It's All Relative

September 25, 2017
Esquire contributing editor Jacobs (The Year of Living Biblically) muses on the nature of family and the interconnectedness of humanity in this entertaining introduction to the world of genealogy. The book follows along as Jacobs, inspired by the World Family Tree project—an effort by a group of historians, genealogists, and scientists to create a family tree of all humankind—attempts to orchestrate the largest family reunion ever, the Global Family Reunion. Along the way, he charts his efforts to contact celebrities, politicians, criminals, and his other distant relatives. He looks at unconventional notions of family, attending a polyamory family support group and “nonpaternity events” for people who learn from DNA testing that they are not directly related to their fathers. With short, lively chapters and an easygoing voice, Jacobs keeps the story flowing as the Global Family Reunion approaches. While Jacobs’s event, which was held in New York City on June 6, 2015, didn’t set the record for the largest family reunion ever, a total of 3,800 people showed up to the simultaneous reunions held in 44 locations around the world. He infuses humor throughout the book but relies too heavily on the same gimmick of his unexpected relations (he’s 14 steps removed from Joseph Stalin, and George H.W. Bush is his second cousin’s husband’s eighth cousin three times removed). The result is a somewhat amusing and educational account of the science and culture of families.

October 15, 2017

Journalist Jacobs (The Year of Living Biblically) is best known for the projects he turns into books, such as attempting to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica and to obey the Bible as literally as possible for a full year. In this volume, the author becomes fascinated with genealogy and the idea that if you go back far enough, everyone is related to everyone else. In his multiyear effort to plan and carry out the largest family reunion of all time (which he hopes will break the Guinness World Record), Jacobs learns all he can about genealogy from a biological, sociocultural, and historical perspective. He explores what it means to be the "black sheep" of a family, the relatively common practice of cousin marriage, and why the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints is so invested in their family trees. Written with Jacobs's signature humor and warmth, this is a fun, if slightly scattershot, adventure that will interest many. VERDICT Fans of Jacobs's previous work, as well as anyone interested in a nonacademic look into the world of genealogy and family trees, will find this account engrossing, funny, and optimistic.--Jennifer Stout, Virginia Commonwealth Univ. Lib., Richmond

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