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The Color of Family
History, Race, and the Politics of Ancestry
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2024
About this book
A uniquely blended personal family history and history of the changing definitions of race in America.
A zealous eugenicist ran Virginia’s Bureau of Vital Statistics in the first half of the twentieth century, misusing his position to reclassify people he suspected of hiding their “true” race. But in addition to being blinded by his prejudices, he and his predecessors were operating more by instinct than by science. Their whole dubious enterprise was subject not just to changing concepts of race but outright error, propagated across generations.
This is how Michael O’Malley, a descendant of a Philadelphia Irish American family, came to have “colored” ancestors in Virginia. In The Color of Family, O’Malley teases out the various changes made to citizens’ names and relationships over the years, and how they affected families as they navigated what it meant to be “white,” “colored,” “mixed race,” and more. In the process, he delves into the interplay of genealogy and history, exploring how the documents that establish identity came about, and how private companies like Ancestry.com increasingly supplant state and federal authorities—and not for the better.
Combining the history of O’Malley’s own family with the broader history of racial classification, The Color of Family is an accessible and lively look at the ever-shifting and often poisoned racial dynamics of the United States.
A zealous eugenicist ran Virginia’s Bureau of Vital Statistics in the first half of the twentieth century, misusing his position to reclassify people he suspected of hiding their “true” race. But in addition to being blinded by his prejudices, he and his predecessors were operating more by instinct than by science. Their whole dubious enterprise was subject not just to changing concepts of race but outright error, propagated across generations.
This is how Michael O’Malley, a descendant of a Philadelphia Irish American family, came to have “colored” ancestors in Virginia. In The Color of Family, O’Malley teases out the various changes made to citizens’ names and relationships over the years, and how they affected families as they navigated what it meant to be “white,” “colored,” “mixed race,” and more. In the process, he delves into the interplay of genealogy and history, exploring how the documents that establish identity came about, and how private companies like Ancestry.com increasingly supplant state and federal authorities—and not for the better.
Combining the history of O’Malley’s own family with the broader history of racial classification, The Color of Family is an accessible and lively look at the ever-shifting and often poisoned racial dynamics of the United States.
Author / Editor information
Michael O’Malley is professor of US history at George Mason University. He is the author of multiple books, most recently Face Value and The Beat Cop, published by the University of Chicago Press.
Reviews
“The Color of Family is at once an immediately engaging account of an Irish and Virginian family history and a compelling critique of the work of producing and policing racial categories through official records of individual identity. Through his stories and documents, O’Malley both confronts the commodification of genealogical sources and offers a profoundly important message about the fiction and effects of race.”
— Catherine Nash, author of Genetic Geographies“A compelling glimpse of major themes in US history through the tangled branches of one family tree. O’Malley writes beautifully in that zone where street-level, lived experience intersects with broader structures of society, ideology, and governance. This is historical writing at its best.”
— Matthew Frye Jacobson, author of Whiteness of a Different Color“O’Malley’s Color of Family will intrigue anyone interested in genealogy, family history, or historians’ methods. The many blind corners and unexpected turns in this account of a historian’s genealogical research compel the reader to hold on even more tightly to O'Malley’s clear and vivid storytelling.”
— Francesca Morgan, author of A Nation of Descendants"Highly engaging. . . . The Color of Family is that rarity, an academic page-turner."
— Irish Times“Brilliantly researched, marvelously executed, and deeply unsettling.”
— Current Pub“In sum, The Color of Family is a compelling and multifaceted exploration of ancestry, race, and the historical mechanisms of classification in the United States. O’Malley’s willingness to confront unsettling aspects of his own family’s past, coupled with his critical assessment of both public and private institutions involved in genealogical research, offers a nuanced and thought-provoking contribution to ongoing discussions about identity and historical memory. The book’s blend of personal narrative, historical analysis, and institutional critique ensures its relevance for a wide range of readers—from amateur genealogists to scholars of race, immigration, and eugenics.”
— American Historical Review“By interweaving Irish immigration, Virginia’s racial bureaucracy, eugenics, and the modern DNA industry, O’Malley constructs a genealogy of genealogy itself. His work reconceptualizes ancestry as a historical endeavor, not a biological one, showing how systems designed to document individuals also constructed and contested racial categories.In the end, O’Malley offers a deeply humane vision of identity as relational, historical, and perpetually unfinished—inviting both historians and family researchers to look beyond bloodlines toward the lived histories that truly bind us."
— Journal of Social HistoryTopics
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Frontmatter
i -
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CONTENTS
vii -
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Note on the Terminology of Race
ix -
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Note on Sources
xi -
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INTRODUCTION. Arlington
1 -
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ONE. Nansemond
10 -
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Two. Holy Neck Road
48 -
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THREE. Glenties
80 -
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FOUR. Summit Hill
118 -
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FIVE. Elwood Station
154 -
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SIX. Richmond
196 -
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SEVEN. Salt Lake City
233 -
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EPILOGUE. Alexandria
273 -
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Acknowledgments
283 -
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Notes
285 -
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Index
319
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
November 20, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9780226835914
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9780226835914
Keywords for this book
genealogy; eugenics; racial; lineage; descendants; immigration; DNA; African; American; Black; white; colored; mixed; biracial; documents; identity; classification; terminology; dynamics; equity; Ancestry.com; United States; Virginia; Richmond; Salt Lake City; Arlington; Alexandria; bureau; vital; statistics; Irish; state; federal; authorities
Audience(s) for this book
For a non-specialist adult audience
