Although we humans as a species may not obsess every day about where we came from, it’s a very real part of our human nature to ponder our origins. Call it curiosity, a delight in personal history, or as one person recently posted, a feeling that “my dearly departed kinfolk keep tuggin’ at me.”

“Genealogy,” the study of family histories, has long been a popular hobby for Americans, especially among seniors. Since our country was founded, an estimated 100 million Americans ...