Genealogy and the Pursuit of Rights

• 
  The National Post last week on October 1st featured story by Kathryn Carlson about the genealogical involvement of a comparatively large number of Newfoundland and Labradorians in the pursuit of native status. http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Newfound+natives/5487209/story.html
  This was prompted by an announcement last year that the federal government was finally recognizing the rights of descendants of the Mi’kmaw of Newfoundland and Labrador.
• The qualification for recognition is entirely genealogical; i.e. individuals have to establish at least one native ancestor. It has prompted a wide search in genealogical sources and has kept genealogists in the province busy for the past several months.
• This raises an interesting question about the political uses of genealogy and the extent to which pursuit of genealogy can be driven by perceived gains to be made from associating with some particular group in the past. It is also a commentary on the changing nature of prejudice. Evidently, many Newfoundlanders had buried their Mi’kmaw heritage to escape discrimination based on race; today they are pursuing that status to activate the privileges associated with registered status as native Canadians

Second Bibliography Update

We have completed a second revision of our ongoing bibliography regarding scholarly studies in Genealogy and Family History. The bibliography can be found on the ‘Studies in Genealogy’ tab beside the ‘Home’ tab at the top of the blog.

We like to give a special thanks to Brenda Dougall Merriman, CG for her bibliography suggestions. Thanks for your contributions!

We welcome any other suggestions to add to this bibliography and also comments on any of the articles or books currently included.