Odds are that if you’re from Iceland, you’re related to someone else from Iceland. In fact, due to the size and general exclusionary nature of the small island country, there’s a high possibility that you’re related to everyone from Iceland. However, with families this big, you’d also be less likely to know everyone you’re related to. So, the risk of the bizarre circumstances leading to you accidentally going on a date with a distant cousin is abnormally high for Icelanders. This is why Iceland has created what it calls the Íslendingabók (“The Book of Icelanders”), which is an online registry with information about the families of roughly 720,000 individuals born in Iceland. If you understand Icelandic and want to see if you’re related to Gunnar Hansen, Leatherface from the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (you were thinking we’d mention Bjork there, didn’t you?), head on over to The Book of Icelanders. However, if you have an Android phone and need a speedy way to confirm who is or isn’t a blood relative (we won’t ask), download this handy app from the Google Play market.
As part of a tenth anniversary celebration, the groups behind the Book of Icelanders (deCODE genetics, a research company in the field of medical genetics, and Friðrik Skúlason, an anti-virus software entrepreneur) held a competition for Icelandic college students, in country and abroad, to create an app for the online genealogy database. Engineers Arnar Freyr Aðalsteinsson, Hákon Þrastar Björnsson, and Alexeander Annas Helgason (my tongue hurts from trying to pronounce those names) succeeded in taking home the prize. This app also incorporates bump technology, allowing you to bump phones together to have instant feedback on if whether or not the other person is a heretofore unknown relative.
The winning engineers even came up with a slogan for the app and this unique feature.
“Bump the app before you bump in bed.”
We can’t top that.
The winning engineers look mischievous.
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