America is in the midst of a genealogy boom. In the last thirty years the number of Americans who said they were "very interested" in family history jumped from 29% to 87%. Online genealogy sites like Ancestry.com went from being a small genealogical research website into a NASDAQ-listed corporation with more than two million subscribers. In Roots Quest, sociologist Jackie Hogan digs into this genealogy boom to ask why we are so interested in our family history. She goes beyond simple demographics-retiring baby boomers with more time on their hands-to show that the surging popularity of genealogy is in part a response to some of the large-scale social changes transforming our lives, such as the increasingly virtual nature of social life, and the sense of rootlessness these transformations provoke. Roots Quest explores the way our increasingly rootless society fuels the quest for authenticity, for deep history, and for an elemental sense of belonging-for roots.
Contents Acknowledgments 1 Roots Quests: An Introduction Evidence and Approach American Genies "We're Hopelessly Addicted": The Nature of American Roots Quests Understanding Roots Quests 2 A Genealogy of American Genealogy Old World and American Aristocratic Genealogy American Democratic Genealogy Eugenic, Nationalistic, and Aspirational Genealogy Multicultural, Self-Revelatory Genealogy Quantum Genealogy Why "Quantum" Genealogy? 3 Roots Work: Genealogy across Cultures The Psychological Effects of Roots Work The Identity Effects of Roots Work The Social Order Effects of Roots Work The Universality of Roots Work: Understanding Homo genealogicus 4 Memory Work in the Age of Quantum Genealogy Modernity and Memory The Past Isn't What It Used to Be Mortality, Immortality, and Memory The Working Dead The Enchanted Dead Memory Work and Quantum Genealogy 5 The New Blood Quantum: Genetic Genealogy and the Creation of Kinship Blood, Genetics, and Identity Genetic Genealogy: The Promises and the Problems The Dual Potential of Genetic Genealogy Genetic Genealogy and the Hunger for Substance Genetic Genealogy and the Creation of Kinship 6 Who Do We Think We Are? Televised Roots Quests The Anatomy of the Televised Roots Quest And the Moral of the Story Is . . . Televised Roots Quests: "Fabulous" and Flawed Virtual Realities, Virtual Identities, and Virtual Kinship 7 In Search of the "Living Dead": Ancestors, Zombies, and American Roots Quests "They're Hoping We Don't Forget Them": The Sacralization of American Genealogy "Turn the Heart of the Children to Their Fathers": The LDS Genealogical Mission Zombies and Roots Quests: A Sign of the Times? 8 Imagined Homes: Roots Tourism and the Quest for Self "Unbelievable Feelings!!" Irish Gatherings and African Homecomings Imagined Homes 9 Our Ancestors, Ourselves: Roots and Identity in an Age of Rootlessness Roots Quests and the Commodification of Identity Notes Bibliography Index
