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Well for me it was... I just didn't know anything about any of those people, and they knew nothing about me. I can be aware that they had some quality or another, but it means something only abstractly. It would actually mean very little. Once your family tree extends beyond people you knew personally, or beyond people who knew people you know personally, it becomes basically arbitrary. This sperm and this egg... would have been different ten minutes later. It probably would have changed your family's direction, but you've got no way of knowing how, and no real business being interested, kwim?

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Whereas with composers and whatnot, I have a very tight, personal relationship with what I would be representing through honoring them. The fact that other people can honor them and can't honor my ancestors... does not cause any blips on my radar at all.