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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2000-09 > 0969837048


From: "Urania" <>
Subject: Re: Lines back to Adam and Eve
Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 00:10:48 +0100


Adding together the genealogical information in the OT is not a new
procedure. It was first done (IIRC) by Archbishop James Ussher of
Armagh (1581-1656) [ early enough to be on topic ??? At any rate the
history of genealogical research may be of legitimate general
interest] a respected Anglican divine who has been much mocked by
later scholars for his naivety - wrongly I think, because the man was
doing his best with the limited material at his disposal. Although I
think his conclusions were mistaken, his methods and his sincerity
were not.

Many mediaeval & renaissance genealogies are not to be trusted, since
they were compiled by unscrupulous clerics who wished to flatter (and
be paid by!) newly ennobled families who wanted to demonstrate their
noble ancestry when they had nothing of the kind. These genealogies
are at best fiction and at worst unscrupulous lying. Fraudulent
exploiters of this sort are alive and well and rampant on the Web and
in other places.

Information that is painstakingly pieced together from
non-genealogical sources such as charters is more reliable than fancy
genealogies in the introductory chapters of a family-focussed
chronicle.

Urania.

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