I've decided to finally frame and hang my German family tree. Although I'm not on it (due to it being completed before I was born) my father's parents are and are listed as the 24th generation. It begins in 1169 with Heinrich. The entire legend is in German so I will have to translate a bit, I realize this picture isn't the best but I took it on the fly. Its a big poster and hopefully I'll be able to get a high quality scan of certain parts.

Oh and btw, if you can't read the top it is the von Merveldt family.

I suppose that’s pretty impressive…but I can go back to the 5TH century AD.

Very hard, but not impossible, to go back prior to the late 15th, early 16th century. The registers of the Catholic Church about baptisms, marriages and funerals only started to be held systematically in those days.

Very impressive. I have an unbroken paternal genealogical listing since 1596. Earlier than that, it becomes difficult. But I know that my family has direct ancestral links with Vikings who settled in the Netherlands delta in the ninth century....