The lives of two women and three men in antebellum Massachusetts and New Hampshire demonstrate that genealogical practices buttressed class distinctions and that genealogists researched lineages that best fit their definitions of propriety. Documented seventeenth-century lineages constituted social capital. Yet genealogy showed also that class could be made as well as inherited.

This content is only available as a PDF.
© 2010 by The New England Quarterly
2010
You do not currently have access to this content.