"Contending that the U.S. was the earliest western country to embrace genealogy on a mass level, Francesca Morgan traces Americans' fascination with tracking family lineage from the early republic to the present day, showing how it evolved from a largely elite phenomenon practiced by white men of western European descent to a commercial enterprise reaching people of diverse backgrounds. In the first half of the book, Morgan examines how specific groups throughout history grappled with finding and recording their forebears, focusing on Anglo/White, Mormon, African American, Jewish, and Native American people. Morgan devotes the second half of the book the practice of genealogy in the modern era, analyzing of how individuals and researchers have used genealogy for personal and scholarly purposes. Morgan also explores the commercialization and commodification of genealogy, powered by entrepreneurs that span from local businesspeople to the Church of Latter-Day Saints and from companies like Ancestry.com to Skip Gates's Finding Your Roots series"--