Ezra 2:61-63 - And from among the priests: The descendants of Hobaiah, Hakkoz and Barzillai (a man who had married a daughter of Barzillai the Gileadite and was called by that name).
These searched for their family records, but they could not find them and so were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. The governor ordered them not to eat any of the most sacred food until there was a priest ministering with the Urim and Thummim.
Knowing your lineage had always been very important among the Israelites from the time when the land was first parceled out to them in Canaan. It was similarly equally important among the priests and Levites who did not receive land as the other 11 tribes had.
It seems as if each family was expected to keep a record of their own lineage. I wonder why -- especially for the priests -- a central historical record was not kept. Or was there such a record, but the portion referring to Hobaiah, Hakkoz, and Barzillai just could not be found? It's actually more surprising that these were the only 3 men who lost their records in the move to Babylon and back.
Since no records could be found, I wonder if they were still considered Levites, but just not priests. Perhaps it didn't matter.
We don't know exactly what Urim and Thummim were. I wonder if they were objects. If so, were they easy to come by? It sounds like no priest had them (or at least no priest was setup to use them) right away.
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