The summer of 2004, after completing my thesis, I found myself with plenty of time on my hands. So, I decided that it would be fun to research my academic genealogy. I knew the advisor of my advisor, Hector Garcia-Molina, and it was rather easy to find his advisor, Gio Wiederhold. Gio had also listed John Amsden Starkweather as his own advisor.
Going beyond that proved kind of difficult. I had to order the thesis of John Starkweather and see the dedication there: His advisor was Carl Porter Duncan. In a similar pattern, and spending considerable time at the library, I managed to dig up my genealogy back to the 1800s and to Hermann von Helmholtz. After that, I hit the entry at Chemical Genealogy and relied on the tree there.
After that, I posted my academic ancestors tree on my home page, letting friends and (academic) family know about it.
Today, through a chain of events, I happened to run into Neurotree.org that also contains my genealogy and goes back to 1000 AD. By expanding the tree as much as possible, I managed to get pretty impressive printouts, taking four 11x17 pages :-)
Until now, my tree was going back "only" to the 1500s and to Pierre Richer de Belleval, who was teaching in Avignon, France. Now, I can proudly say that my tree goes back to 1000 AD, and its oldest roots are Greek Byzantines, including names such as Ioannis Mauropous, Michail Psellos, and Grigorios Palamas.
Accuracy of the information? I have no idea. But I have something to talk about when I go back to Greece for the winter break.
