Introducing Inclusive Ancestry
In the early 2020s, a well-known genealogy software company sought to broaden the appeal of its product. This meant, among other things, expanding the types of relationships in their existing family tree interface. Modernizing the system made sense. The definition of family had evolved over time. Some historic connections transcend biology, shape the human experience, and deserve recognition. A committee assembled to organize the effort. Focus group facilitators discussed proposed changes with customers. Enabling users of a family tree building program to link slaveholders with the people they enslaved became a priority. The warm reception from users seemed to cement a path to progress.
But the committee’s chairperson, while constructing a family tree as a wedding present for one of their children, learned that their new in-law descended from slaveholders. The committee chair decided then that what users really needed is “a way to hide this stuff.” The proposed relationship label update never materialized. Fragility halted progress.
Witnessing that reversal inspired me to build Inclusive Ancestry. A new free Chrome extension, Inclusive Ancestry, empowers Ancestry users to document (in their trees) their marginalized ancestors’ enslavement, unfreedom, forced migration, and internment. Japanese American internment during World War II, the regulating of Native American identity and location, and the spectrum of unfreedom that defined African American life in the antebellum era lack representation in Ancestry’s fact/event system. Inclusive Ancestry seeks to fill that gap. Here’s how.
While using a Google Chrome browser window, install the Inclusive Ancestry extension.
Log into Ancestry.
Navigate to the profile page of an ancestor in your tree.
Click the “+Inclusive Ancestry” hover bar near the bottom right of your screen. It will change color when you hover your cursor over it.
Select from the Inclusive Ancestry menu the fact or event you want to add to your ancestor’s profile.
Enter data into the appropriate fields.
Click “Add to Timeline.”
On the Ancestry Facts tab, click the + Add button in the timeline column. This will open Ancestry's "Add fact or event" menu.
Select “Custom Event” from Ancestry's "Add fact or event" menu.
Inclusive Ancestry will autofill the Custom Event box.
Once the data entry is complete, click "Save" to add the fact to the timeline.