  Model theory was born and developed as a part of mathematical logic. It has
various application domains but is not beholden to any of them. A priori, the
research area known as finite model theory would be just a part of model theory
but didn't turn out that way. There is one application domain -- relational
database management -- that finite model theory had been beholden to during a
substantial early period when databases provided the motivation and were the
main application target for finite model theory.
  Arguably, finite model theory was motivated even more by complexity theory.
But the subject of this paper is how relational database theory influenced
finite model theory.
  This is NOT a scholarly history of the subject with proper credits to all
participants. My original intent was to cover just the developments that I
witnessed or participated in. The need to make the story coherent forced me to
cover some additional developments.
