01 January 2012

In the beginning...

If you’ve frequented any of the genealogy centered pages on Facebook you’ve probably seen someone claim they’ve traced their family back to the year 600 or even back to Adam and Eve. Many times they admit to being a beginner or that they got those results during the 14-day free trial at Ancestry.com. Of course the problem lies with using other people’s trees as “sources”. That got me thinking so here I am attempting to show errors on trees, errors that have been copied multiple times by unwitting newbies. If you cannot find MULTIPLE errors in each of these genealogy is not for you ;-)
I thought it would be fitting to start with Adam and Eve. Now, for the record, I have no problem with someone creating a Biblical tree. It could be a good vacation Bible school project. Creating a tree for certain literary works would be a good school lesson in logic and reading comprehension. It can also just be geeky fun.
The problem I have is when the person creating the tree has no common sense whatsoever. After the jump are some examples of Adam and Eve on various trees, each progressively worse than the last.

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ADAM AND EVE TREE #1
All dates in this tree are entered in the space for the location.
Adam: born in 4004 BC Garden of Eden; died in 3070 BC, lived 930 years, lived in cave in Machpelah, Hebron
Eve: born in 4000 BC Garden of Eden; died in 3074 BC, lived 926 years, in a cave in Machpelah, Hebron, East of Eden
Children (all born and died “East of Eden”)
Abel Ben Adam (M): born 3900 BC; died 3875 BC
Azura Bat Adam (F): born 3874 BC; died 2962 BC
Cain Ben (M): born 3905 BC; died 3000 BC
Seth Ben (M): born 3874 BC; died 2962 BC

ADAM AND EVE TREE #2
Adam: born 1945 in Eden; died in Eden
(Father = “Private”, for those who don’t know, “Private” indicates a living person so their information is hidden from public view)
Eve: born and died in Eden
(Father = “God”)
Children
Akila (F): died in Olaha, Shinehah
Cain (M): born in Eden, Rockingham, North Carolina, USA; died in Canaan, Litchfield, Connecticut, USA
Seth (M): born and died in Eden, Rockingham, North Carolina, USA
Abel Adam (M): born and died in Eden, Rockingham, North Carolina, USA
Abel (M): died in Bayern, Germany
Abel Ben Adam (M): born and died in Eden, Lamoille, Vermont, USA
Akila (F): born in Eden, Rockingham, North Carolina, USA; died in Olaha, Shinehah
Akilia Bas Adam (F): born in Olaha, Shinehah; died in Eden, Lamoille, Vermont, USA
Awam ben Adam (M): born and died in Eden, Rockingham, North Carolina, USA
Awan Adam (M): born and died in Eden, Lamoille, Vermont, USA
Azura Bint Adam (F): born and died in The Garden, Saint Peter, Antigua and Barbuda
Azura Adam (F): born and died in Eden, Lamoille, Vermont, USA
Azura Sister (F): born in Olaha, Shinehah; died in Canaan, Litchfield, Connecticut, USA
Azura Bas Adam (F): born and died in Eden, Rockingham, North Carolina, USA
Azura Bint ADAM (F): born in Olaha, Shinehah; died in Eden, Rockingham, North Carolina, USA
Cain Ben Adam (M): born and died in Eden, Rockingham, North Carolina, USA
Cain Adam (M): born in Eden, Lamoille, Vermont, USA; died in Edom, Van Zandt, Texas, USA
Lamech Adam (M): born and died in Eden, Rockingham, North Carolina, USA
Luluwa Adam (M): born and died in Eden, Rockingham, North Carolina, USA
Noam Ben Adam (M): born and died in Eden, Rockingham, North Carolina, USA
Qaimana (F): died in Eden, Rockingham, North Carolina, USA
Cain Adam (M): born in Eden, 1903 BC; died in Eden, 1043 BC

Eve’s father, “God”, died in Never, Amur, Russia. He had 3 children, listed as:
Adam Ben God (M): born and died in Eden, Lamoille, Vermont, USA (not married)
Eve (F): (above)
Jesus Christ (M): born in 1933 and died in Yerushalayim, Israel (Mother = “Unknown”)

ADAM AND EVE TREE #3
The last tree has 2 Gods. Numbers in parentheses for God and for Eve are not included in the original tree, I've added them for clarification. Doesn't really matter though since this tree is beyond disastrous.

