I am always looking to find old relatives and new. I research on-line, and in books. If I only came from Iceland it would be done already. The following is an article found in Newsday April 19, 2013 from Reykjavik, Iceland.
You meet someone, there's chemistry, and then the introductory questions: What's your name? Come here often? Are you my cousin? In Iceland, a country with a population of 320,000 where most everyone is distantly related, inadvertently kissing cousins is a real risk.
A new smartphone app is helping Icelanders avoid accidental incest. The app lets users "bump" phones, and emits a warning alarm if they are closely related. "Bump the app before you bump in bed." says the catchy slogan.
Some are hailing it as a welcome solution to a very Icelandic form of social embarrassment.
"Everyone has heard the story of going to a family event and running into a girl you hooked up with some time ago," said Einar Magnusson, a graphic designer to the capital, Reykjavik.
It's not a good feeling when you realize that girl is a second cousin. People may think it's funny, but [the app] is a necessity."
The Islendiga-App, or "App of Icelanders," is an idea that may be possible only in Iceland, where most of the population shares descent from a group of 9th century Viking settlers, and where an online database holds genealogical details of almost the entire population.
The app was created by three University of Iceland software engineering students for a contest calling for "new creative uses" of the Islandingabok, or Book of Icelanders, an online database of family trees stretching back 1,200 years.
"A small but much talked about feature is the loosely translated "Incest Prevention Alarm" that users can enable through the options menu which notifies the user if the person he's bumping with is too closely related."
