Depending on how it’s formulated, genealogy is either the first or second most popular hobby in the U.S. It’s huge. People go about it in different ways, and have different reasons for their research, but it’s not as simple as “I want to belong to an exclusive club”…in most cases. But yes, there are people who really do want to prove they belong to a particular group.
In this particular case, the person grew up in a family that was very proud of its early Colonial heritage. That was a shared family interest. If she had grown up in a different family that had similar roots but didn’t know or didn’t care so much, it probably wouldn’t have been as important to her either.
At least theoretically I could see somebody being nuts about their ancestors without any particular belief that those ancestors are better than other people’s ancestors(how often they do so in practice I don’t know); but I’m mostly just baffled at the degree of enthusiasm with which people will incorporate entirely separate individuals into their self image and then proceed to flip out defensively about it.
Certain lineage data are pragmatically useful, mostly the stuff about horrid diseases; but aside from that there really isn’t anything that can make a given group of historical dead people your historical dead people. ‘You’ are more or less your own problem, like it or not.
I certainly don’t deny its popularity, that’s simply a matter of fact. I just find it utterly baffling that people can even muster enough interest to bother doing the research, much less develop an affective attachment to the results. Clearly they can, and do; but I suspect that there might not even be an explanation that would assist me in understanding why.
Random stranger on the bus is back to wave hello. Random person is your new sibling - no, wait, your nephew - and they’re a permanent addition to your family.
Wait… Sibling is definitely better. Any particular feelings about this scenario?
Wait… No, they’re your first real girlfriend’s child, whom she gave up for adoption twenty years ago. You still miss her, but you haven’t spoken since she left you for the tennis player.
Hi, nice to meet you! Darth Vader is my father.
Still a stranger? Or do you think you know something about me?
