[Genealib] Two articles on genealogy you may not have seen.

[Grundset, Eric]

Everyone,

There have been two articles on genealogy in scholarly journals recently
that may not have crossed everyone's desks. I thought some of you might
be interested knowing about in them. 

Elizabeth Yakel and Deborah A. Torres. "Genealogists as a 'Community of
Records'." The American Archivist, 70:1 (Spring/Summer 2007), 93-113. 
The first author gave a version of this article as a paper at the 2006
Organization of American Historians conference here in Washington. It
was an interesting paper and now an interesting article. Ms. Yakel is a
librarian or archivist in Michigan, and she and her co-author give a
very interesting perspective on genealogical developments in the US in
the late 20th century. You will surely recognize many points as you
read.

Francois Weil. "John Farmer and the Making of American Genealogy." The
New England Quarterly, 80:3 (September 2007), 408-443.
The article is about early American genealogy and a prominent early
American genealogist. It is by an author in France who is writing a book
about "the history of genealogy in American culture", and yet he does
not thank a single genealogist, American or otherwise, in his opening
footnote -- only historians or librarians in historical society
libraries. One wonders if he has even spoken to many American
genealogists or genealogical librarians for his research (Only one
person I know has spoken to him briefly). The article is, however, very
interesting, and worth reading. The book probably will be too, but I
can't help having the same feeling that I had when someone who never
worked at DAR wanted to write a book years ago about doing genealogical
research in our collections. The "inside-the-profession" or
"inside-the-building" viewpoint may be lacking. Stay tuned I guess.

Eric G. Grundset
Library Director
DAR Library
National Society Daughters of the American Revolution
1776 D St., N.W.
Washington, DC 20006-5303
202-879-3313 (phone)
202-879-3227 (fax)
egrundset at dar.org

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