^ No, you are not. Though you will find that most people who tend to keep a Shajra are somehow related to an important historical personality.
I, on the other hand, have no family history of great people. Seems like dirt poor farmers of Punjab who must have been Hindu at one time but were definitely Sikhs before converting to Islam.
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*Originally posted by armughal: *
my family has one....
it is updated to my father and uncles but our names r not included yet....
its with a remote relative....
i dont know how accurate it is, but my cousins and brother (who have seen it) say it is traced back to Prophet Yousuf (as)....
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Are you Jewish? Haz Yousaf's family is one of the jewish tribes - as far as I know !!
My mom’s side is Italian (from around Venice). We can take them back around 1000 years before it starts getting foggy. In Europe, especially Italy, there are usually very good family records maintained by the Church (since all births, marriages, and deaths, etc were handled there until modern times.) But with them there are several interesting stories.. we have peasant farmers, painters (Giovanni Battista Piazzetta is a famous one), a few nobles and everything in between. 
My dad’s side keeps up with it too but they got stuck around 400 years ago.. I don’t know much about that tho
Our shajra goes back to about 1000AD to some hindu lord in Punjab who converted to Islam after visiting Data Gunj Bakhsh. This was collated by a great uncle of mine who found some stuff written by my great-great-grandfather. I am not sure of the authenticity of it but I know it is accurate to at least 10 generations.
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*Originally posted by shawaiz: *
Am I the only person here who can't trace his lineage all the way back to a prophet?
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i cant either... hmmm
No,
All i caught up during last few years is bits n pieces about my grandparent's parents .. thats about it.. no written shajra though .. my grand parents were the only ones in their family who migrated after partition..
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*Originally posted by Khattana: *
Are you Jewish? Haz Yousaf's family is one of the jewish tribes - as far as I know !!
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the concept of one of his decendants moving out and settling elsewhere isnt that difficult i think.... or is it????
or do u enjoy calling someone a "jew"???? in that case i dont mind if it pleases u :)
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*Originally posted by ahmadjee: *
I, on the other hand, have no family history of great people. Seems like dirt poor farmers of Punjab who must have been Hindu at one time but were definitely Sikhs before converting to Islam.
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Wow. Same as me....we were sikhs few generations up. Not surprising as we are from the same chak :p . PM me few sikh names and i'll tell you if we share any ancesters.
ah. Very interesting replies. Thanks, everyone.
Ahmadjee… Yes i definitely remembered that thread while i was starting this one. That was interesting.
Punjabi Kuri… You should. :k:
Fraudz… oh. Do you have the book with you right now? (Don’t worry i’m not going to ask you to send me a copy:D Just wondering). When you say “bios” for quite a few people, what kind of biographical details is recorded - apart from all the usual birth dates, # and names of children, birth places - is there anything in terms of who they were as human beings? i guess what i am trying to get at is, any insights into their personality, “who” they were rather than “what” they were? Is that also contained in the book? i have always thought of compiling everything i know about my ancestors (dunno if i’d be organized enuf to put it in a “book” though, right now it’s a bunch of loose scattered papers and in my diary and in my head), i’m more interested in trying to find out “who” they were as human beings if you know what i mean. Insights into their personality… maybe that helps me figure out certain personality attributes of the present generations. Anyways you are really privileged that you have so much info Masha’Allah. Transferring it into the computerized version is an awesome idea.
Shawaiz… Same here, you are definitely not alone.
Spoon, wow that’s so cool - 1000 years eh. i can’t even go back 100 years on either side (maternal or paternal). Do you mind if i ask, which “side” is your father from?
Thanks everyone for sharing your comments, much appreciated.