“Best to let some skeletons stay hidden while impacted folks are still alive.”
Decades ago before DNA, my mother and her sisters had an older female cousin, who warned them not to research their past ancestors beyond 3rd to 4th cousins.
Up to this past year, no real criminals showed up going back to the early 1600’s.
Recently, our DNA shows that Angela Davis, and I have a common male ancestor, so we are distant cousins.
I’ve had a tough time researching my family tree. Too many ancestors had no siblings and died childless.