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Message: <blockquote data-quote="QuentinGeorge" data-source="post: 9037681" data-attributes="member: 20990">For Westerners, proving ancestry beyond someone like Charlemagne is practically impossible, due to a variety of factors1) Break down in civil society in the west, which leads to poor genealogical records after the Crisis of the Third Century (even before any Dark Ages in Europe things are getting dicey)2) The rise of dynasties in Constantinople not biologically connected to previous dynasties. Until the Macedonian dynasty comes to power there's a period of crisis in the east which leads to a lot of strongmen who are not related to the earlier Emperors by blood.After the 9th century things get easier - Charlemagne (and his direct male ancestors) has a very well-documented family tree, and after the 11th century the Emperors of Constantinople start marrying families in western Europe so thing get easier.I think in my own research I was able to trace back one line to Arnuf of Metz (but his connected to Charlemagne is not universally accepted), so Arnulf's purported son, Ansegisel is probably a better bet.Any connection between the Carolingians and the Merovingians is purely speculative, as is any attempts to link the rulers of the Roman rump state of Soissons to Frankish dynasties.The most reliable long ancestry of the world is probably the descendants of Confucious. The ancestry of the Japanese emperor is generally only trusted up to a certain point.</blockquote>