Explore the fascinating family histories of Ada Lovelace, Charlotte Bronte, John F Kennedy, and many more with 30 family trees from around the world. This accessible, visually-stunning compendium of family trees features some of history’s most loved — and loathed — famous faces and is great fun for the whole family to explore. Genealogy and history combine to make a fascinating, fact-filled treasury of family trees belonging to famous people throughout the ages.

Explore the fascinating family histories of Ada Lovelace, Charlotte Bronte, John F Kennedy, and many more with 30 family trees from around the world. This accessible, visually-stunning compendium of family trees features some of history's most loved -- and loathed -- famous faces and is great fun for the whole family to explore. Genealogy and history combine to make a fascinating, fact-filled treasury of family trees belonging to famous people throughout the ages.

The quest for roots has been an enduring American preoccupation. Over the centuries, generations have sketched coats of arms, embroidered family trees, established local genealogical societies, and carefully filled in the blanks in their bibles, all in pursuit of self-knowledge and status through kinship ties. This long and varied history of Americans’ search for identity illuminates the story of America itself, according to François Weil, as fixations with social standing, racial purity, and national belonging gave way in the twentieth century to an embrace of diverse ethnicity and heritage. Seeking out one’s ancestors was a genteel pursuit in the colonial era, when an aristocratic pedigree secured a place in the British Atlantic empire. Genealogy developed into a middle-class diversion in the young republic. But over the next century, knowledge of one’s family background came to represent a quasi-scientific defense of elite “Anglo-Saxons” in a nation transformed by immigration and the emancipation of slaves. By the mid-twentieth century, when a new enthusiasm for cultural diversity took hold, the practice of tracing one’s family tree had become thoroughly democratized and commercialized. Today, Ancestry.com attracts over two million members with census records and ship manifests, while popular television shows depict celebrities exploring archives and submitting to DNA testing to learn the stories of their forebears. Further advances in genetics promise new insights as Americans continue their restless pursuit of past and place in an ever-changing world.

Do you rummage through your grandmother's attic for pictures of old relatives? Have you ever wondered where your family came from? Would you like to know if you and someone famous share a common great-great grandparent? If you've answered yes to any of these questions you might be an amateur genealogist without even knowing it! Genealogical programs like Family Tree Maker are widely available and do not require any special training to use. That's right -- with a PC, a computer program, and an interest in discovering your roots you can begin tracing your family's history from its early years to today. Along the way you just might visit exotic lands, meet famous relatives, or dabble in a foreign language! Family Tree Maker For Dummies is your guide to getting the most out of today's most popular genealogy software on the market. Begin by investigating the many features Family Tree Maker offers all budding genealogists. Find out what you need to get underway and how to start recording data you have collected. The book helps you create an investigation strategy that taps into close (and distant) relatives, high-tech resources, and other genealogists from around the world! You can also explore options for presenting your completed family tree, from including photos and video in the final product to making copies for relatives. Family Tree Maker For Dummies makes preserving vital family records a fun and rewarding experience.

With sections dedicated to family origins; reunions and special events; photographs and stories, this book is designed so you can record forever the history of your family and ancestors.