Oh, hello, and welcome to an episode of Smalleges where we have taken a full length episode,

like this one from a few years back, and condensed it and decurst it. So it is safe for all ages

and sensitive ears who are interested in learning. There are more Smalleges episodes available

to download at alliword.com, slash Smalleges, the links in the show notes. Let's go.

Oh, hey, it's your fourth cousin. Twice removed. Alliword, back with a familial,

historical episode of allergies. So you are here because people made babies with each other,

and out of all of the camis, you became a collection of molecules, and you're suspended in a web of

family. Even a cockroach technically has grandparents and cousins. Isn't that weird? Your cat might

have an uncle. And if you have children, gaze at them. They may have children who have children,

and then those children might not even know your name. Okay, genealogy. So genealogy comes from

the root word, Gina, meaning to give birth to, like Genesis. And genealogy is not the study of

genetics and how DNA works. That's just called genetics. So this week'sologist, I suppose, has been

in this field for three decades, starting as a personal passion that just consumed him into making

it a job. And I was introduced to him by someone who worked to publish his latest book, which is called

161920 Africans. And I immediately ordered the book. I was so happy he was down to pop into a

sound booth in Portland to chat with me about his passion, tracing family histories, and chasing down

records, and also about mystery novels and capes. Questions you should ask your relatives,

US history, and how we treat the past, the joy of cracking a case, DNA tests, technology,

and how everywhere you look, there's family. So pull up a chair and absorb the stories of two-time

author, total peach, distant relative to Tom Hanks, and perhaps your relative as well, genealogist,

Stephen Hanks. And now you are a genealogist. Yes. And you've been a genealogist for quite a while now. Yeah,

I started like in 89. Yeah, when I was like, God, how old was I? I was about 30 years old. And

...