I can't resist posting this. We've all heard from well-meaning people who actually believed they could trace their lineage to Adam and Eve !!! (Ever heard of the flood ???) Don't take my word for it.
Here is the word from some scholars who have examined the various claimed trees. Thanks to Dick Eastman and his column at https://blog.eogn.com/2020/07/01/i-have-my-family-tree-back-to-adam-and-eve/
Dick Eastman · July 1, 2020 · Genealogy Basics ·
This is another bit of fiction that needs to be wiped out. I have often heard people (I won’t call them “genealogists”) at various times make the claim that they have traced their family tree back to Adam and Eve. Of course, the “documentation” is always sketchy.
Robert C. Gunderson was a Senior Royalty Research Specialist of the Church Genealogical Department at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons). He was an expert in medieval genealogy and started the Royalty Identification Unit in 1972. He passed away in 2003. However, before his death, Gunderson was once asked if such research was
“The simplest answer is No. Let me explain. In thirty-five years of genealogical research, I have yet to see a pedigree back to Adam that can be documented. By assignment, I have reviewed hundreds of pedigrees over the years. I have not found one where each connection on the pedigree can be justified by evidence from contemporary documents. In my opinion it is not even possible to verify a connected European pedigree historically earlier than the time of the Merovingian Kings (c. a.d. 450–a.d. 752).
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Every pedigree I have seen that attempts to bridge the gap between that time and the biblical pedigree appears to be based on questionable tradition, or at worst, plain fabrication. Generally these pedigrees offer no evidence as to the origin of the information, or they cite a vague source.”
François Weil, a former director of studies (professor) at the École des Hautes Etudes en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris and currently a State Councilor, is another expert in medieval pedigrees who agrees. Weil provides authoritative answers to these questions in his book Family Trees: A History of Genealogy in America (2013) published by Harvard University Press.
Both Gunderson and Weil agreed: European royal pedigrees cannot be verified before the 500s A.D.
To learn more, read:
Family Trees: A History of Genealogy in America. By François Weil. Published by Harvard University Press, Online bookstore, 2013. ISBN 9780674045835. 320 pp. Indexes. Hardcover. $27.95. http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674045835 or available on Amazon as a hardcover book at https://amzn.to/2BloHUu.
