Mark Odegard
> No genealogy can be built back much beyond Charlemagne, and even
here, you have to go on the word of the documents. Anyone who says
otherwise is a fool or a liar, or both.
Mark that is not strictly true. There are a number of Anglo-Saxon
Royal Chronologies, particularly of the Anglian (rather than the
Northumbrian or Wessex Kings), that go back to Offa of Denmark, and
the Angeln there. The Merovignians also maintained a fairly accurate
genealogy back to Merovius the putative founder of their line.
The greatest Genealongists of all were the Celts. There are fairly
accurate Celtic Welsh genealogies that go back to about the 4th
century AD. The greatest genealogies, though were those of the Irish
(it appears that the Welsh and West Saxon genealogies were inspired
from Irish prototypes.
Irish genealogies are probably fairly accurate back to late 1st
century BC, but I wouldn't put any relaince of them any earlier.
Regards
John