Blog
Notes from the research desk
How far family trees can really go, what the old records can and can’t prove, and how to tell an ancestor you can document from one somebody wished for.
· 10 min read
Are you descended from ancient Rome?
No one can document a line, name by name, back to ancient Rome or Greece. Yet the math says most of us descend from thousands of Romans. Why both are true, and how to spot an invented pedigree.
Read the article →· 8 min read
Why every surname is lying to you
Surnames are younger than you think, were often handed out rather than earned, changed spelling at will, and drift away from the bloodline they seem to follow. How to read a family name as a document, not a fact.
Read the article →· 7 min read
Is everyone really descended from Charlemagne?
Nearly everyone of European descent is a descendant of Charlemagne. The math says so, and for millions of people the documents can show the links. Why he is where arithmetic and genealogy finally agree.
Read the article →· 8 min read
Why your DNA test doesn’t match your family tree
Your tree shows an Irish ancestor and your DNA says 0% Irish. Usually neither is wrong. Why you inherit nothing from some of your real ancestors, what ethnicity estimates actually measure, and where DNA is reliable.
Read the article →· 8 min read
The Trojan ancestor industry
For a thousand years, a European noble without a Trojan, a Roman senator or a biblical king in his pedigree could simply buy one. How the forgery trade worked, and why its products still turn up in online trees.
Read the article →· 8 min read
How many ancestors do you actually have?
Double your ancestors for thirty generations and you need a billion people in the year 1100, when Europe had fifty million. How pedigree collapse resolves the paradox, and why it makes your ancestry wider, not narrower.
Read the article →· 8 min read
Cousin marriage: everyone’s, not just royalty’s
Cousin marriage was not a royal oddity. In a village of 400, most of your neighbours were your fourth cousins. Why your ancestors married kin, what the Church and the genetics really say, and why it matters for your tree.
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