LEADER 03918nam 2200673Ia 450 001 9910819849203321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a0-674-07637-0 010 $a0-674-07634-6 024 7 $a10.4159/harvard.9780674076341 035 $a(CKB)2670000000345469 035 $a(EBL)3301292 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000871480 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11471588 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000871480 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10823049 035 $a(PQKB)11063747 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3301292 035 $a(DE-B1597)209775 035 $a(OCoLC)1041188969 035 $a(OCoLC)840416063 035 $a(OCoLC)956975902 035 $a(OCoLC)979777446 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780674076341 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3301292 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10689572 035 $a(OCoLC)923120032 035 $a(PPN)18809704X 035 $a(EXLCZ)992670000000345469 100 $a20121210d2013 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurnn#---|u||u 181 $ctxt$2rdacontent 182 $cc$2rdamedia 183 $acr$2rdacarrier 200 10$aFamily trees $ea history of genealogy in America /$fFrancois Weil 205 $a1st ed. 210 $aCambridge $cHarvard University Press$d2013 215 $a1 online resource (320 pages) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 0 $a0-674-04583-1 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $tFront matter --$tContents --$tPrologue --$t1. Lineage and Family in Colonial America --$t2. The Rise of American Genealogy --$t3. Antebellum Blood and Vanity --$t4. "Upon the Love of Country and Pride of Race" --$t5. Pedigrees and the Market --$t6. Everybody's Search for Roots --$tAbbreviations --$tNotes --$tAcknowledgments --$tIndex 330 $aThe 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. 606 $aGenealogy$zUnited States$xHistory 606 $aGenealogy$xSocial aspects$zUnited States 606 $aNational characteristics, American 615 0$aGenealogy$xHistory. 615 0$aGenealogy$xSocial aspects 615 0$aNational characteristics, American. 676 $a929.20973 700 $aWeil$b Francois$0417728 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910819849203321 996 $aFamily trees$94018797 997 $aUNINA