Is there a special way to do a tracing back to an apostle when looking into the histories of church communites?
Problem is that many of the folks in the standard lists have a reality equivalent to that of the earliest Japanese Emperors (during the same periods).
They didn't exist, or if they did, their existence was inferred by those living at some remove.
Remember, during the Dark Ages most of your written material ended up on the cabin fireplace.
It is not possible to prove or disprove Apostolic succession ~ so I don't worry about it. I also do not believe in faith-healing!