The television commercial for a local mobile phone company in the small island nation of Iceland wouldn't work in other countries. It portrays a curly-haired couple who just woke up next to each other after what appears to be a one-night stand. (That isn't the scandalous part in Iceland's famously liberal society.) The two are pictured lingering in bed, on their smart phones, checking out a genealogical website called Islendingabok. Their smiles freeze when they find out they are related. Closely.
Icelanders can relate on levels unimaginable in larger countries. The commercial works in Iceland because, in this isolated island country of 300,000 people, these situations actually happen. Regularly. Most Icelanders have heard a story of somebody, who knew somebody, who found out a bit late in the game that the subject of their romance is actually an estranged cousin.
You can read this interesting story with a genealogical twist in the Global Post at http://goo.gl/t4SBP.
I wish our genealogy databases were as good as Iceland's! Then again, maybe not. I suspect having access to highly accurate genealogy databases of every man, woman, and child in a country might take the fun out out of researching.
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