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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1996-10 > 0846204116


From: Tom Camfield <>
Subject: Re: Oldest male line?
Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 03:41:56 +0300


In article <54mmof$>,
(bryan tinlin) wrote:

> What is the oldest traceable European straight male line from someone who
> is alive today? Are there any male line descendants of Charlemagne in the
> present day or, if not, who was the last one?

Can't answer that. Just want to mention that I've always been a bit puzzled
by the obsession with the male-line descent so favored by early
genealogical authors. It's pure hell, even today, trying to trace the
allied female lines after getting back 3 or 4 generations. But in my mind
these lines are every bit as important as the "direct" male line; the
contributed blood lessens in equal measure in all cases.

Thus it was that my first book dealt with my mother's ancestry, my second
with my father's...and each proceeded to follow allied female lines as
completely as possible.

Whenever getting back a couple of generations to the ancestry of a maternal
grandmother, one seems always to encounter the reversion to a male line in
the thought patterns of about everyone involved--resulting in great
difficulty uncovering spousal history.

Tom Camfield -

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