The Dark Side of Genealogy

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What if you discover some of the things no one talks about in your family tree? This is just one way that genealogy has a dark side.

One of the reasons that I found genealogy so interesting is because I wanted to better understand my parents - and perhaps even myself. If I could learn everything that I could about my grandparents, my great-grandparents, and even my great-great grandparents, maybe I could find key through-lines in my family tree that could help enlighten me in my quest.

My particular style of genealogy doesn't lead me to only search for names, dates, and locations, which are details we might find in vital records and census documents. Instead, I try to find out everything.

I always want more. I often find myself wondering why certain things happened, and why my ancestors made specific decisions.

Through my endless investigations and searches, I often discover things that make me feel all ranges of emotions. I've laughed, felt proud, cried, cringed, and even felt embarrassed by my ancestors.

Despite the hard-to-contain excitement that I usually feel about family tree research, I have to acknowledge that there is definitely a dark side to this whole endeavor.

Below, I will share my experience of genealogy's dark side through things I've discovered in my my own family, as well as what I have observed having worked in this field for close to a decade.

Family truths exposed

When I first thought about the dark side of genealogy, my mind instantly went to family secrets. I've uncovered many secrets about ancestors in my family tree.

In my family, the family truths were sometimes exposed through the discovery of facts that were deliberately hidden by my more recent ancestors. For example, I learned that when one of my ancestors did her family tree research, she intentionally "hid" her distant Native American ancestry.

In this case, the "dark side" is that my ancestor either wanted to, or felt she should, hide this part of her family tree from the rest of her family and community.

I've uncovered lots of other things about my family members that I never would have learned without diving into genealogy on my own. These include the arrest and jailing of an ancestor who was a conscientious objector to the draft, the bankruptcy of another ancestor, the commitment of a relative to a mental asylum and a different ancestor's attempt to take his own life after he saw his love interest with another man.

These events may have been covered up due to shame or embarrassment. It's also possible that they weren't actively covered up - they may have just been taboo subjects that my relatives learned not to discuss anymore.

The events may have just faded away from memory, covered up by time itself.

Other details that I've discovered happened a long, long time ago. One example of this is an ancestor from the early 1700s who brought a teenager over to the colonies as an indentured servant.

People may discover that their ancestors enslaved other people, or that they had more than one family in different states, or that they were wanted criminals.

When we start researching our ancestors, we truly never know what we will discover. It's almost a guarantee that we won't want to shout everything we learn from the rooftops.

It's not equally accessible to everyone

The ability to build a family tree that goes back hundreds of years on all lines of the tree is not equally accessible to everyone. The truth is that, while genealogy is difficult for everyone, it's more difficult for some than for others.

Some groups of people, especially people who have been historically marginalized, often find it more difficult - or even impossible - to find historical records or get access to family stories pertaining to their ancestors.

Other people may find that they can't build their family tree back very far on certain lines of their family because records were destroyed during violent conflict, or because their ancestors fled their homeland under dangerous circumstances.

For example, I have relatives who are ethnically Slovak whose family has been living in Serbia for multiple generations. We found each other through DNA testing, and I estimate that my mom and her Slovak-Serbian cousin are about third cousins to each other.

Their family lives in Serbia because their ancestor likely fled poverty and political violence in what is now Slovakia in the 19th century. However, my cousins don't know anything about their Slovak ancestor's family history in Slovakia.

We will never be able to figure out exactly how my mom and her cousins are related, and they will likely never be able to build their Slovak family tree back further than their immigrant ancestor. Even though many records do exist in Slovakia, they don't have enough details to know which records would belong to their ancestor.

There are countless stories like this in every country. Some people will be able to build lines of their trees back many generations, and others will struggle to identify the parents of their great-grandparents.

DNA testing has helped many people overcome some of the difficulties surrounding this issue, but the fact remains that genealogy is not equally accessible to all.

Genealogy can exclude

Genealogy can be used to intentionally or unintentionally exclude others. Examples of this can include some lineage-based membership groups, such as the Daughters of the American revolution or the Mayflower Society.

As a requirement for membership, these groups require that the applicant submit proof that they are descended from a specific group of people. In the case of the Mayflower Society, applicants must prove that they are descended from one of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower, the ship that arrived from Europe to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620.

People might not feel like they are intentionally excluding others when they used their genealogy skills to apply for membership to these exclusive groups. However, a quick look at the history and timing of the formation of these groups definitely reveals a "dark side" to family history.

Both organizations were formed during the 1890s. The last part of the 19th century saw high levels of immigration by poor and/or non-English speaking immigrants, as well as dramatic social change after the US Civil War.

It is not a coincidence that groups like these began to form to attempt to define what it meant to truly be "American". Newer immigrants, the children and grandchildren of the previously enslaved, and Native Americans were excluded from these lineage-based groups.

I saw lingering discrimination against immigrant families from the 1890s when I was growing up. A recent ancestor, descended from Mayflower ancestors, would make disparaging comments about my mother's Polish and Slovak roots.

Conclusion

This is by no means a complete list of the ways in which genealogy can have a dark side, but I hope that this article got you thinking about the things that you've seen along your own journey.

If you have any questions about something that you read here, or if you would like to share the "dark side" of your own research, I would love to hear from you in the comments.

Thanks for reading today!

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