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Why would that be creepy? There are a lot people related to people on that boat other than just JW.
But even if the research was done so that they could invoke their name in a meaningless ceremony, that doesn't strike me as any more creepy than who alive now would be the king of Montenegro if that monarchy still existed.
And having used Ancestry.com in the past, it isn't generally the case that you type in your own name and say "ok, what is my family tree back 19 generations." It is more that it provides access to the data records that allows you to make the connections.
So, for example, it has scans of the microfiches that lets me see my mom's original birth certificate where her dad's full name is listed with date of birth. And then I am able to use that to find another scan with his birth certificate and parents names. And a search finds that his mom's name is in an Ellis Island record listing X as her country of origin, and then...
Yes, you can find family trees already made, but that assumes someone who took the time to draw all the connections and therefore probably had some personal interest.
My mom, who is apparently now Mormon spent time last summer just validating the OCR transcription of the 1910 census data for Merced County. No connection at all but also not drawing any explicit genealogical connections. Simply making sure the data was effectively searchable.
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