The author, Donald Harman Akenson, is a highly regarded historian, who has written extensively about the history of Judaism and Christianity. He is said to be the world's foremost authority on the Irish diaspora. In Some Family, he seeks to examine various systems of "genealogical narratives" throughout history and across cultures. His thesis seems to be that presently the system of genealogical recordkeeping selected by the LDS Church is becoming dominant. That's not such a surprising conclusion, but Akenson seems to warn against any one system dominating genealogy because any One Great Big System (as he would say) would fail to take into account the culturally-driven systems that otherwise exist. Akenson says that systems employed by genealogists must be consistent with "empirical, historical, and statistical reality."
Michael Hait on 14 Jan 10The Maryland Historical Society and genealogist and author Robert Barnes will once again present a series of four Family History workshops this year.
