The Case for Genealogy
I’ve always considered genealogy a strange hobby. Why do people devote so much of their time towards unearthing fairly trivial information about their long-dead ancestors?
While I was reporting Uprooted, I heard a wide range of answers to this question. But the most poignant response came from Fred Moss, the legal advisor for the Federation of Genealogical Societies.
I had called Moss because I was trying to find examples of legal cases—such as paternity or inheritance scuffles—that inadvertently resulted from online genealogical searches.
Moss hadn’t heard of any such cases; as it turns out, he deals with cases that involve fighting for more access to genealogical records—not those involving emotionally potent online searches. Because of heightened security concerns over the past few years, these records have become more difficult to access. That’s a big problem for Moss and other genealogists, and one that they have trouble communicating to legislatures and the greater public. “The genealogical community,” he told me, “does a woefully inadequate job of explaining why we do what we do and how society benefits from these efforts.”
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