By Jackie Hogan

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