@article{10.4159/harvard.9780674076341,
      recid = {1404015},
      author = {Weil, François.},
      title = {Family trees a history of genealogy in America /  [electronic resource] :},
      publisher = {Harvard University Press,},
      address = {Cambridge :},
      number = {10.4159/harvard.9780674076341},
      pages = {1 online resource (304 p.)},
      year = {2013},
      abstract = {The quest for roots has been an enduring American  preoccupation. Over the centuries, generations have  sketched coats of arms, embroidered family trees, establish  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 the author, 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.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1404015},
}