The-Odds-of-Tracing-family-trees

What are the odds of any one tracing their family trees in the centuries before the 1700's

When did governments actually begin to keep data on births or deaths of the common population.

I will start with the record keeping in the USA, it may vary in different parts of the world.

===========================

The following dates are ball park figures I gleaned from Google snippets. If you have any more specific details I will update this summary.

I assume the government did keep records on ex-convicts, people with criminal records and those with contagious diseases. If you have any information on other records the government kept on the public, I will add them.

APPROXIMATE DATES OF THE GOVERNMENT

RECORDING AND KEEPING RECORDS ON THE POPULATION

1970 Family tree records composed with computer printers
1936 The first Social Security numbers
1917 The first draft cards
1908 The first driver's licenses
1900+ The first birth certificates
1874 The First Typewriter
1873 Before this time all government or individual documents concerning individuals would have been HAND WRITTEN
1862 The first Federal income tax
1850+ The first marriage licenses
1790 The first census after the American Revolution
=============================
Unless your ancestors were convicts, the government was not keeping any data on your family through out the age of undocumented ancestors.. before 1790

If your relatives came from Europe on a ship, they would be documented as cargo. Other than that the bulk of any actual information you have about ancestors must exist in hand written documents by your relatives who recorded it in real time.

A DNA test only has the potential of connecting you to people who lived in your own life time. Unless you are going to dig up the dead and test their DNA, then no genetic test could possibly provide evidence that you are related to any one that died generations before.

Any genealogical records you have on your supposed relatives before 1874 would have to be hand written. Any type written or printer version is not a copy of any actual record unless you can produce the original.

You can not copy any record unless you first have that record to copy from.