Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Some Family: The Mormons and How Humanity Keeps Track of Itself

Some Family: The Mormons and How Humanity Keeps Track of Itself

Akenson, Donald

Paperback

Genealogy & HeraldryGeneral ChristianityGeneral World History

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 0773537279
ISBN13: 9780773537279
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Published: Feb 5 2010
Pages: 349
Weight: 1.10
Height: 0.90 Width: 5.70 Depth: 8.80
Language: English

In this age of information, genealogical research has become one of the most popular activities in the world, and the Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the most important resources. Started in 1894, the Mormon genealogical project has grown to include two billion names, 2.4 million rolls of microfilm, and 278,000 books, making it the world's largest collection of genealogical information. Donald Akenson explains and evaluates the history and functioning of this massive undertaking and, in the process, provides an insightful study of the Mormon scriptures and their implications for genealogical work.

Using supporting evidence that runs from the Solomon Islands and classical China to ancient Ireland, Akenson argues that there are four basic genealogical forms. Highly significant on its own, this insight also provides the information needed to assess the Latter-day Saints' efforts to provide a single narrative of how humanity keeps track of itself. Appendices cover topics of vital interest to historians, genealogists, and ethnographers, such as the use and limits of genetic data in genealogy, the reality of false-paternity as a widespread phenomenon in genealogical lines, and the vexing issues of incest and cousin-marriage. A unique study of a neglected topic, Some Family illuminates the stories that cultures tell themselves through their family trees.

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