how acceptable is it to trace others' genealogy? (find, search, world)

[2albiQalbi]

So here's the thing; I frikin love genealogy. Unfortunately (or fortunately), my parents are immigrants and our ancestral records in the old country are burned, lost, or difficult to access. Recently (a few hours ago) instead of tracing "famous" lineages (Royal mostly) I've started choosing a random, European, historical figure of note and tracing their descendants. I'm not quite proud of myself but I managed to trace a family more than 250 years right down to the current day + Facebook profiles (I couldn't resist once I had names). My question is one of ethics and propriety, did I go too far? Should I message the family? Is it weird? Will they be creeped out? I know you all obviously cannot answer for the people involved, but what would you think? Would you share your findings with the family?

[mawipafl]

Trying to see this from a personal perspective, that is, if you had randomly ended up finding me as a descendant of some historical figure. Would I want you to contact me with the info? I'm honestly not sure. A large part of me says "sure", but that's only because I'm as "addicted" to research as you are and I am actively involved in my family's genealogy. I know and fully realize that it's so easy to find people on the internet using general means - that's the caveat about putting oneself out there purposely (like with Facebook). We also should be fully aware that we're all out there not by our choice, but by the laws and rules about public information (property assessors, etc.).

But I think folks like me are not the norm, and some of these descendants you find will not appreciate your work, considering it an invasion of privacy, a form of stalking, or just plain weird.

I think your interest in research would be better served helping those who are seeking help. In this forum for example there have been posters looking for ancestors, there are a bazillion forums at ancestry.com, and so forth.

[bjh]

That's actually kind of cool that you've takent the time to do that. Most people don't care much about history or genealogy, so many would be unimpressed with the findings. They'd probably be more attentive to the fact, maybe even alarmed, that a stranger has traced their lineage without their knowledge. If you're using public records, it's perfectly legal. Public info is public, duh. Not sure what you would/should do with the info you've found. Just enjoy the research?

Here is a website where people voluntarily do genealogical research for others who are seeking help.
It's called Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness. ---> http://www.raogk.org/

[2albiQalbi]

Thanks guys, and thanks for the link! After my initial excitement subsided I realized I'd rather just keep it to myself and feel self-important. It's regrettable, because how much cooler and smaller would the world seem if these people could know their white bread, military family has direct, royal Mughal ancestors that have movies, books, and poetry written about them.

[Linda_d]

Genealogical research becomes addictive. As a trained historian, I start with somebody in the present, and work backwards. Right now, I'm helping my second cousin in Ontario try to find out more about our shared ancestors (her maternal grandmother and my maternal grandfather were brother and sister, and there were at least two more brothers here in the US and family back in Poland).

[2albiQalbi]

It really does get addicting! The more I read about this family's Victorian-era history, the more interesting it gets. In fact a very famous Hollywood actor will star in a movie about a direct ancestor, and modern generations of his descendants might watch the movie without knowing it's about them.

[randomparent]

I don't think there's anything essentially wrong with what you're doing, but I'd refrain from reaching out to anyone you've traced to the current day.

[Tracysherm]

I did this to a very small degree. I found an old picture of my grandmother as a little girl around 1923 posing at the beach with an unknown family. She had written the names of the parents of the family and the town in PA where they were from (they had met on a vacation at the Jersey shore).


I found the family in the 1920 census, and found there was no ancestry.com tree on them. So I started building one, and built a tree back to the early 1800s. Then I went forward and found two living people who were the great grandchildren of the parents in the picture (grandchildren of a boy in the picture). I only found the living people because I found an obituary of their father, which mentioned their full names and cities they live in. One was on a website because of her job, and I e-mailed her the photo and the info on the tree. She was happy to get it and passed it to her uncle, who is the family historian, and he was very happy to get the info and now they have a tree started on ancestry that they can build on.


I apologized for being "a creepy online genealogy stalker" multiple times, but they didn't seem to mind.

[jiminnm]

I have also tracked current relatives to someone in an old photo I have (but I did not build a tree for them), so I could send them a copy of the photo).

When the actor Bill Paxton played Sam Houston a in mini-series a couple of years ago, he discovered that he was a 1st cousin, 5x removed from Houston. I already knew that because he and my wife both share John Paxton and Mary Blair as 5-great grandparents. I had tracked down his relationship as part of the work on my wife's family history.

I have no problem doing that with someone who is already a public figure.

[2albiQalbi]

I agree with public figures being fair game for tracing. The ancestors I started from are immortalized in novels, history books, and soon, movies. I wanted to trace descendants a few generations from the progenitors to see how mixed race families were treated in that era. I realized I could trace to the current day with a bit of digging and I did it more to prove that I could rather than actually extract anything meaningful or personal about their lives. That, and in a very serendipitous moment I ended up typing a name into the "search the web" instead of "search this site" on a public records website and found an in memoriam Facebook page. It's kind of alarming how much information is available on the Internet, but genealogy hobbyists rarely have nefarious intentions.