Historic trace back
I would love to see some intelligent functionality being added allowing to trace back one's roots to ancient times.
E.g. during the dark ages only the most influential families kept records of their heritage. If we double our ancestry with every generation in theory our heritage should be exponentially large. However this is not the case since the total population of Europe was less than a quarter of that. This was partially due to inbreeding and such. It implies that roughly all European families are somehow related to each other, thus including royalty.
I'd like to be able to start with e.g. Charlemagne and find the connecting link between him and one or more of my forefathers. So basically a search tool allowing to scan for the missing link between an influential person of old times (Galileo, Einstein, Emperor Augustus, Napoleon, etc.) and one's own pedigree.
I figure that with AI this shouldn't be an issue. Matching ancient records with modern ones.
Regards,
Lucas
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Any AI using FamilySearch connections where so many have no sources would not really be believable. If you want to see a science based estimate of your family's history going back 1500 years, do your DNA. I think the most amazing example of this is an adopted relative of mine who is mixed Hispanic and Native American. She and her sons have DNA that spans northern Africa into the middle east, plus some Jewish. Why? Because of the Islamic invaders who conquered the Iberian peninsula in 711 and stayed there until finally kicked out in 1492. They were part of an empire spanning north Africa and into the middle east. Jewish? The Inquisition, and there is much documentation about that event injecting Jewish DNA into the Spanish population. My DNA tells me my English ancestors were somewhat, but less of the Norman invader stock, but much more the group that occupied Calais, which England held until the 1500s.
Most DNA sites group French and German ethnicity because the two were not different for a long time after the fall of the Roman Empire.
All of DNA ethnicities are estimates, but I don't think FamilySearch lines are more trustworthy when going back to the middle ages and beyond.
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"... Matching ancient records with modern ones. ..."
The trouble is that those ancient records simply aren't there.
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