Generations and Change: genealogical perspectives in social history

by Robert M. Taylor, Jr (Editor), Ralph J. Crandall (Editor)

This book discusses the history of genealogy in the United States, and tries to not only bring genealogy into the main stream of historical sources, but also demonstrate the serviceability of genealogy to historians.

Contents:
Historians and genealogists : an emerging community of interest / Robert M. Taylor, Jr. and Ralph J. Crandall -- History and genealogy : patterns of change and prospects for cooperation / Samuel P. Hays -- Anthropology, genealogy, and history : a research log / John W. Adams and Alice Bee Kasakoff -- The place of genealogy in the curriculum of the social sciences / Robert Charles Anderson -- Ethnicity and the Southern genealogist : myths and misconceptions, resources and opportunities / Elizabeth Shown Mills -- Reconstructing Catholic family history / James M. O'Toole -- Genealogies as evidence in historical kinship studies : a German example / Andrejs Plakans -- The stability ratio : an index of community cohesiveness in nineteenth-century Mormon towns / Dean L. May, Lee L. Bean, Mark H. Skolnick -- The Massachusetts towns and the legislature, 1691-1776 : contributions of genealogy to collective biography / John A. Schutz -- "Belovid wife" and "inveigled affections" : marriage patterns in early Rowley, Massachusetts / Patricia Trainor O'Malley -- The fertility transition in New England : the case of Hampton, New Hampshire, 1655-1840 / Lawrence J. Kilbourne -- Forenames and the family in New England : an exercise in historical onomastics / David Hackett Fischer -- "In nomine avi" : child-naming patterns in a Chesapeake county, 1650-1750 / Darrett B. Rutman and Anita H. Rutman -- Migration, kinship, and the integratio of colonial New England society : three generations of the Danforth family / Virginia DeJohn Anderson -- The Wilsons move West : family continuance and strain after migration / Claudia L. Bushman -- Problems and possibilites of individual-level tracing in German-American migration research / Walter D. Kamphoefner.

332 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1986

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this book was published in 1989 and strides in technology since that time provide different avenues of research than existed at that time, this book still contains much relevant information for researchers today. The Board of Certification for Genealogists codified many genealogical standards incorporating the use of social history in genealogical research. At the time of the book's writing, some genealogists already incorporated social history methods or research in their own family narratives. This book showed its value to many more. However, it also demonstrated the standards held by many microhistorians to those academics who might undervalue it. I found the essays by Elizabeth Shown Mills, Patricia Trainor O'Malley, Lawrence J. Kilbourne, Virginia DeJohn Anderson, and Claudia L. Bushman most interesting. The essays on naming patterns were useful to those researching in the essay's focus area.

[Kathy KS · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, some of the information here may be outdated, especially when the contributors cite what sources are "currently" published or available. However, there are some interesting essays included here. I enjoyed, especially, reading the information about name choices and migration.

For readability, I found Elizabeth Shown Mills' and the final essay by Walter D. Kamphoefner to be the most enjoyable for my own personal tastes.

Cons... the outdatedness includes the fact that standards in genealogy (and the other disciplines here?) have changed since the 1986 copyright date. More emphasis is now on original sources, rather than derivative sources. I do believe that the use of family genealogies in many of these studies was quite useful and, perhaps, the best way to complete their study. But, occasionally those genealogies are cited as the "source" for vital and church records that may be available today; some may have been then, too.

Also (although this is nothing new), so many of the essays deal with New England studies. Perhaps this is because that area has been SO heavily researched and published, and this may not be the case today, but I would have liked to see more on the middle colonies. A few essays did use Louisiana, western migration, and German immigrants.

Worth reading if you are interested in these topics and the interdisciplinary research being done.

Borrowed through Kansas Library Catalog.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a little dated. Sociology, social history and genealogy from about 40 years ago. Excellent chapter on naming patterns.