How far back can a family tree go?

Question:

How far back can a family tree go?

In practicible terms, directly, how far has it been demonstrated that a person can trace their family tree? Both personally & also realistically.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: If you're French-Canadian, it's very realistic that you can trace your tree to the late 1400s. SOOOOO much of the heritage of the original 150 settlers has been traced professionally or by legitimate historians and scholars (particularly from the Universite de Moncton for the Acadians and Universite de Montreal for the rest) that you have a solid base of information. About 7-10 years ago, Rene Jette, John DuLong and another researcher decided to try tracing the lineage of Catherine de Baillon, one of the Filles du Roi, who was said to have descended from Charlemagne and to be the one filles du roi with a legitimate noble heritage. The project took them over $5000 in donations and several years of getting probate and church records. They had 3 working theories and were finally successful in proving she is a legitimate descendent of royalty. Most of us don't have that kind of time, patience or money, let alone the knowledge of both French through various ages and Latin to be able to persist in research of that depth back to the 8th and 9th centuries. But it does prove that it CAN be done, wars or not.

If your ancestors were Dutch, it's realistic that you not only can go back to the 15th century, but even to the 13th century. I've had great success because of the stability of the country in finding land records going back to 1240. They're the most wonderful of all record keepers.

If your ancestors were Swiss, you can legitimately expect to hit the year 1600 before records dwindle. They weren't as good at recordkeeping before that. Most lived in small, remote villages and the parish priest was usually the only one who could read or write. Before he kept records, the existence of information on individuals is slim to none.

If your ancestors were Polish, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, etc, you can expect to be able to SOMEDAY be able to trace them back to at least the 1500s...just not today unless you're taking a trip over there to do the research yourself. Their records are just starting to come online, with the Prussian Secret Archives being the most forthcoming with large-scale information. The Bremen passenger records were destroyed, but Hamburg's survive and were recently digitized. With any ancestor from Central and Eastern Europe, the best hope you have is if they came after 1900 and were forced to fill out the revised "long-form" Declaration of Intent and Naturalization petitions. The reason being that these documents, safe and sound here in the US, tell us when they came, the ship's name, the port from which they left, their parents and siblings, and their hometown...and often even their religion. This is extremely valuable information in narrowing down where to search.

If your ancestors were Italian, you can legitimately look at records back to the 1300s before they skimp out.

If they were French, it depends on the departement. I'm not impressed by their lack of organization. Once you know the hometown, it's not so hard getting records. But until you have that, you are going to spend many years wading through drek trying to find the records you need, especially if they were from Lorraine. (I hate researching in Lorraine and the city of Paris). My favorite area is Franche-Comte where the records are plentiful, easy to read, available online and on film, and well-organized. I can easily get a family from Franche-Comte back to the 1500s and to the 1200s with a little time and patience.

Belgium is a mess. Unless you know the hometown, you can't get the records because they never archived them in a central spot. Every town still holds their own records.

Scandinavia is a challenge on many levels. I can take a true Norwegian back to the 1600s easily and 1500s with a lot of patient-tweaking. Fins have records all over the place and IF you can get back before the Reformation, it's realistic that you can take the research back to 1400s...but the caveat on that one is big. Swedes are a cake walk and will go back to the 1200s if you're organized and can read really bad handwriting.

Russians are a challenge that's indescribable. There's no one rule of thumb in researching there. IF you can find the records, you can do very well. But records are inconsistently kept, inconsistent in WHERE they're kept, inconsistent in WHO kept them...and the handwriting is attrocious.

Greeks and Turks, on the other hand, are wonderful to research...as long as they weren't from tiny little mountain villages near Albania. You can expect to go back to the 1200s with patience, particularly if they were Greek Orthodox (less a century or two if they were Turks).

Anyone Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican or Methodist is easier to trace than a non-infant-baptizing Protestant. Church records go back to the 1400s and are generally available, even from war-torn countries. I laugh when people tell me "everything disappeared in the wars and there aren't any records from ______ country." Catholics coveted their records and unless every priest, nun and rector died, someone worked very hard to "save the books" of the sacraments.

If your ancestors were baptized by Spanish missionaries in Mexico, Central- or South America, you can go back as far as their baptisms.

Lastly, the earlier your ancestor arrived in North America, whether it's Spanish, French, Dutch, German or English, the better the odds that there's a society somewhere that's received credible research on him/her through the years that you can tap into, particularly those who arrived in the 1600s.