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Record Nr. |
UNINA9910786212103321 |
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Autore |
Weil Francois |
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Titolo |
Family trees : a history of genealogy in America / / Francois Weil |
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Pubbl/distr/stampa |
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Cambridge : , : Harvard University Press, , 2013 |
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ISBN |
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0-674-07637-0 |
0-674-07634-6 |
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Descrizione fisica |
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1 online resource (320 pages) |
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Disciplina |
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Soggetti |
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Genealogy - United States - History |
Genealogy - Social aspects - United States |
National characteristics, American |
United States Genealogy History |
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Lingua di pubblicazione |
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Formato |
Materiale a stampa |
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Livello bibliografico |
Monografia |
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Note generali |
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Description based upon print version of record. |
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Nota di bibliografia |
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Includes bibliographical references and index. |
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Nota di contenuto |
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Front matter -- Contents -- Prologue -- 1. Lineage and Family in Colonial America -- 2. The Rise of American Genealogy -- 3. Antebellum Blood and Vanity -- 4. "Upon the Love of Country and Pride of Race" -- 5. Pedigrees and the Market -- 6. Everybody's Search for Roots -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index |
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Sommario/riassunto |
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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 |
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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. |
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