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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 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.
Winner of the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize, a lyrical meditation on family, place, and inheritance Names for Light traverses time and memory to weigh three generations of a family’s history against a painful inheritance of postcolonial violence and racism. In spare, lyric paragraphs framed by white space, Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint explores home, belonging, and identity by revisiting the cities in which her parents and grandparents lived. As she makes inquiries into their stories, she intertwines oral narratives with the official and mythic histories of Myanmar. But while her family’s stories move into the present, her own story—that of a writer seeking to understand who she is—moves into the past, until both converge at the end of the book. Born in Myanmar and raised in Bangkok and San Jose, Myint finds that she does not have typical memories of arriving in the United States; instead, she is haunted by what she cannot remember. By the silences lingering around what is spoken. By a chain of deaths in her family line, especially that of her older brother as a child. For Myint, absence is felt as strongly as presence. And, as she comes to understand, naming those absences, finding words for the unsaid, means discovering how those who have come before have shaped her life. Names for Light is a moving chronicle of the passage of time, of the long shadow of colonialism, and of a writer coming into her own as she reckons with her family’s legacy.
A Beginner's Guide to Finding Your Ancestors Have you always wanted to find out more about your family and where you came from, but never knew where to begin? Look no further - Family History 101 will teach you proven techniques to help you uncover the names, dates, and stories that lie in your past. You will be eased into family history with: Straightforward tips on tapping the power of the internet. Checklists, forms, case studies, and illustrations that make getting started fun and easy. Guidance on maximizing existing information, finding more, and what it all means. Tips and techniques for recording and sharing all the wonderful family data you will uncover. Newcomers to genealogy, schoolteachers, and anyone interested in uncovering the fascinating roots of their family tree will appreciate the reliable, step-by-step instruction and dependable approach to the basics provided by Family History 101. Start learning about the past and your family's place in it today!
A beautiful gift and keepsake album to record the genealogy and family history.
While in the ICU with a near-fatal case of pneumonia, Brett Walker was asked, “Do you have a family history of illness?”—a standard and deceptively simple question that for Walker, a professional historian, took on additional meaning and spurred him to investigate his family’s medical past. In this deeply personal narrative, he constructs a history of his body to understand his diagnosis with a serious immunological disorder, weaving together his dying grandfather’s sneaking a cigarette in a shed on the family’s Montana farm, blood fractionation experiments in Europe during World War II, and nineteenth-century cholera outbreaks that ravaged small American towns as his ancestors were making their way west. A Family History of Illness is a gritty historical memoir that examines the body’s immune system and microbial composition as well as the biological and cultural origins of memory and history, offering a startling, fresh way to view the role of history in understanding our physical selves. In his own search, Walker soon realizes that this broader scope is more valuable than a strictly medical family history. He finds that family legacies shape us both physically and symbolically, forming the root of our identity and values, and he urges us to renew our interest in the past or risk misunderstanding ourselves and the world around us.
This important book examines the motives that drive family historians and explores whether those who research their ancestral pedigrees have distinct personalities, demographics or family characteristics. It describes genealogists’ experiences as they chart their family trees including their insights, dilemmas and the fascinating, sometimes disturbing and often surprising, outcomes of their searches. Drawing on theory and research from psychology and other humanities disciplines, as well as from the authors’ extensive survey data collected from over 800 amateur genealogists, the authors present the experiences of family historians, including personal insights, relationship changes, mental health benefits and ethical dilemmas. The book emphasises the motivation behind this exploration, including the need to acknowledge and tell ancestral stories, the spiritual and health-related aspects of genealogical research, the addictiveness of the detective work, the lifelong learning opportunities and the passionate desire to find lost relatives. With its focus on the role of family history in shaping personal identity and contemporary culture, this is fascinating reading for anyone studying genealogy and family history, professional genealogists and those researching their own history.
Completely updated for today's search tactics and blockades, The Everything Family Tree Book has even more insight for the stumped! Whether you're searching in a grandparent's attic or through the most cryptic archiving systems, this book has brand-new chapters on what readers have been asking for: Genetics, DNA, and medical information Surname origins and naming Appendix on major genealogical repositories, libraries, and archives Systems for filing and organizing The latest computer software Land, probate, and estate records Chock-full of tips the competitors don't have, this is the one-stop resource for successful sleuthing!
Katherine Scott Sturdevant shows you how to use social history -- the study of "ordinary people's everyday lives" -- to add depth, detail, and drama to your family's saga. Book jacket.
The one book every genealogist must have! &break;&break;Whether you're just getting started in genealogy or you're a research veteran, The Family Tree Sourcebook provides you with the information you need to trace your roots across the United States, including: &break;&break; Research summaries, tips and techniques, with maps for every U.S. state&break;&break; Detailed county-level data, essential for unlocking the wealth of records hidden in the county courthouse&break;&break; Websites and contact information for libraries, archives, and genealogical and historical societies&break;&break; Bibliographies for each state to help you further your research &break;&break;You'll love having this trove of information to guide you to the family history treasures in state and county repositories. It's all at your fingertips in an easy-to-use format–and it's from the trusted experts at Family Tree Magazine!