There have been several posts on this blog regarding the historicity of Jesus. While Christian apologists contend that there was an historical Jesus, recent Biblical scholarship, especially by secular historians, sheds doubt that there truly was such an historical person. How does this historical analysis relate to efforts of individuals searching for their ancestry?
A few years ago, this blogger engaged in extensive research into his own personal genealogy. It involved hundreds of hours researching information from several sources. Early in this process it was clear that genealogy is not an exact science. Wikipedia, and other internet sources, state that information found in historical or genealogy sources can be unreliable and it is good practice to evaluate all sources with a critical eye.
Interestingly, this blogger's search for his personal ancestry revealed dozens of famous historical persons branching out directly from his great grandmother on his mother's side of the family. Knowing the above-stated problems with historical and genealogical study, this blogger only accepted documentation for this portion of the genealogy that was found in Ancestry.com's Public Member Trees, and mostly only such documentation if there were multiple Public Member Trees in support of the ancestry.
Two comments before continuing. Internet searches revealed that there is no more reliable resource for genealogy research than Ancestry.com. Also, the Public Member Trees are independently analyzed by Ancestry.com for accuracy before designating them as such. This is not a guarantee of accuracy, but as close as you can get.
In light of the above, this blogger concluded that this personal genealogy record was at least a possible representation of his family history and, perhaps, a probability.
One of this blogger's relatives, a Christian, has not accepted that we may be related to historical persons. He questioned this blogger's statement that there is at least as much evidence for the validity of our ancestry as recorded by this blogger as there is for the historicity of Jesus. However, he apparently believes in the historicity of Jesus because he is a Christian. He will not entertain a discussion of the matter. Sometimes evidence, or the lack of such, is not accepted equally in support, or rejection, of belief.
- - - - -
Anyone interested in this blogger's ancestry may find such on Ancestry.com under The Rafferty/Mooney Family Tree.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.