Because of television shows like Who Do You Think You Are? and the rise in interest in checking one’s ancestry and genealogy, I am often asked if I would be interested in finding long-lost or forgotten kinfolk. Me? No, thanks! Why would I want to do that? I have enough trouble with the family I know now. Why would I want to pay good money to bring more people into my life to fuss with me? Why? And I don’t understand this ‘need to know’ obsession. What does it matter to anyone, or how will it enhance their lives, if it comes to light that they descend from aristocracy or even royalty? How does that information help with paying the rent on a cramped government flat on a drug-infested, crime-ridden housing estate? You can’t take your heritage information to the water or electricity board and hope for a discount or special treatment, can you? (just kissed my teeth right there!)
However, it’s often said that genealogical research is the second most popular hobby in the UK and the United States, after gardening, and the second most popular search category online, after porn. Interesting! Notwithstanding, those claims should perhaps be sprinkled with a few grains of salt, but more than thirty million people have taken genetic ancestry tests since 2012, thus incidentally creating a database of huge value to pharmaceutical companies and law enforcement. Hmm…
The Silicon Valley-based testing company 23andMe, which formed a partnership with Airbnb to market “travel as unique as your DNA”, went public in June 2021, with a valuation of $3.5 billion. The genealogical behemoth Ancestry, which boasts more than three million subscribers and is the United States’ largest genetic database, was purchased for $4.7 billion in 2020.
Yet if there is one thing that the history of genealogy makes clear it is that stories about ancestry can always be instruments of exclusion. Likewise, to forget about where we come from can also be a privilege.
But think on this, could it be that whilst you think you are trying to trace blood relations you could actually be unwittingly and unknowingly feeding the front end of a massive information-gathering operation?
As for me, I know who I am and what I am. Thank you very much!
