![]() The records themselves also need to be “lucky” to survive centuries without being damaged.įamily tree records depend (a lot) on religionĮach religion has different customs of record keeping, and sometimes those customs vary by country or culture. Our ancestors needed to be lucky enough to have the socioeconomic resources to have records created about them, or have unlucky circumstances create a life of infamy, and we need to be lucky enough to find those records. Good luck is finding a full-page article in an old newspaper detailing our great-great-great grandfather’s life and death. Bad luck is what I would call the 1890 census records being destroyed in a fire or church records being burned in a vengeful conflict. ![]() In order to get evidence for our trees, we need luck. It takes luck to build a family tree really far back In order to build our trees, we need documentation and evidence, and whether or not said documentation and evidence exists depends on some of those factors I just mentioned. How far back we can really build our trees back depends on many factors including their religion, race, social class, place of birth, culture, and luck. The answer to this question is a concise “it depends”. How far back can we actually build our family tree? While we can build our family trees back as far as we want to, what we really want to know is how far back can we accurately build our family trees? In other words, is your neighbor’s family tree that she claims goes all the back to Charlemagne accurate? And if it could be accurate, does it even matter, especially since he might have more than a billion descendants? How far back is it possible to go in genealogy? Whether or not you think accuracy really matters, it is interesting to ponder how far back you can realistically (and accurately) build a family tree. Most family tree researchers strive to make sure that our research is accurate, and accuracy is one reasons that many people who are interested in family tree research decide to take DNA tests.
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