Not just for ourselves, but for unknowable future generations

The structure of the DNA double helix

The number of current Ancestry.com customers may now approach 15+ million, and perhaps a similar number are inactive or deceased former DNA or Family Tree customers – where their formally active accounts have now lapsed.  But even these inactive public family trees remain available for current and trial customer genealogical research. Ancestry.com management claims over 10 million customers have taken an Ancestry DNA ethnicity test.  These folks have current active profiles in Ancestry's growing DNA database. Test takers are all eligible and invited to create trial Ancestry family trees.  Ancestry.com may be the largest family tree search application, but there are a half dozen or more other firms providing these lineage/DNA services. Other competent DNA firms include FamilyTree DNA, MyHeritage, 23andMe, Living DNA, etc.

Writing for MIT Technology Review, author Antonio Regalado claims “...More people took genetic ancestry [tests] last year [2017] than in all previous years combined.” Perhaps surprising to some, on Facebook alone, there are a significant number of public and closed groups dedicated to the genealogical interests of members, many of these dedicated to the research of specific surnames or geographical locations like Early New England or French Canadian. The aggregate number of people in pursuit of personal lineage data may easily top 25 million. The Internet has provided the means to do quicker genealogical research, but there remains an amazing number who still research the old fashion way by visits to historical societies, churches, public record facilities, cemeteries, and the like. 

A good share of individual genealogical researchers do it not just for themselves, but for others with similar interests and for their unknowable generations perhaps in two or more future centuries.  So I'm not sure what point those folks who fail to comprehend ancestral pursuits are making -- I for one don't understand them. Caring more for deceased ancestors than for the living seems a patently absurd argument the uninterested sometimes make. Take a look at this 1906 poem authored by the professional engineer, family historian, and breeder of trotting and show horses Mr. Walter Butler Palmer (1868-1932). His thoughtful poem provides a clue by correctly illustrating some of the motivation felt by those actively engaged in genealogical research.

Dear Ancestor

"Your tombstone stands among the rest
Neglected and alone
The name and date are chiseled out
On polished marble stone
It reaches out to all who care
It is too late to mourn

You did not know that I exist
You died and I was born
Yet each of us are cells of you
In flesh and blood and bone
Our blood contracts and beats a pulse
Entirely not our own

Dear Ancestor, the place you filled
One hundred years ago
Spreads out among the ones you left
Who would have loved you so
I wonder how you lived and loved
I wonder if you knew
That someday I would find this spot
And come to visit you."

-Walter Butler Palmer

Note:  The image presented at the top of this post is a public domain photo by NASA found by a simple Internet search.