Barriers To Genealogy In The Future

[Wiggy]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who gets replies in while they're still typing.....
I have joked for years that our kids will need to see DNA tests from their prospective partners, just to make sure there is no close family connection ( not inferring that I have any extras out there of course).

I think you have really hit on something worrying there  - specially if there are others about like that 'egotist' Simon Watson . . . . while he might delight in have 1000 offspring, it could make it difficult for people to make sure they are not marrying/having children with someone who is not closely related to them. 

I forsee shoals ahead.

[3sillydogs]

With the so called "liberation" of society a lot of the norms that we knew and lived by are starting to become dinosaurs.  People having children without the sanctity of marriage, same sex partners, and these partners adopting or having surrogate produced children either with or without their own genetic contributions,  cross culture adoptions etc.

I can hear our ancestors turning in their graves........

(I always thought I was the only one who got a warning about a message being posted  )

[pinefamily]

That makes 3 in the club now, 3SD. You, Jaybelnz and myself.
Any other prospective members?

[KGarrad]

I think it depends on what you see as Family History?

Is it blood-lines, or nurture lines?

It must have happened many, many times in the past, where a husband was assumed to be the father, but the actual father may have been somebody else!

[Rosinish]

I have a scenario where father of child had 2 children in a previous marriage.

Oldest child having a child of their own prior to half sibling's birth.

So father's 3rd child is younger than his grandchild 

I can see future generations scratching their heads

At least we can forewarn them to be in the same household on census night giving their relationships just to "clarify"   

Annie

[3sillydogs]

I can see future generations scratching their heads

At least we can forewarn them to be in the same household on census night giving their relationships just to "clarify"   

It is our genealogy gift to them

Census doesn't help in South Africa, they are destroyed as soon as the data is extracted.  It makes me want to weep at all the valuable information that has been lost for generations.

[jennywren001]

This sounds suspiciously like folk from my past  - Janet MacKenzie died age 34 in the Brechin poorhouse in 1884 she left behind four young children. None of the children's birth certificates indicate a father. Given the middle names of the children there could be three man involved. It's a very similar story with Janet's paternal grandmother.
Jen

[groom]

It must have happened many, many times in the past, where a husband was assumed to be the father, but the actual father may have been somebody else!

That's why I smile when people say that they are only interested in tracing a paternal line! At least with tracing the maternal as well there is a good chance that you are looking at the correct family.

[DavidG02]

Census doesn't help in South Africa, they are destroyed as soon as the data is extracted.  It makes me want to weep at all the valuable information that has been lost for generations.

Similar here in Oz. Its use is statistical not genealogical