How far back can family histories be traced? Not for us, but for other people.

[Valmy]

But what if your neighbor is 1,657th in line to be the Duke of York?  He could be plotting against you right now!

I would fight valiantly in this suburban renewal of the Wars of the Roses.

Good thing there are not any Tudor descendants around.

[viper37]

I wonder if Siegebreaker knows who his Russian ancestor is?

Ivan the Great.

[DGuller]

I wonder if DNA technology, when it becomes much cheaper, and privacy laws would be discarded is obsolete, we could create a 100% accurate genealogy tree for everyone.  Just get everyone's DNA into one big database, and run the algorithm.

[MadImmortalMan]

I wonder if DNA technology, when it becomes much cheaper, and privacy laws would be discarded is obsolete, we could create a 100% accurate genealogy tree for everyone.  Just get everyone's DNA into one big database, and run the algorithm.

Oh, I think that would uncover an awful lot of things we don't want to know. 

[Valmy]

Oh, I think that would uncover an awful lot of things we don't want to know. 

Oh I would be very interested in learning anything like that

[The Brain]

I wonder if DNA technology, when it becomes much cheaper, and privacy laws would be discarded is obsolete, we could create a 100% accurate genealogy tree for everyone.  Just get everyone's DNA into one big database, and run the algorithm.

There's more to being human than knowing your exact family tree. What about music, paintings and philosophy?

[alfred russel]

IIRC The oldest traceable, believeable geneologies belong to the descendants of Arasces, founder of the Parthian Empire in the early 3rd Century B.C.  The Bagratunis and various other Georgian and Armenian families can trace themselves back to him.

That could be a winner, but wikipedia says this:

"Certain, generation by generation, history of the family begins only in the 8th century. The later Bagratids also claimed descent from King David of the Hebrew Bible. The claim is given no credence by modern scholarship, but was accepted in its day and lent prestige to the family. Their pretense, however, although without presenting a continuous line between them, was made through one Smbat, reputedly the ancestor of the Bagratids (Bagratuni) of the Caucasus States, "An unusual occurrence is recorded to have taken place during the 4th governor of Judah's (an unnamed Babylonian army-commander) administration, starting in 582 BC when King Hraceay (Hratchea) of Armenia, while visiting the Babylonian emperor, to whose court he had come to pay homage as one of his vassals, for reasons unknown but to himself asked for a certain Jewish captive prince, Sumbat, to return with him to Armenia. He did, and King Hraceay (Hratchea) of Armenia, gave him a pension and an estate at Sper."

[Razgovory]

As far back as I know is some guy in Essex who's grandson went to conneticut in the 16th century or so.  He didn't seem particularly important though his nephew became mayor of London I think.

[Gambrinus]

How would one go around & trace is ancestry in Europe?

Depends where in Europe.

Britain is pretty good for this - you can go to individual Church parishes where births and deaths were recorded.  Headstones will often also give names of children or parents, as well as years of birth and death.

Other parts of Europe are much worse for record-keeping.

Sweden and Finland have excellent record keeping since the 17th century, draft and taxation FTW 

[The Brain]

How would one go around & trace is ancestry in Europe?

Depends where in Europe.

Britain is pretty good for this - you can go to individual Church parishes where births and deaths were recorded.  Headstones will often also give names of children or parents, as well as years of birth and death.

Other parts of Europe are much worse for record-keeping.

Sweden and Finland have excellent record keeping since the 17th century, draft and taxation FTW 

And then it gets pretty shitty.

[dps]

I wonder if DNA technology, when it becomes much cheaper, and privacy laws would be discarded is obsolete, we could create a 100% accurate genealogy tree for everyone.  Just get everyone's DNA into one big database, and run the algorithm.

I read an article (not online, so no link) about a year or so ago about some researchers who were trying to determine how far back you had to go to get to someone who is a common ancestor of us all.  Their initial conclusions were pretty surprising--they felt that all living humans had a common ancestor who lived perhaps as recently as the 1400's, but certainly no longer ago than the 1st century A.D. 

[alfred russel]

As far back as I know is some guy in Essex who's grandson went to conneticut in the 16th century or so.  He didn't seem particularly important though his nephew became mayor of London I think.

If he went to connecticut in the 16th century, that would make him very notable I would think.

[alfred russel]

I wonder if DNA technology, when it becomes much cheaper, and privacy laws would be discarded is obsolete, we could create a 100% accurate genealogy tree for everyone.  Just get everyone's DNA into one big database, and run the algorithm.

I read an article (not online, so no link) about a year or so ago about some researchers who were trying to determine how far back you had to go to get to someone who is a common ancestor of us all.  Their initial conclusions were pretty surprising--they felt that all living humans had a common ancestor who lived perhaps as recently as the 1400's, but certainly no longer ago than the 1st century A.D.

I have a tough time believing that, on the cop out basis of isolated groups like Aboriginal Australians.

[dps]

I wonder if DNA technology, when it becomes much cheaper, and privacy laws would be discarded is obsolete, we could create a 100% accurate genealogy tree for everyone.  Just get everyone's DNA into one big database, and run the algorithm.

I read an article (not online, so no link) about a year or so ago about some researchers who were trying to determine how far back you had to go to get to someone who is a common ancestor of us all.  Their initial conclusions were pretty surprising--they felt that all living humans had a common ancestor who lived perhaps as recently as the 1400's, but certainly no longer ago than the 1st century A.D.

I have a tough time believing that, on the cop out basis of isolated groups like Aboriginal Australians.

Yeah, that's kind of what I thought, too.

[Fireblade]

I am a direct male-line descendant of Alexius Comnenus