America's Ancestry Craze Summary

Maud Newton’s “America’s Ancestry Craze” discusses genealogy and how it is used to find out information about your ancestors. Newton shares her experience while having access to centuries of public records online and how discovering some of these records, should be done with caution. The idea of someone using these online websites, to find out who they are as a person, is only some of the many ideas newton goes over in her essay. Newton also goes into much detail on genes and how they, including details of her ancestors, are used to make up a person. The fascination people have for DNA analysis is strongly encouraging more people to put together their family tree. The only true way Newton believes we can find out who we are as a person, is
to dig deep and find out where you came from and what you're made of.
Newton starts her essay off, by going into her family's background and how this encouraged her to find out more information about her past.
The possibility of having different types of backgrounds that her mother or father may not have known about, really sparked her interest. Throughout her essay she compares her thoughts on genealogy to her thoughts on her ancestors. She believes the reason people seek to find out about their past is for our exploration and for our superstitious minds. We are trying to find out who we are, by finding out who they were. As stated in her article, "The ultimate goal of DNA based on genealogy is to create a universal genetic family tree" revealing exactly how everyone in the world is related.
Another way newton uses resources to discover more information, is through online websites. She brings up many times throughout her essay, ancestery.com and 23 and me.com. The information newton finds from these websites, to create her family tree, is the most effective expression of her passion and ideas throughout the essay. The details she discovers, sums up what she learns about her mother and father's past family and how this changes her views on them. The way she states that she is just as white as she always thought she was, really shows how important this research was to
her.
This essay was very interesting to me, because her main points and ideas are something you don't hear much about. I felt like I had a great understanding of where she was coming from and how important it was for her to find out more information on her past family members. It is very amazing to hear about the many options we now have, that allow us to find out exactly who we are and where we come from. The main ideas were interesting in a way that kept me wanting to read more, to find out her many discoveries. The thought of her father being very racist and the possibility of having a different background race, was one of the many aspects I found exciting. This essay made me have a certain urge, to want to learn more about my own families past history.
I really appreciated the tone and the flow of newton’s essay. It was very powerful and showed her overall interests. Her tone to me, felt like she was sitting in front of me, telling her story. The story she told about her mother and father, stuck with me the most. Her parents raising her the way they did, then her wanting to find something more than what they believed to be, was very surprising. Many people will only take exactly what they learned and use that, but she wanted to discover more and went for it. These types of discoveries have been around for a while and it is nice hearing about her experience and how this changed her views on her life.