Modern families are turning to their family trees for evidence of a 'grand design', in the hope of finding guidance on what they should be doing with their lives.
The huge numbers of people looking for answers to life's choices from those long in the grave are responsible for an explosion of interest in genealogy, according to members of the Genes Reunited website.
Young people especially say they are looking for inspiration on how to find their way in the world from the patterns laid down by their ancestors.
Of the 3000 respondents to a survey on the website, 71 per cent say they've come to their family history to seek out patterns, trends and traits, such as a bias towards a particular occupation or a penchant for a certain talent.
Among those under 25 years old, that number climbs to almost 80 per cent.
According to 69 per cent of members, knowing the facts of who their ancestors were and what they did for a living will offer inspiration on how to live their own life today.
Around three-quarters of those under 40 believe this to be true. This kind of inspiration also turns out to be more important to men than women.
The website's creators say they are staggered by the number of emails they receive from members who say they have ended up following in the ways of their forebears without realising it.
For example, nothing surprised Maureen Quaid, 58, more than when her son Paul, whom she brought up in modest circumstances on London's Old Kent Road, told her he was going off to study at agricultural college.
It was only when Maureen later turned to Genes Reunited that she found out she came from a long line of farmers stretching back 400 years. Oblivious to his pedigree, Paul went on to work as a herdsman for the Bowes-Lyon estate and ended up living, unintentionally, a few miles from where the family's original farm stood in Lincolnshire.
Then there is the story of Bob Cook, 57, owner of a B&B in York, who spent 34 years in the military and has two sons who have both served tours of duty in Iraq. His father - also a military man - was adopted, and Bob knew little of his birth family until he started investigating his genealogy. He was astounded to find that his unknown relatives had also been soldiers. Today, he can trace 30 members of his bloodline who have served their country in what he now calls "the family business".
When the young Lesley Fenn, 83, followed his father into nursing neither of the two men guessed that one day Lesley would be using the Internet to trace a lineage of nurses all the way back to Florence Nightingale.
And it was only through recent research on Genes Reunited that Patrick Hayward, 77, discovered that when he started his first day in his father's clock repair business all those years ago, he was the latest in a line of master watchmakers going back five generations and across two counties.
"Our information suggests that these repeating patterns are a much more widely experienced phenomenon than has so far been considered," said Martine Parnell, Head of Genes Reunited.
"People seem to be finding that just having a good job or a nice house is not enough anymore. They want something more fulfilling they're looking for their true vocation
"They have been telling us that looking back into their family history helps them. When they discover that they come from a long line of sailors or teachers for example, it gives them inspiration to find if they may have inherited the same skills and how they might be able to apply them in their own lives.
"We've heard some truly fascinating stories from people whose lives have gone off in a whole new direction from what they've learned from their ancestors."
That's certainly true for Susan Watson, 58, who has discovered that a rare blood disorder has been running in her family ever since it got entwined with some immigrant engineers in 1618.
Her family tree shows that several branches have suffered the unexplained death of groups of siblings over the years, but because the disease is rarely associated with Caucasians it has never been diagnosed as the cause.
Awareness of being a carrier of the disease means the difference between life and death: if doctors know about it, they can treat it with blood transfusions and bone marrow transplants, and also treat other problems far more effectively.
Susan is now using Genes Reunited to track down relatives who may have the disease but are unaware of it, a task that could make a big improvement to the quality of life of her relatives for generations to come.
Genes Reunited can be found at www.genesreunited.co.uk
For more information contact Carolynne Bull-Edwards or Victoria Reed on: 01883 717468 / 07932 723866 or email press@genesreunited.co.uk
About Genes Reunited
Launched in May 2003, Genes Reunited is a sister site of internet phenomenon Friends Reunited. In just over two years it has become the UK's largest family tree, genealogy and ancestry site, with over 4.9 million members worldwide and over 345 million names listed. Internet technology has created millions of 'cyber detectives' who are harnessing the web's incredible resources and unlocking the secrets in their family tree. It is free to join and search, with a fee of £9.95 per year to make contact with other members.
Friends Reunited was launched in July 2000 as a back bedroom hobby. A combination of word of mouth and immense media attention has propelled the site to phenomenon status, expanding beyond the school friends proposition to include workplaces, teams/clubs and streets. Friends Reunited has touched many thousands of lives, reuniting friends and family around the globe.