The New England Historic Genealogical Society
Summer Dinner
Featuring a Presentation on

Family Trees: A History of Genealogy in America
by François Weil

July 19, 2013
Somerset Club, 42 Beacon Street, Boston
5:30 Reception  6:00 Presentation  6:30 Dinner

Register here by Thursday, July 11

The quest for roots has been an enduring American preoccupation. Over the centuries, generations have sketched coats of arms, embroidered family trees, established local genealogical societies, and carefully filled in the blanks in their bibles, all in pursuit of self-knowledge and status through kinship ties. This long and varied history of Americans’ search for identity illuminates the story of America itself, according to François Weil, as fixations with social standing, racial purity, and national belonging gave way in the twentieth century to an embrace of diverse ethnicity and heritage.