Menu
Idea

Ancestry.com

22
Filter by:

Filter by published date

African men in slave pens in Washington D.C. circa 1849-1850.
partner

How Ancestry.com Has Failed African American Customers

The genealogy site fails to understand the fundamental differences between white and black history.
by Kristen Green via Made By History on May 31, 2019

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.
by Katie Notopoulos via BuzzFeed News on October 22, 2018

Here Is a Human Being

The Spotify and Ancestry partnership proposes to entertain users based on the narrowest possible conception of who they are.
by Cam Scott via Popula on September 27, 2018
Birds-eye view map of Johnstown, New York.

The Stories We Give Ourselves

I wish I’d asked my grandfather more questions.
by Brittany Thomas via Contingent on August 26, 2022
Graph of immigrants showing a peak of western/Northern Europe in 1860, a peak of southern/Eastern Europe in 1910, and a peak of all other locations ca. 2018.

Today’s Newcomers Succeed Just As Quickly As Ellis Island Immigrants

Using records digitized in part by amateur genealogists, economists have upended conventional wisdom about which immigrants succeed and why.
by Andrew Van Dam via Washington Post on July 1, 2022
Drawing of a man looking up at a DNA strand spiraling upwards from him

Our Obsession with Ancestry Has Some Twisted Roots

From origin stories to blood-purity statutes, we have long enlisted genealogy to serve our own purposes.
by Maya Jasanoff via The New Yorker on May 2, 2022
Photos of children from the cover of "The Crisis," 1916

‘Anxious for a Mayflower’

In "A Nation of Descendants," Francesca Morgan traces the American use and abuse of genealogy from the Daughters of the American Revolution to Roots.
by Caroline Fraser via New York Review of Books on April 21, 2022
African American men in suits, sitting outside of a drugstore

The Game Is Changing for Historians of Black America

For centuries, stories of Black communities have been limited by racism in the historical record. Now we can finally follow the trails they left behind.
by William Sturkey via The Atlantic on May 4, 2021
Photo of the 1870 U.S. Census, with lines highlighted in orange, yellow, and green

The Strange Case of Booker T. Washington's Birthday

If Booker T. Washington never knew when he was born, how are we so sure about it now?
by Bill Black via Contingent on April 5, 2021
Louis Armstrong performs on the Kraft Music Hall TV show at NBC Studios in Brooklyn in June 1967 in New York.

Louis Armstrong’s Difficult Upbringing Revealed in Family Police Records

A new book reveals the jazz musician’s mother and sister were arrested several times for prostitution in New Orleans.
by Dalya Alberge via The Guardian on February 1, 2025
Sunrise over the Appalachian Mountains

Thicker Than Water: A Brief History of Family Violence in Appalachian Kentucky

Knowing I come from people who lived hard lives and endured terrible things is difficult. Knowing that I come from someone who ruined lives haunts me.
by Angie Romines via New England Review on January 10, 2024
Detail of faces on a family tree.

The Pocahontas Exception: America’s Ancestor Obsession

The ‘methods and collections’ of genealogists are political because they have a great deal in common with genealogy as a way of doing history.
by Thomas W. Laqueur via London Review of Books on March 30, 2023
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.
by Lynne Sharon Schwartz via The American Scholar on April 14, 2022
"We are the Spirit Rappers," 2016, By Amy Friend.

The Weight of Family History

It’s never been easier to piece together a family tree. But what if it brings uncomfortable facts to light?
by Colin Dickey via The New Republic on March 21, 2022
A collage piece that includes photographs of African Americans at work and leisure.

Stories to Be Told

Unearthing the Black history in America’s national parks.
by Sahra Ali via Sierra Club on February 20, 2022
A large federal style brick house, the William Paca House in Annapolis, Md.

I Searched for Answers About My Enslaved Ancestor. I Found Questions About America

'Did slavery make home always somewhere else?'
by Imani Perry via TIME on January 13, 2022
Artwork by Alanna Fields of an enslaved individual.

The Dark Underside of Representations of Slavery

Will the Black body ever have the opportunity to rest in peace?
by Latria Graham via The Atlantic on September 16, 2021
At-home DNA ancestry testing kit

The Census Has Revealed A More Multiracial U.S. One Reason? Cheaper DNA Tests

DNA testing kits have shifted the way both researchers and the public think about race and identity. This shift is evident in the 2020 U.S. Census data.
by Hansi Lo Wang via NPR on August 28, 2021
Depiction of a woman in a tree, looking down with a thoughtful expression.

Roots to Fruits

Meditations on when you think you found the people who owned your people via DNA test.
by Mariah-Rose Marie M via The Nib on February 1, 2021
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.
by Laura Bliss via CityLab on December 31, 2020
1975 digital camera prototype

How the Digital Camera Transformed Our Concept of History

We’re capturing the mundane as well as the memorable.
by Allison Marsh via IEEE Spectrum on June 30, 2020

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.
by Adam H. Domby via Black Perspectives on May 10, 2019

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History