Family history, often viewed under the guise of genealogy in the United States, plays an important role in preserving identity as an enduring cultural practice. The interest in finding and locating this history has resulted, in many cases, in the long-term preservation of both manuscripts and public records and still ensures their heavy use today. Many repositories survive due to the interest of and visits by genealogists, and, while archivists may appreciate their role in increasing use numbers for monthly statistics, they may not necessarily think deeply about the deeper cultural and psychological meaning of genealogical practice.
Individual exploration of family background and heritage has always played an important role in American culture, given that so many citizens arrived from elsewhere. Representing the sheer variety of American citizenry, the ways in which family researchers use records in their totality provides a unique opportunity to scrutinize how class, gender, and race intersect in archives. Nowhere is this interest in genealogy better represented than in the city of New Orleans (hereafter referred to as “NOLA”) and in a new publication by archivist Susan Tucker, City of Remembering: A History of Genealogy in New Orleans. Tucker, a longtime resident of NOLA, former curator for the Newcomb Archives (Tulane University), and coeditor of the The Scrapbook in American Life (with Katherine Ott and Patricia P. Buckler), has long been interested in the gendered creation, collection, and preservation of archives and family history materials. In City of Remembering, Tucker explores multiple avenues emanating from the idea that “genealogy in the United States concerns the beauty of hope as well as the sadness within migration” (p. 9) and how these facets of genealogy are illustrated in the archival record. She analyzes how the passion for genealogy through generations of families intersects with both family and public history. This makes for interesting and thoughtful reading, interspersed with nuggets of archival wisdom.
While some archivists may find the practice of genealogy of little interest due to its individualized focus, Tucker follows the intriguing development of how records that lend themselves to genealogical research are kept and preserved, and for what reasons. She describes fascinating methodologies of both preserving and using records for genealogical research, the impact of technology on the use of these records in the seventeenth through the twenty-first centuries, and how these records represent the cultural habits of both Americans and New Orleanians. But, while she examines these fundamental themes, Tucker also focuses on the experiences of specific individuals who, with their interest in family research and the historical record, provide representative examples for the development of these processes. She expands beyond traditional concepts of genealogy by examining family documents and objects as particularly female ways of remembering identity and family.
As she traces the overall development of records preservation, Tucker explores the national development of the process of family research and how this specifically impacted NOLA's local experiences. American interest in tracing family genealogies led directly to specific records chosen and kept in both public and private archives, and she observes how often these records can shape our identities. In several chapters, she shares the experiences of specific families and individuals from their multiple perspectives, such as a Creole, a woman, an immigrant from Europe, a free person of color, and those who were enslaved. These experiences illustrate the extraordinary diversity of those residing in NOLA and the variety of ways that humans document themselves, as well as how much of the past can be lost through the passage of time and carelessness. Tucker is clear to point out that because so little has been left of the past, what remains gains importance through the years, serving families as talismans and a way to connect with ancestors. In addition, American genealogists both “create new materials and make new records,” thereby combining past and present in a “collective memory” for families and communities (p. 131). Tucker places NOLA in the context of its earliest history of saving records and discusses how that development mirrored the preservation of records in the newly formed United States. The Catholic Church was particularly important because of its attention to the records of births, marriages, and burials, and notarial archives created records related to civil law. Such records document activities connected with buying land, borrowing money, making wills, prenuptial agreements, partnerships and corporations, building contracts, large purchases of supplies, and appointing agents. Prior to the Civil War, these records documented (somewhat) the purchase, sale, and emancipation of the enslaved. In addition to these official records, Tucker notes the documentation created by women in the form of samplers and hand-decorated family registers.
Tucker analyzes the schism in the history profession, prevalent even today, which regards family history with disfavor. She discusses the dual development of repositories for public records and historical manuscripts and the donation of family histories as core collections in these institutions. Tucker addresses many of the negative perceptions connected with genealogy, such as class elitism as defined around male ancestors, in many cases honoring the Confederacy. Genealogy has also come to be considered the primary domain of women, often perceived as being consumed by the specifics of family history. She describes the cultural impact of past events and the curation of records we take for granted as archives professionals, such as the Works Progress Administration's transcription of records in the 1930s, the Civil Rights movement, the nation's bicentennial, the burgeoning growth of interest in genealogy based on the TV phenomenon of Roots, and the Church of Latter Day Saints volunteers micro-filming records during the latter half of the twentieth century. American citizens from every background began to consider the documentation of their families' journeys, both the ideal and the reality, as a real part of American history. Tucker observes that “family history does challenge practitioners to think of what it means to be both an individual and part of a larger group, part of a family as well as a nation” (p. 50).
After this helpful overview of what some would call the “American obsession,” Tucker then probes more deeply into the public genealogies of NOLA's ethnic identities. Because of its status as a polyglot city, race and ancestry play a special role in NOLA's family histories. Tucker notes some of the special characteristics of NOLA's past by discussing the experiences of the city's Creoles. She examines early family histories, which neglected race and family genealogies in the written record, but acknowledged them in private. Was “genealogy too dangerous to write about, but too much of a part of everyday life to avoid altogether?” (p. 60). As time has gone on, this shared cultural and racial heritage illustrated by a growing access to archival records, has become more appreciated and accepted.
In the remaining chapters, Tucker delves into the uniqueness of the records kept by families, whether private or public. She spends a good deal of the volume focusing on the ephemera of family life—although ephemeral, these objects can be tangible connections to the past. She considers the value of artifacts handed down (such as family Bibles), as well as those created by family members to capture their memories (such as art and portrait family trees, family registers, created and manufactured scrapbooks), which in so many ways demonstrate the fragmented nature of family knowledge for those of us who receive it.
Tucker's specialty is analyzing the creation and role of records based on gender, and her final chapter discusses conducting research on free individuals of color and the enslaved, focusing on women and power. Using Marie Laveau as her starting point, she focuses on women as intuitive memory keepers of the papers, photographs, objects, and oral traditions of their families. She explores the role of primitive art and women artists, tracing maternal lines and names through family trees. Tucker finishes by discussing the records continuum and its relationship to the practice of genealogy as a way to connect with the past while engaging our modern perceptions and applying modern techniques.
Readers can likely bring few criticisms to bear on this book. The only one I can make is that I found myself wanting more of Tucker's concepts and ideas. Though you cannot have everything when exploring such complex issues, I wanted more about NOLA neighborhoods, more about the class structures within the NOLA region, and more about the complex intersectional issues related to gender, race, and identities. The University Press of Mississippi deserves credit for publishing this book as it should be published: in hardcover with high-quality images and paper, making it a pleasure to turn every page and see what's next. The book also includes in-depth notes for those wanting to do more research. Overall, Tucker's work provides a grounding in the passion and process of genealogical research as a gendered practice in American culture, with a focus on NOLA and its specific circumstances. It would behoove all archivists to develop a better sense of where we fit into the historical records continuum while understanding and appreciating those who keep their families' histories.