What are the odds of actually being able to successfully trace your ancestry to the year 3AD?

Question

My friend got on a bit of a kick lately, and she went and traced her ancestry, which is pretty cool, I'll admit that. But she managed to trace it back to the year 3AD, and found that there is some royalty in her family. Now I'm not trying to rain on her parade or anything, but what are the odds that she successfully traced it back that far and accuratly to 3AD? Because I know that a lot of professionals have a hard time going back over 2000 years, and I'm just wondering if it would be possible, for a total amature of 20 years old, to be able to trace her history back 2000 years, using only the internet.

Answer 1

70% of the people in the world with English, French, German, Swiss, Northern Italian or BeNeLux lines are related to Charlemagne, usually through the illegitimate child of some king or another. Proving it is the hard part. Once you get to Charlemagne, you can get to Adam, if your faith is strong and your cynicism weak.

Up to 75% of the genealogy on the Internet is accurate, I've heard.

If you believe everything you see on the Internet, and get lucky, you could trace back to Adam and Eve, let alone 3 AD.

Verifying that line would take the rest of your life and considerable funds. Even then, lots of kings and queens in the middle ages lied on official documents. They would hire researchers to "prove" their lines went back to high and mighty kings, to prove their right to the throne. So, verifying by looking up the source document might not count. Imagine a book, "Ancestors of Charles the off-key Tenor, king of the Eastern Swamp that Bruce the Strong Arm didn't want". You might find the original document said yes, when Charles was born the skies opened up and angels sang, all right. His mother, Cleopatra, and his father, Atilla the Hun, were both pleased. That doesn't make it true.

I saw a motto once I liked a lot - "All relatives prior to 1750 are for amusement only".

Answer 2

Actually, you can. And nearly everyone has royalty, usually British and French, in their family.That is how you can trace it back so far. You probably won't be able to find your family directly back that far; it's the royalty in your family that kept VERY good records of who they were related to. I can trace mine back beyond A.D. Far back. But only on a very few branches of the shrub.

Nearly everything in on the internet nowadays. You can definitely trace your family, if you can find that famous relative four or five hundred years ago, all the way back to the time that family was formed.

But, two warnings. First, take everything with a grain of salt. Everyone wants to be related to someone famous. A lot of the time, people, especially royalty, would claim a famous ancestor in order to legitamize their reign. They may or may not in fact be related to that person. Also, in the case of, say, the Welsh go back far enough, and you will always find you're related to Beli Mawr. There is no actual record such a man existed. He's really a folk tale. But everyone is related to him.

Second, the only records kept were on those who "meant" something. Royalty, nobility, saints. Us common people, of which there are, of course, far more of, were not kept track of. So you'll not be able to trace most of your family that far. You probably won't be able to trace most of it much farther back than their immigration to the United States or other parts of the "New World." Also for this, common people often didn't have last names in the Middle Ages, or their surnames changed with where they lived. Again, impossible to trace.

But, to sum up, if you get lucky and find that important person, you most definitely CAN get back that far, even a twenty-year-old amateur.

Answer 3

First of all, as I read recently in a news story, millions of people are in some distant way related to some kind of royalty or other - these royals were the top dogs in ancient days and their choosiness was not so great: they regularly had kids by whomever.

But mostly, accurate records are hard to get even over a few hundred years. And also, the farther back you go, the fewer records there are, as fewer people could read and write, and those that did were involved in copying whatever existed, largely.

And what governments there were did not issue birth certificates and passports and so on as they do now, didn't even think to do so - it was a different world...it was several different worlds one after the other.

So there is no chance at all that whatever your friend collected as her genealogy is accurate in any way, beyond recent times.

Answer 4

I'm also a 21 year old amateur genealogist.

The chances are very good actually! I have traced my ancestry well beyond 3 AD, to many ancient dynasties. It is simply a matter of finding one noble or royal European ancestor and then tracing his ancestry back to Celtic or Armenian royal lines. The lines of the High Kings of Ireland go back hundreds of years before Christ. The Armenian royal line does also, and traces to Greek, Ptolemaic and ancient Egyptian royal families. If you are descended from Edmund Plantagenet, Duke of York, you will also find that you are descended from the Prophet Muhammad and through Him to Adnan and farther back to Ishmael, the son of Abraham (though the exact connection between Adnan and Ishmael is not detailed).

Someone else above mentioned descent from the brother of Jesus. This is through the traditional Welsh pedigrees. If you have English noble ancestry, you are probably descended from this line as well.

Answer 5

Your friend has been to Ancestry.com I see....all dates listed before 1500 for the most part there are to be considered in THEIR words for, "Entertainment purposes only" they hide this little fact very carefully but it is listed. The chances of beeing able to do this through documents is practically nill. However if you use DNA you can with absolute certainty tell where and when you are from even farther back using those signatures. Many families have DNA projects ongoing. I have experimented with this and 99% of all the European names go back to Charlemagne and then on to suspect Roman names and families

Answer 6

I seriously doubt it to be at all accurate. If you come from a family that kept excellent records handing them down from generation to generation it's possible. Barring this it's hard enough to trace to before your family line immigrated to this country. Sorry I live in US and assume everyone else does as well. There was this lady i know that said she's 417th in line to the Scottish royal throne. I don't believe her but just let it go at that. I have a tendency to judge people more for who they are than who their parents other ancestors are were.

Answer 7

It can be done, but one has to wonder about the accuracy. Going back that far....well, the same people that kept census records also recorded in the Bible....and well......someof those stories I have to take with a grain of salt. Unless your friend has no life and looking through microfilm and microfiche is her thing, just nod your head and smile....is she Mormon?

Answer 8

All i comprehend approximately my ancestors is my great great great grandmother with an analogous call as me got here visiting from eire, then labored for some family individuals, and finally married the son.

Answer 9

i would have some serious doubts about that

a lot of the literature/documentation from then is incomplete or nonexististent

also, after about 2000 years, i doubt she has any of that stuff in her

tell her your related to george washington

Answer 10

There weren't written records going back that far.