God (1): father of Adam; born and died in Hollister, Taney, Missouri, United States
God (2): father of Eve, no other information

In the tree’s “List of all people” the number of “Adam” with no middle or last name is 32. Most have no birth date, those that do range from 4004 BC to 1940 to 2001. The 2001 Adam has a son, Seth Ben Adam, born in 1903 and died in 1042. Birth places for these 32 Adams include Eden; British Columbia, Canada; Eden, Israel; Garden Eden, Iraq; Eden, Rockingham, North Carolina, USA; and Eden, Lamoille, Vermont, USA. Death places include those, except Garden Eden, Iraq, PLUS Olaha, Shinehah and Age, Cuanza Sul, Angola. I’m not even going to get started on the list for “Eve”.

Here’s the line from the Adam descended from God (1):
Adam: born 1857 in Eden, Lamoille, Vermont, USA
Eve (1): born in Eden, Rockingham, North Carolina, USA; died in Olaha, Shinehah
Eve (2): born 1873 in Eden; died 16 Mar 1992 in Eden
Children with Eve (1)
Azura Bint Adam (F): born 2000 in Olaha, Shinehah; died 2000 in Canaan, Israel; apparently 2000 was a very long year as she married Seth Ben Adam and had 8 children.
Children with Eve (2)
Cain (M): born in Eden, Lamoille, Vermont, USA; died in Canaan, Litchfield, Connecticut, USA
Azura (F): born and died in Eden, Lamoille, Vermont, USA
Seth (M): born 1000 in Eden, Lamoille, Vermont, USA; died 1043 in Eden, Lamoille, Vermont, USA
Abel (M): born 8 Nov 1796 in Swanton, Franklin, Vermont, USA; died 8 Apr 1881 in Swanton, Franklin, Vermont, USA
Adam (M): born 1892 in Eden, Lamoille, Vermont, USA; died in Eden, Lamoille, Vermont, USA

Eve (1) has another spouse.
Adam: born in Bayern, Germany; died in Olaha, Shinehah; married in Eden, Lamoille, Vermont, USA

You get the idea don't you? Good, 'cause I'm tired of typing :-P




NEXT POST: Afghanistan???

3 comments:

  1. I stumbled on your blog today, and I've really enjoyed it immensely. This particular entry though amused me so much, that I just had to go search for God on ancestry member trees. Gave me quite a chuckle. Here's a fun spin though that I was wondering if you'd noticed - someone had a Nun in their tree, and listed her with Jesus Christ as her husband. Now, I'm no Catholic, but I'm guessing that'd be a hard marriage certificate to find!
    As a side note, I admit that I, too, once fell into the "WOW, I'm descended from Charlemagne" trap, but to be fair I was only 15 and had been doing family research only about a year at that point. Can I say that I'm definitely not? No of course not! Can I prove that I definitely am? No, of course not! I learned later into the hobby that it's a lot more fun to connect to 'regular' people anyway.
    Have a nice day, and I look forward to reading more of your blog!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much! It is really easy to fall into the copying trap. I had Oliver Cromwell on my tree when I first started. It took a couple of HUGE surname variations to get there. Ha! I keep hoping that I'll find a tree has been fixed between the time I bookmark it as a possible blog post and the time I go back to write the post. Hasn't happened yet :-(
      I haven't seen the Nun - Jesus marriage but I'll be looking for it now. Maybe it'll be a future post ;-)

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  2. I went back to college a few years ago and graduated last year. The college I went to was an evangelical college. I am not evangelical, but I figured I could get through the Bible part of the curriculum. I enrolled in their 17-month business program and one of the modules concentrated on the Biblical aspect of business. This is where we studied the Old Testament and this is where my genealogical side came out. After listening and reading how old most folks were in the Old Testament, and watching and listening to the reaction of my classmates and the professor, I finally raised my hand and asked how in the world could Noah have lived so long?

    Complete silence fell over the room. This highly intelligent ex-CEO business professor (businessman to the core) actually said in annoyed voice, “Elizabeth, I’ll take you into the other room at break and explain this to you.”
    When the break came around, I slinked into the private room, feeling awkward and wondered how far I crossed the line (LOL), and this guy tells me when the floods receded, the atmosphere changed and the climate made the people live for very long periods of time. He asked me if I understood, which meant, ‘never disrupt my class again with your non-salvation “butt” again!’ I said, “yes sir”, and went back to my seat. Each week when he would bring the genealogy and the ages up, he would look over at me with the look of ‘don’t you dare’…..

    I’m in my late 50’s, but it reminded me of elementary school all over again, LOL! In retrospect, I guess should understand how some of the Biblical folks were born in Vermont, LOL!!

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