genealogy

Major Genealogical Group Apologizes for Past Associations with Eugenics and White Supremacy

The National Genealogical Society acknowledged that its founding in 1903 accompanied the rise of the eugenics movement, and that early leaders viewed genealogical study as  way of demonstrating and protecting racial purity. 

Francesca Morgan Dissects the American Obsession with Genealogy

by Thomas Laqueur

Questions about how Americans practice genealogy are in some ways less interesting that questions about why they do; all genealogies are ways of constructing pasts that explain and justify the present, and in America they are impossible to disentangle from racism. 

New Resources Help Virginians Fill in Hidden Family Histories Including Enslaved Ancestors

“Researchers and librarians would say things like, 'That history just doesn’t exist.' Or, 'We just don’t have those records,'" Lydia Neuroth with the Library of Virginia explained. "But we are realizing we do. We just haven’t done a good job sharing it.”

Gwendolyn Midlo Hall Kept the Identities of Enslaved from Archival Oblivion

After retiring from a career as a Latin Americanist, Hall documented the identities of thousands of people brought to Louisiana in slavery in the 18th century, an achievement others had thought neither possible nor necessary. 

Newspaper Ads Freedmen Filed for Family Reunification Aid African American Genealogy Today

Historian Blair Kelley and NYT writer Rachel Swarns discuss the archival ads placed by the newly emancipated to locate family members, and how those fill in the gaps for descendants seeking to assemble family histories. 

New Digital Access to Freedmen's Bureau Records Boon to Black Genealogists

Ancestry.com has made 3.5 million records of the Freedmen's Bureau available to researchers, making family history and genealogy research much more accessible to African Americans and scholars of Black history. 

Michigan State University Launches Online Database Chronicling North-Atlantic Slave Trade

Enslaved.org is a searchable database that contains millions of records representing enslaved Africans and their descendants.

Two Women Tackle Their Shared History

by Ann Banks

Ann Banks is interviewed along with Karen Orozco Guttierez about the two women's shared roots in antebellum Alabama. 

Ancestry Promises Holocaust Records Will Be Free

The U.S.C. Shoah Foundation has partnered with the genealogy giant, and an initial rollout faced a glitch. But some survivor families don’t want their histories public.

Tom Cotton's Slave-Owning Ancestors

If we dig into records of slave ownership, we can see that Tom Cotton’s family owned slaves.

How New Efforts Are Recovering the Stories of People Who Were Deleted From History

by Rachel Lance

For so many American families, lack of representation in paperwork might have otherwise led to a lack of representation in memory, but technology and crowdsourcing are finally bringing them out of the shadows.

The genealogy boom has hit a roadblock. The Trump administration plans huge fee hikes for immigration records.

The move has outraged professional and amateur genealogists, who argue that the increase would effectively put valuable immigration information out of reach for many.

Ancestry Digitizes Millions of Holocaust Records

Some say it’s a play for customers; others say that’s irrelevant because anyone can search the documents at no cost.

This Long-Ignored Document, Written by George Washington, Lays Bare the Legal Power of Genealogy

by Karin Wulf

In Washington’s Virginia, family was a crucial determinant of social and economic status, and freedom.

The Problem With Ancestory.com

by Adam H. Domby

The search engine functions to hide both slave ownership and enslaved people from the eyes of contemporary genealogists.

Historian discovers he’s related to the people he’s written a book about

by John Sedgwick

And it changes his perspective on the value of genealogy.

When Did Americans Stop Marrying Their Cousins? Ask the World’s Largest Family Tree.

Researchers assembled 5 million family trees using data from the website Geni.com to test several genetic and historical hypotheses.

How DNA Is Reshaping How We See Ourselves—and Our History

by Simon Worrall

Many of our traits and decisions are shaped by our ancestors, author says.

The Mormon Church Is Building a Family Tree of the Entire Human Race

They already have 32 times the amount of information contained in the Library of Congress

How Do I Decode Slave Records?

For many African Americans the paper trail back to your ancestral origins hits a wall once you reach the slavery era. During the hunt for information about my great-great grandmother, Jane Gates, who was born into slavery in 1819, we were able to find her in the 1870 census, the oldest census to list all African Americans by name. Before then, few counties listed slaves by name, so we shifted gears and searched the "slave schedules" for the 1860 and 1850 census information for slave owners named Gates. However, we weren't able to find anyone under that name who owned a slave that was around her age. This means that she was owned by someone with a surname other than Gates, and the only way to find her by using records would be to undertake a systematic search of the estate papers, wills and tax records, and other documents of every slave holder in Allegany County, Md....