I want my mummy: Researching Egyptian family history

When we think of Egyptians, most of us would conjure up images of Tutankamun and Cleopatra. The nine year old boy king Tutankamun, who died as a teenager, ruled from 1333 to 1323 BC. The discovery of his largely intact tomb in 1922 is considered one of the most significant archaeological discoveries in the modern era, and the contents of his tomb are more significant than his short reign. Queen Cleopatra, born 69BC, who ruled Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, was the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty. She is famous for her beauty and her love triangle with the Roman warlords Julius Caesar and Mark Antony (not her twenty year reign). ‘Cleopatra,’ played by the white, blue eyed, black haired Elizabeth Taylor, (not an African woman) is a 1963 five hour film, depicting Cleopatra\’s relationships with Caesar and Antony in an ill-fated attempt to save the Egyptian empire. However, this images are from ancient Egypt. Many children will have dressed up for the day in a bedsheet and a hair towel, when looking at Egypt in school. For many people, the first time they will see a dead body is when they visit a museum and see an Egyptian Mummy. However, these aren’t ‘mummies’ – they are people, whose bodies underwent a mummification process. And is it ok that these bodies have been removed from their burial places and unceremoniously placed in glass cabinets and exposed for all to see, very distant from their countries? So how do Egyptians today mark births, marriages and deaths? This session will look at how Egyptian people today register births, celebrate marriages and register and bury their dead. The roles of religion and bureaucracy will be explained. What are the traditional naming systems in place? Do women change their surname when they marry? Examples of Egyptian family trees will be given, which reveal that women aren’t placed on family trees. What do DNA testing companies reveal about Egyptian DNA?