Editing Genealogy (section)

=== Pre-modern genealogy ===
[[File:P. 63 genealogy and history from Adam and Eve to Asclobitotus (unfinished).jpg|thumb|A Medieval genealogy traced from [[Adam and Eve]]]]
Hereditary emperors, kings and chiefs in several areas have long claimed descent from [[deities|gods]] (thus establishing divine legitimacy). Court genealogists have preserved or invented appropriate genealogical pretensions - for example in [[Japan]],<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Kitagawa
 |first1               = Joseph Mitsuo
 |author-link1         = Joseph Kitagawa
 |date                 = 21 October 1987
 |chapter              = Shinto
 |title                = On Understanding Japanese Religion
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=h1xcc4cGL5cC
 |series               = Asian studies
 |publication-place    = Princeton, New Jersey
 |publisher            = Princeton University Press
 |page                 = 149
 |isbn                 = 9780691102290
 |access-date          = 24 June 2024
 |quote                = Among all the clans, the most powerful was the Imperial clan, which claimed both religious and political authority by virtue of its divine and solar ancestry. [...] It was taken for granted that the imperial palace was also the shrine of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, the ancestress of the Imperial clan and the ''kami'' of the Yamato region. 
}} 
</ref>
[[Polynesia]],<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Williamson
 |first1               = Robert W.
 |author-link1         = Robert Wood Williamson
 |date                 = 14 November 2013
 |orig-date            = 1924
 |title                = The Social and Political Systems of Central Polynesia
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=1RZaAQAAQBAJ
 |volume               = 1
 |edition              = reprint
 |publisher            = Cambridge University Press
 |page                 = 289
 |isbn                 = 9781107625822
 |access-date          = 24 June 2024
 |quote                = [...] it was a common custom for great Polynesian chiefs to claim ancient or divine descent [...]
}} 
</ref>
and the [[Indo-European]] world from Scandinavia through ancient Greece to India.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Scharfe
 |first1               = Hartmut
 |year                 = 1989
 |chapter              = The King and his court
 |title                = The State in Indian Tradition
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=tlbxHiSGczYC
 |series               = Handbuch der Orientalistik: Indien, Part 2, Indien - ISSN 0169-9377, volume 3
 |publication-place    = Leiden
 |publisher            = E. J. Brill
 |page                 = 37
 |isbn                 = 9789004090606
 |access-date          = 24 June 2024
 |quote                = The descent of royal families from gods such as Wodan/Oðin, Yngwi, Týr, and the divine ancestry claimed by Agamemnon, Menelaos  Priamos, Nestor and Helena has its parallel in the solar and lunar dynasties of India and in the claims by Pallavas, Candellas, etc. who trace their lineage back to Brahman and Visņu [...].
}} 
</ref>

Historically, in Western societies, genealogy focused on the [[kinship and descent]] of rulers and nobles, often arguing or demonstrating the legitimacy of claims to wealth and power. Genealogy often overlapped with [[heraldry]], which reflected the ancestry of noble houses in their [[coats of arms]]. Modern scholars regard many claimed noble ancestries as fabrications, such as the [[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'s tracing of the ancestry of several English kings to the god [[Woden]].<ref>Barbara Yorke,  "Anglo-Saxon origin legends." in ''Myth, Rulership, Church and Charters''  ed by Julia Barrow and Andrew Wareham. (Routledge, 2017) pp: 29–44.</ref> With the coming of Christianity to northern Europe, [[Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies]] extended the kings' lines of ancestry from Woden back to reach the line of [[Patriarchs (Bible)|Biblical patriarchs]]: [[Noah]]<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Chaney
 |first1               = William A.
 |author-link1         = William Chaney
 |year                 = 1999
 |orig-date            = 1970
 |chapter              = The Woden-sprung kings: Germanic sacral kingship and divine descent
 |title                = The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England: The Transition from Paganism to Christianity
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=hka8AAAAIAAJ
 |edition              = reprint
 |publication-place    = Manchester
 |publisher            = Manchester University Press
 |page                 = 41
 |isbn                 = 9780719003721
 |access-date          = 24 June 2024
 |quote                = The pagan genealogies of the Woden-sprung kings were in time assimilated to Christianity. In the mythical lineage of King Aethelwulf of Wessex in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ''sub anno'' 855, Woden is sixteenth in descent from 'Sceaf, who is the son of Noah and was born in Noah's Ark'.
}} 
</ref>
and [[Adam]]. (This extension offered the side-benefit of connecting pretentious rulers with the prestigious [[genealogy of Jesus]].)<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Chaney
 |first1               = William A.
 |author-link1         = William Chaney
 |year                 = 1999
 |orig-date            = 1970
 |chapter              = The Woden-sprung kings: Germanic sacral kingship and divine descent
 |title                = The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England: The Transition from Paganism to Christianity
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=hka8AAAAIAAJ
 |edition              = reprint
 |publication-place    = Manchester
 |publisher            = Manchester University Press
 |pages                = 41–42
 |isbn                 = 9780719003721
 |access-date          = 24 June 2024
 |quote                = [...] this 'arcane' transition makes the West Saxon rulers collateral relatives, as Professor Magoun has pointed out, of our Lord.
}} 
</ref>

Modern historians and genealogists may regard manufactured pseudo-genealogies with a degree of scepticism. However, the desire to find ancestral links with prominent figures from a legendary or distant past has persisted. In the United States, for example, it does no harm to [[Mayflower Society|establish one's links to ancestors]] who boarded the ''[[Mayflower]]''. And the popularity of the genealogical hypothesis of ''[[The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail]]'' (1982) demonstrates popular interest in ancient bloodlines, however dubious.

Some family trees have been maintained for considerable periods. The family tree of [[Confucius]] has been maintained for over 2,500 years and is listed in the [[Guinness Book of Records|Guinness Book of World Records]] as the largest extant family tree. The fifth edition of the [[Confucius Genealogy]] was printed in 2009 by the [[Confucius Genealogy Compilation Committee]] (CGCC).<ref>{{cite news |title=New ''Confucius Genealogy'' out next year |url= http://www.china.org.cn/china/features/content_16696029.htm |work=[[China Internet Information Center]] |year=2008 |access-date=2008-11-01 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081103060844/http://www.china.org.cn/china/features/content_16696029.htm |archive-date= 2008-11-03 |url-status= live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title= Updated Confucius family tree has two million members |url=http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/16/content_7616027.htm |work= [[Xinhua News Agency]] |date= February 16, 2008 |access-date= 2008-11-01 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121022002217/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/16/content_7616027.htm |archive-date= October 22, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>