How Technology is Changing the Family Tree

Thursday 22 January, 2015
6:30 - 8:15pm, $0/Rsvp

New America
199 Lafayette Street, Suite 3B

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Americans are obsessed with tracing their family trees. Enabled by the Internet and advances in genetic technology, millions of people are diving deep into their family histories on WikiTree and Ancestry.com or discovering their ethnic make-up down to the decimal point using 23andMe. Someday, the explosion of DNA-based genealogy could even create a universal family tree. So, how could these data sets alter how we think about ourselves? Should you feel a connection with someone because a genetic test says she's your seventh cousin? 

Join New America NYC and Future Tense for a discussion about where technology could take our sense of history and identity.

 

Participants

AJ Jacobs @ajjacobs

Author and founder, Global Family Reunion

 

Wilhelmina Rhodes Kelly

Genealogist and founder, Queens chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution

 

Maud Newton @maudnewton

Author, "America's Ancestry Craze," Harper's Magazine

 

Chris Whitten @chris_whitten

CEO, WikiTree

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