[jester]

Originally Posted by Mohoender

You are very much right Jester. However, the thing is that no record had been kept in the western world prior to 800AD (Carlus Magnus). You might get some older records if your ancestry is from Constantinople but I'm not even sure about that. Records might have existed before the destruction of Alexandria's great library but all that is lost and no proof of it remains.

Several European leaders pretended to be heir to some pre-christ famous leaders but all that has always been lies and fantasy on their part. Actually, even if someone effectively has records of previous ancestry, you can be sure that it is a fake (but it may be a very ancient fake). I have worked on fakes from around 1000AD and that is a lot of fun just to know that the piece of history you are working on is the result of some kind of forgery.

I have a friend who can trace her ancestry back to a Bishop that lived sometime around 900AD but that is fairly rare.

A few Muslims can trace it back to about 600AD (to Mahomet, in fact). That's how we know that king of Morocco and king of Jordan are heirs to the prophet.

Asian, both Japanese and Chinese, can go back a lot further as they have retained some very old record. Still Confucius remain the oldest family tree in existence.

I would also suggest that some small primative cultures many who have an oral tradition of passing down stories and liniage could do a good job. As well as I said families who have lived in a small community that has been more or less isolated who have a cemetary that is maintained and....it is even better if there are is a church record.