Mary Queen of Scots. Robert The Bruce. Adam and Eve etc.....

[David Douglas]

Of course the only real 'proof' is DNA, so with that it is possible to learn something about our ancestors in the direct female line (for everyone), and for the direct male line (for men).

With the male line you can sometimes match a historical name to a very widespread Y-chromosome pattern (e.g. Genghis Khan, Niall of the Nine Hostages (5th century Irish king).

Apart from that, can any of us really 'prove' our ancestry? All we can hope to do is follow the paper trail, and hope it's telling the truth. If any of us were able to trace all our ancestors back to the start of church records (30,000 or so ancestors), there would be a very high chance of finding aristocratic ancestors. Of course, we can only hope to trace a tiny fraction of our ancestors of the last 400 years.
If you do find aristocratic ancestors, I'd imagine you would have a good chance of tracing your ancestry back over a thousand years. I'm assuming most of the work has already been done by professional historians. And yes, some of it does lead back, via the Normans, to the Vikings. For example, Robert the Bruce's ancestry goes back to an 8th century Duke of Schleswig (then part of Denmark).
But as I said, all you can do is try to follow the documents- whether you believe what people wrote down a thousand years ago, or not, is a different matter.

Some genealogical traditions go back much further than our own, though. 'The Book of Icelanders', for examples, documents Icelandic ancestry going back more than 1000 years, and is believed to contain details of half of all the Icelanders who have ever lived. Recent DNA studies of male lines have shown it is well over 90% accurate.

Somalian oral genealogies are said to go back 2000 years (no doubt only the male line), though if they don't start writing them down soon they'll be lost, given the current state of Somalian society.

In Jewish history, the rabbis were traditionally from the Cohen family (the 'Cohanim'), who claim direct male ancestry from Moses' brother Aaron (about 3000 years ago). DNA seems to support this claim (it is likely that the majority of men with the surname Cohen had a single common male ancestor 3000 years ago.)

I also know a man who has Ethiopian royal ancestry on his father's side, and who is told by his family that he is the 196th generation (or whatever number, I forget) in a direct male line from King David. I don't know how many others have that claim (it's not something he's all that interested in), but again, DNA could help to support or disprove the claim.

[StewL]

I think as most people on TS do, that for us peasants the best we can go back to is about the 1700's. I have one possible relative??GGGGGrandfather (maybe to many G's ) but he is only a possibility and is only "penciled" in. He is from my paternal line of Lauire's. But realistically I dont expect to get much farther back, unless I can borrow the Tardis , but then I would have to get some old clothes so I dont stand out like a pimple on you know where

Recently my realisation is that collaterals are my best option at present, just whish they didnt have common names like Stewart and Laurie

But if people want to believe they have traced there lines back to King David or Jimmy the incontinent, who am I to argue

[Cathy]

FIND ALL YOUR ANCESTORS ONLINE!

offer.....

SEND me $10,000.

Cheap at that price David. Could have saved myself a few bob.

[fmackay]

I was sent a tree which goes back to biblical times! I think I filed it away somewhere