Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization
PO Box 4607
New Windsor, New York 12553-7845
bastards. org 614-795-6819 @BastardsUnite
RE: Please rescind plan to purge small DNA segments. Don’t disconnect families
July 25, 2020
Dear ancestry. com:
Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization is the largest adoptee civil rights organization in the United States. We support only full unrestricted access for all adopted persons, to their original birth certificates (OBC) and related documents.
We are alarmed that ancestry. com DNA customers are about to lose a substantial number of family members/DNA connections with your scheduled August purge of smaller (6-8cM6) segments.
This is a terrible idea for all customers whose research will be hindered. Specific groups of people, whose ancestral connections have been severed by law and by memory, however, will be critically adversely affected: African Americans, mixed Native Americans both of whose matches are typically located in those smaller segments, and adoptees who often cannot furnish the names of their biological parents or even their own original names. The purge also affects the search for female ancestors whose names were changed through marriage.
We are sure this purge is a business, not a discriminatory, decision. That the purge comes in the wake of Ancestry’s public support of Black Lives Matter is disturbing, however, reminiscent of documentary genocide, which we hope is unintended. It suggests, however, an attitude of “we know better than our customers what they want and need” by denying the above-named groups critical research tools.
Ancestry is an important tool in genealogy, family history, and family connectedness, and the purge will deny the opportunity for that connectedness with “lost” family members.
We hope Ancestry will continue to uphold positive standards and practices. Please re-think your plans and rescind the DNA purge. In a time of social alienation, connecting with our pasts give us context and inclusion.
Thank you.
Sincerely yours,
Marley Greiner
Executive Chair
