The End of Family Secrets?
I’ve been tied to the genealogy community ever since I can remember. My dad was always into it — for decades, he collected old documents and photos, and went on fact-finding trips to libraries and cemeteries, all to fill in the holes of his ever-expanding family tree. As I’ve written about before, I’ve had trouble wrapping my head around his obsession. Why spend so much time digging up the past?
But I may be in the minority. Genealogy is a booming business, with an estimated 84 million people worldwide spending serious money on the hobby.
As it turns out, the industry owes a big part of its recent success to a technology that I’m quite invested in: genetic testing. Several dozen companies now sell DNA tests that allow customers to trace their ancestry. This technology can show you, for example, how closely you’re related to Neanderthals, or whether you’re part Native American or an Ashkenazi Jew. But the technology can just as easily unearth private information—infidelities, sperm donations, adoptions—of more recent generations, including previously unknown behaviors of your grandparents, parents, and even spouses. Family secrets have never been so vulnerable.
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