload my file. I could type it out but it would take awhile. Do you want me to?
Sure.
As for kings, I wouldn't trust their genealogies. It's been very common through the ages for kings to claim to be descendants of some "legitimate" original king of their kingdom, often falsely. If your genealogy includes figures like William the Conqueror, Charlemagne, or Julius Caesar, I would be very suspicious of it... and these are people we know to be real historical figures. When we can't even be sure that the people in the genealogy actually existed, my level of suspicion would go up by several orders of magnitude.
And then with Adam and Eve, two characters that, IMO, have pretty much been demonstrated not to have literally existed, I wouldn't believe it at all. You might as well be claiming that you're descended from Mickey Mouse as far as I'm concerned - it would be about as believable to me.
InformedIgnorance
Do you 'know' or believe?
I have MOST of my family tree traced back about 6 or so generations... of course that assumes that my true biological ancestry reflects the claimed lineage (i.e. not made up and that no ancestor of mine was an illegitimate 'b-astard' eg arising from cuckolding or not the biological child of the father; nor a child secretly adopted by a wealthy but barren couple - not so uncommon in the times)
As for tracing it back further... well it largely depends on how well documented that ancestry is.
Claims that predate common literacy would most likely require aristocratic ancestry (where you may well find several hundred years of claimed lineage), the lineage claims of these ancestors are however usually poorly identified or substantiated for the simple reason that their own ancestry was less likely to be documented (and they were better able to claim whatever ancestry they chose, hence kings in many cultures descended from their own particular gods and were therefore themselves gods or demigods).
p.s. I am using the word in its technical use so please excuse my attempt to circumvent the censoring
As for tracing it back further... well it largely depends on how well documented that ancestry is.
Claims that predate common literacy would most likely require aristocratic ancestry (where you may well find several hundred years of claimed lineage), the lineage claims of these ancestors are however usually poorly identified or substantiated for the simple reason that their own ancestry was less likely to be documented (and they were better able to claim whatever ancestry they chose, hence kings in many cultures descended from their own particular gods and were therefore themselves gods or demigods).
p.s. I am using the word in its technical use so please excuse my attempt to circumvent the censoring
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My own family tree (on the branch where my family name comes from, anyhow) just kind of ends after not too many generations. The family story is that while he was in port in Belfast, a sailor - supposedly from Denmark - jumped ship and assumed a new identity to avoid getting caught, taking on a common name. On that side, I have absolutely no idea of my lineage beyond that point.
Curious George
Veteran Member
Well, you don't have to upload it if it is already online somewhere. Are you on Ancestry.com or some other site?
But, also as someone who has spent many hour researching genealogy: I would suggest that you can trace back your family two to five generations without fear of doubt. This said, I understand that the Latter Day Saints do have some of the most reliable genealogy information available. But, even their records are doubtful to tell the whole story. And, as more and more information about a family is lost, the more likely it is to generate mistakes. That doesn't mean that we don't make assumptions and go with what best fits the puzzle, or research whole lines of family based on a tentative connection with the hopes of strengthening that connection over time. The simple fact that the documents we base our ancestry on is not infallible casts doubt into all lines that we know of our family.
Furthermore, many people who trace their genealogy love to find some evidence that their ancestors were kings, queens or famous people. When I run into other genealogical works that connect to any of my lines I look through that information very carefully. If there are supposed lines in those works that connect would connect my family to some sort of royalty or famous person I almost always find some very large assumptions which I can not comfortably put in my own genealogical work. In fact, The majority of lines of others work into which I have researched, I have found whole lines based on single documents that I cannot imagine anyone believing.
While I do not doubt you could write out a line in which one name precedes another all the way back to Adam and Eve, the validity of such a line would surely be contested. If for no other reason than you or others (whose lines you copied), relied solely on the bible for a large portion of your or their genealogical information. Mind, I am not suggesting that this information is false- I am just suggesting that the documents on which you or others based such claims is considered unreliable.
But, also as someone who has spent many hour researching genealogy: I would suggest that you can trace back your family two to five generations without fear of doubt. This said, I understand that the Latter Day Saints do have some of the most reliable genealogy information available. But, even their records are doubtful to tell the whole story. And, as more and more information about a family is lost, the more likely it is to generate mistakes. That doesn't mean that we don't make assumptions and go with what best fits the puzzle, or research whole lines of family based on a tentative connection with the hopes of strengthening that connection over time. The simple fact that the documents we base our ancestry on is not infallible casts doubt into all lines that we know of our family.
Furthermore, many people who trace their genealogy love to find some evidence that their ancestors were kings, queens or famous people. When I run into other genealogical works that connect to any of my lines I look through that information very carefully. If there are supposed lines in those works that connect would connect my family to some sort of royalty or famous person I almost always find some very large assumptions which I can not comfortably put in my own genealogical work. In fact, The majority of lines of others work into which I have researched, I have found whole lines based on single documents that I cannot imagine anyone believing.
While I do not doubt you could write out a line in which one name precedes another all the way back to Adam and Eve, the validity of such a line would surely be contested. If for no other reason than you or others (whose lines you copied), relied solely on the bible for a large portion of your or their genealogical information. Mind, I am not suggesting that this information is false- I am just suggesting that the documents on which you or others based such claims is considered unreliable.