Genealogy and the Fanatical Pursuit of DNA Testing

Find Your Ancestors In History

I know some of us are quite fanatical about genealogy.  We spend hours pouring over online documents; travel thousands of miles to look at documents in a state archive or county courthouse; we even write letters to complete strangers in hopes of getting that one lead that will break down a brick wall.  I've done all of this, but I don't think I would go to the extreme, like the people in this article, of staking out people in order to pick up a discarded coffee cup or root through someone's trash in order to collect a DNA sample just to fill in a missing part of a family tree.  This is completely crazy and a violation of people's privacy.  I even sometimes feel guilty writing letters because I really don't want to make someone feel uncomfortable - in fact I usually apologize to people I write to for intruding on their privacy.   I just think this kind of behavior is way out of line.

Comments

[Miriam]

When this sort of thing gets into the news, then it makes it harder for the rest of us who are trying to cajole Great-Aunt Edna into sharing information that can break through our brick walls.