This article examines the history of ancestral tourism and its development as a form of cultural diplomacy between 1945 and 1966. The phenomenon often referred to as ‘roots tourism’ has during the last decades increased in popularity, especially in Old World countries that historically have sent large numbers of people to North America. While previous scholarship has focused on its existential dimensions and its relation to the twenty-first century tourism and heritage economies, this article looks at how ancestral tourism grew out of European attempts at expanding the tourism industry after 1945. It studies the international spread of ‘person-to-person’ programs that sought to turn travelers into ‘ambassadors’, and the subsequent transformation of such initiatives into ‘homecoming’ campaigns through notions of co-descent, targeting Americans of European descent. By exploring the case of the 1966 Homecoming Year campaign in Sweden, the article shows that the attraction of ancestral tourism was grounded in its ability to combine economic and political incentives articulated in the Marshall Plan. It developed out of a liberal-democratic ideology that vested individual travelers with diplomatic agency. In the process, European tourist agencies calcified the notion that ancestral tourism served not only individual experiences, but also national economies and international relations.
This article adopts a media historical approach to studying the modern history of genealogy, suggesting an alternative to both the dominant methodologies and periodization of the field. Empirically, it focuses on the ways in which correspondence was adopted as a tool for long-distance research by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1910–45, examining in particular its research networks in Sweden. The article demonstrates that letter-writing was a research method dependent on record accessibility and interpersonal reliability. It also had the benefit of becoming its own resource, sustaining its relevance into the twenty-first century.
No abstract
Genealogy is one of the most popular sociocultural pursuits in modern U.S. history. During recent decades, scholars of the history of American genealogy and family history have forwarded an argument that its development since the 19th century is characterized by “democratization”. Surveying the scholarship, this article critically examines what that argument really means, what it unveils about historical change, and what it does not adequately recognize. The article argues that “democratization” is inadequate for making precise explanations about historical causes, causalities, and consequences. As an alternative to the democratization argument, it is suggested that research on the history of American genealogy should be inspired by recent studies of contemporary genealogy by sociologists, anthropologists, and cultural geographers, as well as by philosophical studies on the human longing for ancestry. By doing so, it becomes possible to engage with the crucial question of power in the historical inquiry. This approach is explored through the genealogical work of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Rather than looking at genealogy through the lens of grassroots individuals, we need to acknowledge the connection between personal longing for ancestry and the ways in which powerful organizations, institutions, media, and businesses have sought to capitalize on this longing.
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