People were Christians from almost 1af in some areas what is the problem? How are they not worthy of baptism if they were Christian?

During the middle ages people were too busy with farm work to have time to sin.

I think Joseph Smith was worried about people spending money and time researching genealogy in Europe so he banned middle ages research so the people would not have to travel to Europe and spend money the church wanted.

Records for the European Middle Ages only exist for royalty and some noble families. For commoners--there was no middle class--there are no documents and in many parts of the continent people didn't even have last names.

And this is why so many last names originate in professions. Baker, Fletcher, Smith for example.

Or Nielson, Jorgenson, Svenson, etc.

--Gladys Olafsdottir

Sawyer was a last name for many lumber mill workers

So was Stumpy!

The philanthropic Annenberg family is another great example. I can't remember who the founder was, but let's call him Moses.

Moses was a Jew without a last name, which became inconvenient when he rose to prominence in Eastern Europe. So they called him Moses Annenberg, which translates into something like "Moses [who lives] on the Hill."

Of such onomastic gymnastics are dynasties made.

True.
Consider all of the patronymic names in Scandinavia - Hans Christianson (Hans, Christian's son) for example, or as is still the case in Iceland all of the -dottirs as well as the -sons.

I doubt JS had anything to do with it other than his "visions" of Elijah. The current genealogy focus of the church dates to the 1890s

https://www.thechurchnews.com/1999/6/26/23248454/a-century-of-progress-in-family-history-work

""Come ye . . . and build a house to my name, for the Most High to dwell therein," the Lord commanded on Jan. 19, 1841. "For a baptismal font there is not upon the earth, that they, my saints, may be baptized for those who are dead." (D&C 124: 26-27, 29.)

Fifty-three years later, President Wilford Woodruff received a revelation affirming the importance of sealing family members together under priesthood authority and the duty of the Saints to trace their lineages for this purpose."

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/church/news/familysearch-celebrates-125th-anniversary?lang=eng

"One point is the connection to the Salt Lake Temple. About 18 months prior to the establishment of the Genealogical Society of Utah, President Woodruff dedicated the Salt Lake Temple on April 6, 1893. In the dedicatory prayer, President Woodruff asked the Lord to send the spirit of Elijah and increase the desire of the Saints to search out their ancestors."

"There were other factors that contributed to the establishment of a genealogical organization. At the time the Salt Lake Temple was dedicated, sealing ordinances were limited. In addition to husbands and wives being sealed to each other and men and women being sealed by proxy to their deceased parents, it was a custom to be “adopted” into the family of a Church leader or other prominent priesthood holder.

In the April 1894 general conference, President Woodruff announced a change in policy: “Let every man be adopted to his father[,] . . . not to any other man outside the lineage of his father.”

President Woodruff continued: “We want the Latter-day Saints from this time to trace their genealogies as far as they can, and to be sealed to their fathers and mothers. Have children sealed to their parents, and run this chain through as far as you can get it” (in James B. Allen and others, “Hearts Turned to the Fathers: A History of the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1894–1994,” BYU Studies, vol. 34, no. 2 [Jan. 1, 1995]).

The new policy had a large impact on genealogical work as Latter-day Saints committed more fully to finding and organizing correct family records.:

Don't know much about the middle ages
Look at the pictures and I turn the pages

Never worried about it all, since it does not matter. So the BOM and JS said the Native Americans were from Israel, DNA proved them wrong.

JS said the Garden of Eden was in Missouri, of which we all originated by way of Adam and Eve. DNA proved them wrong, things started in Africa.

Bible, and those temple films claim the earth was created in 6 days and\or 6,000 years. Geology, anthropology, and archaeology proved them wrong.

Bible says just 8 people survived a flooded earth to repopulate. But science and statistical models of population growth taking into consideration mortality rates according to the various era prove them wrong.

Then more modern Mormanism claimed the Aztec's and others were proof of the truth of the BOM, then DNA proved that the America's populated from the ice age land bridge.

So for a God that is supposed to be perfect and all knowledge, you have to wonder why he\she\it batting average is non-existant.

But then there is that handy dandy deniability clause for those who are sure a Pink Gorilla is going to show up at the door with an endless supply of bananas, a key to a huge mansion with a pool that is filled with hot men and women (depending on your gender). And that clause is.....faith and testimony.


Mmmmm.....now that I think about it, I bet I could sell the Pink Gorilla theme and perhaps start my own fund. Maybe call it Gorilla Peaks!

Because the records only refer to the ruling elite.

Because most normies struggle to read 19th century records, let alone ones from the 12th century.

Because in many cases the records simply don't exist.

And many of the records that do exist were fabrications. It was very handy to be related to royalty, which increased the probability that one would “discover” that they were related to royalty.

>> Why can't we research family history before middle ages? <<

Who say's you can't?

Go for it, knock yourself out dude!

A: Accurate records don't exist, the Roman Empire fell, and Western Civilization collapsed.

Does that mean that the census that was recorded at Bethlehem when Jesus was born have been lost when the Roman Empire collapsed?

http://classics.mit.edu/Augustus/deeds.html

From Augustus' epitaph -- Res Gestae Divi Augusti:


8. When I was consul the fifth time (29 B.C.E.), I increased the number of patricians by order of the people and senate. I read the roll of the senate three times, and in my sixth consulate (28 B.C.E.) I made a census of the people with Marcus Agrippa as my colleague. I conducted a lustrum, after a forty-one year gap, in which lustrum were counted 4,063,000 heads of Roman citizens. Then again, with consular imperium I conducted a lustrum alone when Gaius Censorinus and Gaius Asinius were consuls (8 B.C.E.), in which lustrum were counted 4,233,000 heads of Roman citizens. And the third time, with consular imperium, I conducted a lustrum with my son Tiberius Caesar as colleague, when Sextus Pompeius and Sextus Appuleius were consuls (14 A.C.E.), in which lustrum were counted 4,937,000 of the heads of Roman citizens. By new laws passed with my sponsorship, I restored many traditions of the ancestors, which were falling into disuse in our age, and myself I handed on precedents of many things to be imitated in later generations.

Records weren't kept for everyone. Before the invention of the printing press, most common folk couldn't read.

Neanderthal ancestry. My personal sticking point after my 23andMe results came back. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I have a high percentage of Neanderthal. I like it. It means that they're not totally extinct. A part of them lives on in some of us.