I was researching my family on Ancestry, and I seem to have discovered that I can trace my mother's father's line all the way from present-day to about 11th C. The earliest name I can find is Moshe the First of Treves (or Moshe of Treves the First - or Moshe Treves - depending on the record) who apparently was born in 1055 and would be my 29th Great Grandfather.
My DNA tests( both Ancestry and 23 and Me) agree that I'm 99% Ashkenazi Jewish, with the rest being Eastern European, so the fact there would be Rabbis in my tree (as the great majority of the Treveses are) is in no way surprising.
So here's where it gets confusing. First of all, it seems that there were 8 names that were recycled in different orders. Joseph ben Jochanon Treves. Jochanon ben Shmuel Treves. Shmuel Treves Ashkenazi, Shmuel ben Jochanon Ashkenazi II. The first name is real, the others are examples, as I'm not looking at my notes.)
Most of these records are notated in Hebrew, which I don't speak or read. This makes sense because ben means of or from. It would most likely be von or zum in German. So the records have been translated from German to Hebrew and then, eventually, to English. Ashkenazi is just a German identifier for Jews ( some things never change, do they?)
Often, children are listed as being born before parents, or the parent is much too old or young to have had that child. There are also documents that are not real. For example, up until very recently, German had a letter called a scharfes S. It looked like a B with a spine that was too long in both directions. I saw a letter dated 1539 that had regular S - which makes it highly suspect.
I'm trying an experiment where I keep my Ancestry profile as clean and clear as possible and say yes to every suggestion on Myheritage, and it's amazing how quickly a muddle is formed.
Some sites don't even do pre-1500's genealogy. Does anyone know of one that specializes in it? Also, there is a possibility that those of us related to Treves are related to King David as well, which would just be fascinating to learn about. One thing I do know is that I'm a descendant of Emperor Frederick the First, as he was Barbarossa (redbeard) and I am Rothbart (rotbart - redbeard.)
Can anyone help with this?