Have you ever heard someone say “I have my Family Tree all the way back to Adam” ?
Just think about that statement for a minute.
Can you REALLY trace your lineage all the way back to Adam?
Truly? Reliably?
sorry to burst your bubble
When asked if it is possible for living people to extend ancestral lines back to Adam and Eve, Robert C. Gunderson, Senior Royalty Research Specialist, of the Family History Department, stated:
“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 historically a connected European pedigree earlier than the time of the Merovingian Kings (c. a.d. 450–a.d. 752).
Robert C. Gunderson, “I Have a Question,” Ensign, Feb. 1984, 31.
things to consider
Taken from the familysearch wiki:
“Though each living person’s life evidences the reality of ‘connecting’ back to Adam, as canonized in the Bible, there is no proven pedigree documenting lineage back to Adam and Eve. During the Middle Ages, it was popular for royalty and nobility to authorize pedigrees showing their descendance from Adam and Eve.
Many fraudulent pedigrees were created and beautifully displayed.
The Internet has some compiled charts showing ancestry back to Adam and Eve and links to articles about lineages.”
Keep in mind the following points:
- Lineages are often tied to the names that appear in the Bible.
- Many of Adam and Eve’s descendants are not mentioned in the Bible.
- Most charts contain gaps of hundreds of years.
- Connections between your ancestors and the Biblical names are usually assumed instead of being based in fact.
- Connections cannot be documented by contemporary documents.
reliability questioned:
Taken from churchorjesuschrist.org
“How reliable are such pedigrees? The truth is, we just do not know. If we are to accept them, we must take someone else’s word for them because there is no proof. There are six significant reasons, however, why we might choose to take them with the proverbial “grain of salt”:
1. Modern genealogy in the Western World had its beginning in the 1400s and 1500s with the aristocracy of Europe, directly traceable to the influence of feudalism and hereditary privileges. It was more important in that social climate to have the “right” ancestors than to have the “correct” ancestors.
The truth was sometimes bent to suit political and economic ends.
2. Authentic documents by which such genealogies can be proven do not exist.
The written documentation of the events in people’s lives by which we trace and prove their genealogies does not exist. Most such records were never made in earlier centuries. Even in the Christian era pedigrees were preserved with the assistance of various mnemonic devices and passed orally from one generation to the next. These were later recorded by scribes, primarily monks. Most of these are just name lists but are considered by the authorities to be quite accurate, quite early. For example, the list of Scottish kings is acclaimed to be reliable as early as the third century A.D. Proof, however, is another matter.
absence of names and manipulation of records
3. There was a total absence of family names until the middle of the eleventh century A.D. and a significant absence even much later than that. This caused excessive repetition of names in the society in general, as evidenced in the few available records. This factor alone makes positive identification difficult, if not impossible, in most situations.
4. The rules of evidence were imperfectly understood by the early genealogists. This imperfect understanding provided these early genealogists with adequate pretext for using conjecture and imagination in compiling pedigrees as if they were reliable evidence.
5. Even the most undisputed biblical genealogies, upon which these pedigrees must of necessity rely, are not altogether reliable. In the first place, the ancient Hebrew phrases implying sonship are not to be interpreted as strictly as we interpret them today. Secondly, the ancient Jews were prone to use symmetrical numbers to manipulate long lists. This was accomplished by dropping, and even by adding, names at will.
6. Some genealogies trace back to pagan deities. Julius Caesar was supposed to have sprung from Venus through Aeneas, and the Saxon rulers of England claimed descent from the god Woden.”
in conclusion
I am not saying that we don’t all come from Adam and Eve, nor am I saying that Adam and eve didnt exist. As it stated above “Though each living person’s life evidences the reality of ‘connecting’ back to Adam, as canonized in the Bible, there is no proven pedigree documenting lineage back to Adam and Eve.”
What I am saying is that you cannot reliably trace back with correct source materials. Those genealogies and evidences are incorrect, fabricated or don’t exist.
The further back you go, the harder it is to find reliable and true sources that havent been tampered with.
Take everything you find with a grain of salt!
