How far back is realistic?

[Ayashi]

I should look for Jesus on the 0020 census. 

Well, there is the well known census of Judea in AD 1. Indeed "of the whole world'.

Good point, good point...

Also pretty sure there's a whole section of the Bible that is so-and-so begat so-and-so begat... Get back to that part and you're golden.

I have seen trees online back to Adam The First Man and I've been impressed by them- not because of the accuracy, obviously, but because someone devoted that much time to making it in the first place. Must have taken ages!

[Rena]

Since I typed my response, I decided to enter various BMDs that I've collected over time  but hadn't kept up entering them onto my GEDCOM programme.

I deleted my online tree months ago.  However, when I opened the gedcom programme whilst my computer was offline, it automatically started to update itself

Then horror of horrors, the darned thing refused to open properly until I went online.  I reluctantly obeyed the order but when I entered my email addie and password, the website didn't recognise either of them !!!!

Whilst all this was going on I saw that the date I intended entering had already been entered.  I'd duplicated my written notes !

[coombs]

I know the feeling of how hard it can be to tell people apart before the census and BMD era. You can get even multiple couples of a rarer surname if it is in a particular area where the surname is more common. For example two John Beesley's wed to spouses called Sarah in the same village in the mid 1700s (for example John Beesley wed Sarah Smith in 1756 and a John Beesley wed Sarah Bloggs in 1762) and you cannot be sure which John and Sarah are the parents of your ancestor, such as "Elizabeth Beesley, daughter of John And Sarah" baptised in 1765. I think in cases like these it may be a case of admitting defeat and you may never know for sure which John and Sarah were your direct ancestors.

You find a baptism in the same area 20 odd years before your namesake ancestor married but have no evidence to show it is the same person, and your constant digging just draws a blank.

[mwehrle]

I think it'd be cool to be able to trace one's geneology all the way back to Christ but maybe that's just a pipe dream?

First you need an answer to the question "Did Jesus have any children?".

Hmmm . . . good question. Literal biological offspring or spiritually begotten? He is referred to as my Elder brother in a blesssing I recieved. What was meant by that designation? Is he literally my elder brother? I suppose that designation could apply to all of us who were born after him. Spiritually speaking, however, I think it could apply to all who have ever lived having both before Christ and after.

[KGarrad]

Only true(-ish) if you're a believer/christian.
I'm not

If you want to make a tree based on fantasy, fable, and legend - go ahead.

[BushInn1746]

Trade Unions also use to call their Members by these phrases, such as 'Brothers', but it did not mean blood relative.
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Fifty years ago my family tried to trace our male lineage early 1800s and beyond 1800.

A book written by a Wesleyan (19th Cent in that town) about the town, stated they kept no early records.

Sarah, one of my known family is one of those listed as having a Freehold house in the book.

The Presbyterian records in that town do not survive for a 100 year period from 1690.

No records make it impossible to check for any possible relatives.

Older burial Registers don't have burial ages.

Only a few people can get back to 1550 with baptisms, marriages, burials and supporting documents.

If old Landowner or Manor records can be found and looked at, only principal Tenants are listed, so anyone else who worked for the Tenant are not mentioned.

Catholics never kept all their records.

A few Trees seem to have errors even when Census and BMD Certificates are available.

Also no Legal obligation England & Wales to Register a Birth until the 1870s.

Some published and printed (in the 19th Cent) family histories have been challenged by another:-

For example The Coburn Family and another book about The Coburn-Hood Family.

On my Richardson family, a Rootschatter found 2 Wills and we ended up with 6 Wills for the Richardsons and a parallel line by Marriage to them, to get the correct baptism and marriage line, just to get back to the 1740s.

But not all people left a Will.

[Peter L. Mitchell]

I believe that the Jewish community has fairly extensive records going back many decades, if not centuries, before the 1600s. There was an article I read many years ago that claimed that there was a woman who was living in Israel who could trace her family back 2,300 years because the rabbinical records were so good.

It's known that the people in many European Jewish communities were almost 100% literate (women included) throughout the Middle Ages, so this is possible. Perhaps if you have Jewish ancestry you might contact the local synagogue or Jewish Museum for some guidance.

[JessiT]

I am probably younger than most here but I can't understand why people seem so obsessed with getting as far back as possible. it is much more interesting contacting living relatives. Also it is generally accepted that one to two percent of births are not recorded correctly because the mother doesn't know the father. People seem so dubious about DNA, yet if you weren't at the conception and birth you can't really be sure without relying on DNA.

Jessi

[Peter L. Mitchell]

I guess it depends upon what you are looking for.

Many of the queries in this site come from people who are looking for missing ancestors, unexplained anomalies in their family history, or information that will explain why things happened in their families. For many of us, it's just totally absorbing to find out more about the past.