The history of genealogy can be divided most easily into three stages. The first is that of oral tradition; the second, that in which certain pedigrees were committed to writing. The third stage comprises the period from approximately 1500 in western Europe and later in the English-speaking world, during which the whole basis of genealogy widened to such an extent that it is now possible for the majority of people in western Europe to trace their ancestry.

Oral tradition and biblical sources

In the early days of civilization, before written records were made, oral traditions were necessarily important. Without the art of writing, reliance must be placed on memory, aided possibly by mnemonic systems like that of knot arrangements used by the pre-Hispanic Peruvians, or beads employed by the Maori of New Zealand. The ancient Scottish sennachy, or royal bard, could recite the pedigree of the old Scots kings at the latter’s inauguration, and the nobles of Peru, who boasted a common descent with the sovereign, were able to preserve their pedigrees despite the complexity resulting from the practice of polygamy. Oral transmission of genealogical information is almost always as a list of names—the lineages of the ancient Irish kings, for example. Events of outstanding importance are occasionally incorporated in such lists.

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Numerous Asian genealogies appear in the Bible. A cursory examination of these will reveal that they belong to the first and second stages in the history of genealogy, as described above. The systematic keeping of genealogical records, as in Europe since 1500, did not occur until very recently in Asia and Africa.

In southern India the ruling house of the maharajas of Travancore claimed to trace its descent, direct and unbroken, from the old Cera kings of southern India (referred to as independent sovereigns in one of the edicts of Ashoka, the great Mauryan emperor of the 3rd century bce). A claim that inscriptions of the rulers of Travancore have been found from the 9th century ce comes from a statement issued by the secretariat of the maharaja of Travancore. Its reliability may be judged along with the genealogies of princes in northern India shown in Lieut. Col. James Tod’s monumental work, Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan (1829, republished 1950). Referring to the lineages of Indian princes as being known since the early centuries bce, Tod wrote, “If, after all, these are fabricated genealogies of the ancient families of India, the fabrication is of ancient date, and they are all they know themselves upon the subject.” The very long Asian genealogies begin as oral pedigrees and were later written down, but they concern only princes or great persons.

In Africa the one instance of a claim to very long descent, that of the emperor of Ethiopia, bears a similarity to Tod’s Rajput genealogies. The emperor is said to descend from the marriage of King Solomon with the Queen of Sheba. The tradition was written down more than 15 centuries ago; it is therefore older than the history of most European monarchies, but it cannot, of course, be substantiated by documentary proof.

Under European influence, some Asian countries have adopted the practice of keeping systematic records for all citizens. In China, with its ancient system of ancestor worship, long, drawn-out pedigrees, including claims to descent from Confucius, are not unknown. The establishment of the Chinese Republic in 1911 brought with it registration of vital statistics.

In modern Japan, the registration of vital statistics is regulated by law. The Family Registration Law of 1947, and later enactments, require a comprehensive registration of a Japanese national from his birth to his death. Such information, however, is kept in local registration offices, and there is no system in Japan for gathering together, recording, and preserving the information in one central place (although of course the results of statistics, such as the number of births, is known to the central authority). Such an exact system of registration covers only the era of modern Japan. The present-day pedigree of the Japanese emperors has a divine origin; it is mainly a string of names, easily recited and memorized, mixed with semifabulous legends and first written down in the early centuries of the Common Era. It is concerned only with exalted persons, royal or noble.

In the Bible there are many genealogies, the object of which is to show descent from Adam, Noah, and Abraham. By the time these genealogies had become part of the Jewish scriptures, the concept of racial purity had reinforced the keeping of family records. Genealogies of Jesus Christ in the New Testament aim at showing his descent from David, the one in St. Luke’s Gospel going as far back as Adam, “who was the son of God.” The idea of divine origin was reflected everywhere in a wildly polytheistic form among the Gentiles. Almost without exception, the heroes whose genealogies were recited by the bards had their paternity ascribed to the gods, or to persons such as Romulus who were regarded as having become divine. Greek fables abound in stories of great men begotten by gods and mortals.

In Roman genealogies heroes were always descended from gods. Julius Caesar, for example, was supposed to have sprung from the line of Aeneas, and thus from that of Venus. Among the Romans, traditions of descent remained vague even when written. Caesar’s murderer, Brutus, was popularly supposed to be of the same family as an ancient Brutus, who had expelled the Tarquins, but no pedigree appears to have existed to substantiate the belief.

Among the northern nations that overwhelmed the western Roman Empire, belief in divine sonship was general. For Saxon rulers of the English kingdoms it was necessary to be descended from the god Woden.