Scholarly Branches in 21st-Century Genealogy (Earliest 19th-Century Bulgarian Immigrants in the US at ancestry.com)

Abstract

This work includes two parts. The first part is a theoretical approach to genealogy in the 21 st century that offers a classification of genealogy as a complex social discipline and a branch of anthropology. Although many may believe that genealogy is a historical discipline, the 21 st century development of genealogy completely corresponds to the main characteristics of anthropology. The revealed cultural and historical anthropology focuses on the role of studying context for complete genealogy research. Genealogy intersects with technology, as well, but it is also very close to art. On the whole, genealogy recreates a valuable culture that connects generations and people all over the world. The blooming of genetic genealogy allows people to find lineages to which they belong even if they have never known the identity of their parents. The second part of this work uses a case study to analyze the records about the earliest 19 thcentury Bulgarian immigrants in the US using ancestry.com for a scientific analysis and as a database with billions of vital records. The analysis of the data showed the research of the immigration in a given time span requires using as primary information not the passenger lists, but all possible vital records that contain direct and indirect information. The scientific analysis focused on the peculiarities in studying the 19 th century immigration of Bulgarians in the US in particular, the incorrect documentation of the place of origin (Bulgaria instead of Bavaria or Belgium, for instance) and other challenging research problems. It was interesting in the course of the analysis of Massachusetts data about Bulgarians to recognize that American vital records may include some early cases of adoption of Bulgarian children. This discovery requires more detailed critical analysis.

Privacy, Biological Relatives, and at-Home DNA Testing

“…If data is available, ancestry testing provides consumers the opportunity to identify biological relatives, and claims to trace their ethnicity [15]. A large number of ancestry services also provide access to a genealogical database [93] to aid users in building and/or tracing their family tree.…”