Project Manager
Genealogical research techniques have evolved greatly from
the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century, where finding one’s roots was
largely the province of wealthy families who could afford professional researchers.
Goals from this endeavor, aside from making a record of one’s ancestry for
posterity, included proving a royal or presidential lineage, or membership in an
exclusive hereditary organization such as the General Society of Mayflower
Descendants (GSMD), the Daughters of the
American Revolution (DAR) or the General Society
of Colonial Wars, each of which was founded in the 1890s.
Often, such research would be published as sumptuous
hardcover books, elaborate family record charts, samplers or artfully penned and
illustrated manuscript genealogies. The idea was to demonstrate reverence for
one’s ancestors by producing what was often considered a work of folk art.
Nowadays, in addition to information gleaned from dusty
tomes, microfilm in libraries and, more recently, online resources, genetics
has become a critical component of modern genealogical research. Typically, for
between $100 and $200, you can now submit a DNA sample that will shed light on your
family’s ancestry, a concept that in years past might hardly have been imagined.
Popular television programs such as Who Do You Think You Are? on TLC and
Finding Your Roots with Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. on PBS have
driven a surge of interest in family research, and DNA often plays a key part
in that process. In 2005, National Geographic commenced its Genographic Project, a
multi-year study where scientists are using genetic and computational
technology to analyze historical patterns in DNA from participants around the
world in order to better understand our human genetic roots.
The means of publishing family genealogies has become more technological
and less expensive in recent years. One
method involves computer software. Programs such as Ancestral Quest, Legacy Family Tree and RootsMagic guide you through and help
organize the genealogical data that will give you the answers you’re looking
for. They can also export several different formats of the information, such as
ancestral charts and reports. I personally worked with a client—a retired
engineer—who designed his own computer-aided design (CAD) model to produce a series of ancestral
charts that filled a wall in his home. Which brings up another reason for compiling
research: being able to display the fruits of your labor for family and friends.
USA Today contributor
Gregory Rodriguez writes, “Alex
Haley, author of the hugely popular 1976 book Roots, once said that black Americans needed their own version of
Plymouth Rock, a genesis story that didn't begin—or end—at slavery. . . . [Roots] also shared with all Americans
the emotional and intellectual rewards that can come with discovering the
identity of your ancestors.” Over a hundred years after the end of the Gilded
Age, advances in technology, plus a curiosity about one’s own ancestry—driven
by Haley’s book and its various television adaptations—have resulted in an
increased democratization of the field. It is finally possible for enthusiasts
of genealogy, even the non-gilded, to realize the rewards.
Did
You Know?
In a 2012 story, ABC News
wrote
on their website that genealogy, which nets $1.6 billion annually, is an American avocation
second only to gardening in popularity. With respect to this phenomenon, The Guardian, based in the UK, has also
written of the phenomenon, noting that “interest in family history
is undergoing an unprecedented boom, fueled by archives on the internet,
websites devoted to helping would-be genealogists and the popularity of BBC1’s Who Do You Think You Are?” The show’s own roots date back to 2004 on BBC, but the
concept crossed the pond in 2010, when NBC aired its first American episode.
The show has since been picked up by TLC.
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