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FDR's cabinet and descendants

The Unusual Group Trying to Turn Biden into FDR

In a city of ambitious influencers, a shadow cabinet hopes it can summon a new New Deal.
Illustration of the Salem Witch Trials, with a "witch" appearing to levitate books

My Witch-Hunt History, and America's: A Personal Journey to 1692

Revisiting America's first witch hunt — and discovering how much of it was a family affair. My family, that is.
Statue of "Freedom" on top of the U.S. Capitol

Philip Reed, The Enslaved Man Who Rescued Freedom

The ironies abound in the story of Reed, who made it possible to erect the statue that remains on the top of the Capitol dome today.
A mural of a woman cleaning a turnstile.

How to Remember a Plague

2020 was full of efforts to archive photos and artifacts of the pandemic — an impulse born of a sense of witnessing history, and a desire to speak to the future.
Family register sampler sewed by Abigail Barnard, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 1833.
Exhibit

Finding Ancestors

The many ways of knowing those who came before us.

Aaron Burr — Villain of ‘Hamilton’ — Had a Secret Family of Color, New Research Shows

The vice president is best known for killing rival Alexander Hamilton in an 1804 duel. But he was also a notorious rake, historians say.

Beyond Romantic Advertisements: Ancestry.com, Genealogy, and White Supremacy

On Ancestry's dangerous move to make it harder to discern which white families owned slaves.

Our Twisted DNA

A review of "She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity."
Bearded civil war soldier.

Who’s Behind That Beard?

Historians are using facial recognition software to identify people in Civil War photographs.

Ancestry.com Is In Cahoots With Public Records Agencies, A Group Suspects

A nonprofit claims its request for genealogical records from state archives was brushed aside in favor of Ancestry’s request.
partner

How Pocahontas—The Myth and the Slur—Props Up White Supremacy

The roots of the attacks on Elizabeth Warren.

How Our Grandmothers Disappeared Into History

A historian turned novelist ponders the absence of women from America's historical archives.

The Liberal Delusion of #ResistanceGenealogy

The effort to dig up information about the immigrant ancestors of prominent Trumpsters is doing more harm than good.

Haunted by History

War, famine and persecution inflict profound changes on bodies and brains. Could these changes persist over generations?

Slavery and the American University

Determined researchers are finally drawing the lines between higher education and America's original sin.

'This Is Surreal': Descendants of Slaves and Slaveowners Meet On US Plantation

At Prospect Hill, people came from as far as Liberia for an unlikely gathering that led to a scene of visible emotion – with ‘a lot to talk about.'

For New Mexico Families, Connecting the Dots of an Ancestral Disease

A genetic mutation in some New Mexico communities can be traced to a common ancestor who came to the area more than 400 years ago.

White Nationalists Flock to Genetic Ancestry Tests. Some Don't Like What They Find

With the rise of spit-in-a-cup genetic testing, white nationalists are turning to science to "prove" their racial identity.

She Thought She Was Irish — Until a DNA Test Opened a 100-Year-Old Mystery

How Alice Collins Plebuch’s foray into “recreational genomics” upended a family tree.

Why Do So Many Americans Think They Have Cherokee Blood?

The history of a myth.

The Ledger

In researching his family's past, the author learns of his ancestors' efforts to thrive despite the confines of racial oppression.
Cartoon of crooked Oliver Hartzell with his arm around an apprehensive Sir Francis Drake.

The Mythical Fortune That Fuelled America’s Greatest Fraud

Oscar Hartzell convinced thousands of Americans that they could get a piece of the Sir Francis Drake estate—a multibillion-dollar inheritance that didn’t exist.
Rows of shelves in a historical archive.

Archival Shouting

Silence and volume in collections and institutions.
Jared Miller poses as his ancestor Richard Oliver, a soldier in the 20th Colored Infantry.

Descendants of Black Civil War Heroes Wear Their Heritage With Pride

A bold new photographic project asks modern-day Americans to recreate portraits of their 19th-century ancestors in painstakingly accurate fashion.
From left: A red and white sign protesting Critical Race Theory, groups of people stand in a parking lot

(White) Christian Roots of Slavery, Native American Genocide, and Ongoing Efforts to Erase History

15th century dogma connects the genocide and land dispossession of Native Americans with the enslavement and oppression of African Americans throughout history.

Solving the Mystery of Arne Pettersen, the Last to Leave Ellis Island

All told, Arne overstayed his welcome at least four times — 1940, 1944, 1953 and 1954. It’s hard to say why.
1958 photo of an Arab American father and daughter on a sidewalk.

From the Colts' Stadium to The Statehouse, Indianapolis Has a Rich Arab American History

From the Statehouse to Lucas Oil Stadium, Arab American immigrants have made contributions across Indianapolis, according to IUPUI's Edward Curtis.
Troops from the 92nd Infantry Division move past a destroyed Mark VI tank on the outskirts of Ponsacco, Italy, on Sept. 1, 1944.

A Young WWII Soldier’s Remains Could Be Those of Spike Lee’s Lost Cousin

Military experts seeking to identify partial skeleton in an anonymous grave.
A 1907 photograph of immigrants arriving at Ellis Island.

What I Don’t Know

At the heart of my family tree are only questions and mysteries.
Excerpt from 1950 Census form
partner

The 1950 Census, a Treasure Trove of Data, Was the Last of its Kind

Unveiling the 1950 Census reveals the value of these types of records.
Vintage stereogram of Chinatown, San Francisco, ca. 1920s-30s.

How a California Archive Reconnected a New Mexico Family with its Chinese Roots

Aimee Towi Mae Tang’s Chinese American family never talked about the past. She decided to change that.

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