I was just thinking about how we all do genealogy work, well some of us that is and I came to thinking why we do it and then I also thought if we all know that we came from Adam and Eve why do we have to PROVE that through genealogical pedigree charts? I get the baptism by proxy and all that but why do I have to show I go back to Adam if all of us come from Adam? Unless some us don't?
Edited: JenLuvsMp3 on 16th Nov, 2009 - 2:19am
We don't have to prove our genealogy comes through Adam. People want to prove their genealogy to Adam to show that they have covered everyone in that line. I am very skeptical of any such claims, and see it mostly as "bragging rights." Someone in my family claims to have done this, but I really don't care, other than as trivia.
I don't have the exact quote in front of me now but one of the past prophets said that we have to trace our ancestors all the way back to Adam to show that we are part of the heavenly family through Adam. I'll have to look for that quote and get back to you or maybe someone here knows what I'm talking about.
If someone says they can trace their linage back to Adam they are mistaken. They do probably go back into the Merovingian Kings though. Once you can tie a line into them there have been documents passed down for generations that claim they have a line back to Adam, but it is very hard to prove.
But even going back into the 1600s it is hard to verify information. Alot of people just use what has been handed down, but when you start to really look at the information, the numbers don't add up. I was able to trace some of my lines back to the pilgrims, but then you see things like a son being born before the dad...Just no one has tried to correct it and assumed everything was right.
My mother has 29 pages of pedigree charts going back to Adam, so it can be done as I have personally witnessed it. One key to doing that is having Royal blood lines. Or in other words the courts of England were really big into Geneology. That's the Huntington line, and I've heard the Campbell line goes all the way back too. I think the big push back to Adam would be during the millenium when we link up the whole human race of this earth through temple ordinances. Then at the end Christ will present us to the Father. From beginning to end and everybody in between.
Hooray!
As several people have pointed out, the people that say that they can trace their ancestry back to Adam, is at best suspect. Even if a person can trace their ancestry to Adam, it is only one line, which most likely will focus on men, missing many, many people in the process. Also don't forget that you have both a father AND a mother with ancestry.
Like some other people said, I don't think that we have to prove that we are related to Adam, but we have to create a family chain that will link us all to Jesus Christ, who will bring us all up to heaven.