Want to avoid sleeping with a close relative? There’s an app for that (in Iceland)

by cheblogudo

Dating on a sparsely populated island where people don’t have family-based surnames comes with its own challenges, reports The Wall Street Journal:

Tracing a person’s lineage in Iceland is especially challenging because last names are no indicator of historic family lineage. In Iceland a person’s last name is usually the father’s first name, followed by “son” or “dottir.”

So how can you make sure the hottie you found at the bar or on Tinder is not your cousin?  Look them up on The Book of Icelanders, of course.

Íslendingabók, or the Book of Icelanders, is an online database that contains the full genealogy of 720,000 Icelanders, living and deceased. Assembled by combining old Icelandic genealogy books and church records, it launched online in January 2003 and gives Icelanders an outlet for their craving for genealogy, an ardent hobby for many in the country of 330,000.

Now, as social media and apps expand the dating pool, many people are turning to the website to ensure they aren’t swimming in the same gene pool.

On Íslendingabók, Mr. Theodórsson discovered he and the woman from Tinder had the same great-grandfather.

“We decided to not speak of this again and try to avoid each other at the next clan meeting,” Mr. Theodórsson said.

But wait, there’s more.

On the 10th anniversary of Íslendingabók’s online debut, an app development competition was held. It led to an app that allowed users to bump their phones together to instantly trace how their family trees collide. “Bump in the app before you bump in bed,” was the tag line coined by the group of software engineering students behind the product.

Silicon Valley, I hope you’re paying attention.  I see great potential for this app in Alabama and Mississippi.