Family trees : a history of genealogy in America
Record details
- ISBN: 0674045831 (alk. paper)
- ISBN: 9780674045835 (alk. paper)
-
Physical Description:
304 pages ; 22 cm
print - Publisher: Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2013.
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Formatted Contents Note: | Lineage and family in colonial America -- The rise of American genealogy -- Antebellum blood and vanity -- "Upon the love of country and pride of race" -- Pedigrees and the market -- Everybody's search for roots. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | National characteristics, American Genealogy Social aspects United States Genealogy |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Kirtland Community College.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kirtland Community College Library | CS 9 .W45 2013 | 30775305456866 | General Collection | Available | - |
Family Trees : A History of Genealogy in America
Click an element below to view details:
Summary
Family Trees : A History of Genealogy in America
The quest for roots has been an enduring American preoccupation. Over the centuries, generations have sketched coats of arms, embroidered family trees, established local genealogical societies, and carefully filled in the blanks in their bibles, all in pursuit of self-knowledge and status through kinship ties. This long and varied history of Americans' search for identity illuminates the story of America itself, according to François Weil, as fixations with social standing, racial purity, and national belonging gave way in the twentieth century to an embrace of diverse ethnicity and heritage. Seeking out one's ancestors was a genteel pursuit in the colonial era, when an aristocratic pedigree secured a place in the British Atlantic empire. Genealogy developed into a middle-class diversion in the young republic. But over the next century, knowledge of one's family background came to represent a quasi-scientific defense of elite "Anglo-Saxons" in a nation transformed by immigration and the emancipation of slaves. By the mid-twentieth century, when a new enthusiasm for cultural diversity took hold, the practice of tracing one's family tree had become thoroughly democratized and commercialized. Today, Ancestry.com attracts over two million members with census records and ship manifests, while popular television shows depict celebrities exploring archives and submitting to DNA testing to learn the stories of their forebears. Further advances in genetics promise new insights as Americans continue their restless pursuit of past and place in an ever-changing world.