It would be very hard for my husband to trace his family tree back beyond living memory. His parents had no birth certificates and no idea in which year they were born, never mind the date.

There were no official records as births weren't registered. For official documents, everyone still alive who wasn't registered is given the birthday of January 1st. I thought all these New Year's Day birthdays was an amazing coincidence until it was explained to me!

Griots can recite the ancestry of an individual (only males) and do so at marriage feasts etc. But they don't go back all that far.

My husband fell over laughing when I told him it's been discovered that most white people have about 2% Neanderthal genes in their genetic profile, while black Africans have none. He didn't stop grinning about it for days.