A Nation of Descendants : Politics and the Practice of Genealogy in U.S. History

From family trees written in early American bibles to birther conspiracy theories, genealogy has always mattered in the United States, whether for taking stock of kin when organizing a family reunion or drawing on membership—by blood or other means—to claim rights to land, inheritances, and more. And since the advent of DNA kits that purportedly trace genealogical relations through genetics, millions of people have used them to learn about their medical histories, biological parentage, and ethnic background. A Nation of Descendants traces Americans' fascination with tracking family lineage through three centuries. Francesca Morgan examines how specific groups throughout history grappled with finding and recording their forebears, focusing on Anglo-American white, Mormon, African American, Jewish, and Native American people. Morgan also describes how individuals and researchers use genealogy for personal and scholarly purposes, and she explores how local businesspeople, companies like Ancestry.com, and Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s Finding Your Roots series powered the commercialization and commodification of genealogy. "Contending that the U.S. was the earliest western country to embrace genealogy on a mass level, Francesca Morgan traces Americans' fascination with tracking family lineage from the early republic to the present day, showing how it evolved from a largely elite phenomenon practiced by white men of western European descent to a commercial enterprise reaching people of diverse backgrounds. In the first half of the book, Morgan examines how specific groups throughout history grappled with finding and recording their forebears, focusing on Anglo/White, Mormon, African American, Jewish, and Native American people. Morgan devotes the second half of the book the practice of genealogy in the modern era, analyzing of how individuals and researchers have used genealogy for personal and scholarly purposes. Morgan also explores the commercialization and commodification of genealogy, powered by entrepreneurs that span from local businesspeople to the Church of Latter-Day Saints and from companies like Ancestry.com to Skip Gates's Finding Your Roots series"-- Provided by publisher