‘Do You Want to Know Who You Are?’ The Rise of Genetic Ancestry Testing and the Search for Genealogies

As the practice and business of personal DNA ancestry testing continue to expand globally, understanding people’s interest in their genetic history, and how the results influence attitudes about the past, is being called for. Such insight is especially relevant to archaeologists and heritage researchers. Yet the motivations for taking direct-to-consumer DNA tests and their effects remain poorly understood in a European context. This paper presents the results of a nationwide survey carried out by The Centre for Critical Heritage Studies, University of Gothenburg, in collaboration with the Swedish Society for Genetic Genealogy. The aim was to identify social and cultural attitudes among people who decided to take a personal DNA test in Sweden. Nearly 900 individuals answered the survey. Based on the results, we identify a distinction between family genealogies and personal genetic history versus national history and collective identity. While the majority of respondents are interested in history and archaeology, their interest in family genealogies is specifically linked to individual stories and possible links to existing/unknown family members. This suggests that DNA-testing provides a new and different take on family histories compared to historically-documented genealogies. It also suggests that the link to polarizing debates on ethnonational belonging, highlighted in relation to public responses to ancient DNA studies in archaeology, remains muted as regards personal DNA tests.