Barriers To Genealogy In The Future

[ScouseBoy]

Illegitimacy was never a problem before the Victorian hypocrisy made it so, the problem before was not children being illegitimate but the parents or rather the father not providing for his children.

Countries like Australia are so paranoid about their ex-convict population that they destroy all information gathered as soon as they have gleaned numerical statistics from the information. The irony is their indigenous population have an oral heritage that goes back centuries and even that is being destroyed by the immigrants’ privacy ideals.

Many countries claim to be free but in reality they can never be free until people see the futility in privacy, secrecy destroys life and destroys history, whether that is the history of the country, the family or the individual.

Cheers
Guy

      Is there any evidence to support your theory about Australia?   I doubt it.

[jaybelnz]

That's right Andrew!  A "Have you ever thought of tracking your family tree" pop up, which is followed by a "sign up here and subscribe to wherever", will change to a pop up that simply says "Your Family - Free - click here" - and Presto!

On the other hand, the technology may be such by then, that our descendants will have had a microchip installed in their brain, at birth, and have all that information available to them simply by thinking about it!

[KGarrad]

Can we be confident resources will be available? If places like FindMyPast and Ancestry go bust will someone else step in? Highly likely but at what cost or how much damage to personal records etc

I have a feeling that the current genealogy thing may turn out to be a generational fad.  It's popular now because of the steady growth of new info on the relatively new internet.  Twenty years on that will all have changed, with ever more ridiculous electronic gizmos becoming trendy.  Perhaps we can click an icon and the 'net will do a two-minute search going back 6 generations.    Will there be any hard copy? 

Hard copy?!  What a quaint old-fashioned idea!

In 100 years nobody will be doing hard copy of anything!

[DavidG02]

Perhaps we can click an icon and the 'net will do a two-minute search going back 6 generations.   

You mean something like a Leaf  

[jaybelnz]

  "something like a leaf" David!  Luv It..

(I see you have the surname of Jacka in your list! Pretty unusual - one of our Prime Ministers was Sir Keith JACKA Holyoake).

[Guy Etchells]

     Is there any evidence to support your theory about Australia?   I doubt it.

Yes there is plenty of evidence to support my views.
Any one who knows me knows I do not make statements unless I am sure of my facts.
I could easily give you references but in this case due to certain reactions with regards to some of my postings I will let you do your own research into the history of Australian repression of convict ancestors.

There might even be a clue to find some thoughts on the subject in this posting.

Cheers
Guy

[Guy Etchells]

Not sure we can be confident or comfortable that the internet will keep all of our records safe. From server issues to space and corruption of our own laptops/PCs there are many ways we can lose information.

Can we be confident resources will be available? If places like FindMyPast and Ancestry go bust will someone else step in? Highly likely but at what cost or how much damage to personal records etc

Ancestry is already up for sale.

Cheers
Guy

[Wiggy]

     Is there any evidence to support your theory about Australia?   I doubt it.

Yes there is plenty of evidence to support my views.
Any one who knows me knows I do not make statements unless I am sure of my facts.
I could easily give you references but in this case due to certain reactions with regards to some of my postings I will let you do your own research into the history of Australian repression of convict ancestors.

There might even be a clue to find some thoughts on the subject in this posting.

Cheers
Guy

It is true that some time ago Aussies were very ready to supress their convict ancestry (I doubt if my grandmother was aware that her great grandfather and was a convict - and some other members of her family as well)   
- however that has long gone out the window and now we are very ready to find convicts in our families, and in fact almost rejoice to do so - it means we've been here a long time!!    

[Grameka]

I suggest the biggest obstacle people will face is the "we don't mention that" culture. I speak from experience.

My maternal family tree is very traditional, people were/are married and they have children. Birth certificates are right and proper. Most take an interest. My paternal line is very, very different. Single mothers who won't tell, don't know the 5 fathers of 5 children. Not many marriages. Step children whose surnames change with the wind.

I quickly go from the family genealogist with interesting things to speak about on my mothers side... to the nosey b****** cousin who is 'up to something' on my fathers. For many it will be a much easier option now and in the future to just not ask.