ROOTS & BRANCHES

This is the 1,000^th weekly “Roots & Branches” column.

If you do the math, you’ll figure out that this also means the column is entering its 20^th years of publication in various newspapers.

That 20-years mark brought to mind a 2013 article from the online magazine The Verge that was evocatively titled “Who am I? Data and DNA answer one of life’s big questions“ and included lines such as “We’re approaching a future where the mysteries of our ancestral past will simply no longer exist” and “Realistically, the pursuit of family history as it exists now probably won’t be around in 20 years: most of the mysteries are disappearing, and fast.”

Well, not so “fast,” in my opinion.

I don’t quarrel with the assertion that genealogy in the future will be radically different – it’s the “mysteries will simply no longer exist” part that I find to be typical Internet clickbait hyperbole.

That genealogy has changed at an accelerating pace in the 20 years of this column is undeniable. The collision between searchable online digitized documents and genealogically useful DNA testing has been profound in the las two decades.

But to say that most of the mysteries are disappearing (or will disappear) puts a wan smile on my face – the smile of somone who’s heard simplistic answers to complex questions too many times.

Let’s just work our way through a few of the mysteries that won’t disappear:

Finally, the category of “Every actions having an equal and opposite reaction”

Ignores pedigree analysis – understanding when records are wrong, how searches can yield wrong (or no) answers

Always will be a record left off microfilm, a record never digitized because it wasn’t filed like it should be.

Gaps in records

But – local experts, off-the-wall records, the feel and visual ecstasy of Fraktur, the social aspect, etc.