Many discussions have taken place on the lineage stories and myths of various martial arts. Many words have been written debating who has the accurate origin story and what relationships different branches of various methods have to each other. After meandering around various threads, trying to catch up from a long absence, I had a brainstorm thanks to this post by Wuyizidi.
http://rumsoakedfist.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=24888&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=manuscript&start=15&sid=e509ca16b6c363745aaa11ad2e12dd01#p420816 He mentions that piecing together the history of TaiJi is like paleontology. Well in evolutionary biology, there is a powerful tool called "cladistics"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladistics Basically it's a computer program where you plug in the various characteristics of the animals or plants you are studying, and it gives you the most likely way in which these groups fit into a family tree. It is almost as accurate as DNA testing, plus it has the advantage that it works on long-dead organisms, whose DNA is unavailable. Here is an example of this type of software.
http://crescentbloom.com/II/L/17.htm Much valuable work has been done by members of this community, and this method could help verify the most likely origin stories, just like how in biology cladistics helps to verify DNA testing. All that it would take to implement this is for somebody with more free time than me to break down the elements of the particular style into their components and then plug them into the program. For example, we all know that Wing Chun, Karate, and White Crane have a stance where the toes point inwards. This characteristic and others would be able to show whether one of these styles is the origin, or if they all cousins from a common ancestor.
I give this idea freely to whoever might find it useful. Considering the amount and variety of martial styles in the east, it will take more than one person to attain anything close a comprehensive family tree, but this may make it a little easier.
I hope I explained this clearly; if anyone has any questions I will answer them to the best of my ability.