You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.

Hello, and welcome to Ben Franklin's World Revisited, a series of classic episodes that bring fresh

perspective to our latest episodes and had deeper connections to our understanding

of early American history.

And I'm your host, Liz Covart.

Why do we trace our family histories?

What drives our desire to know who our ancestors were

and how we're connected to past people and events?

Genealogy is often seen as a modern pursuit, spurred by DNA tests and

online records, but in reality, early Americans were deeply invested in understanding and documenting

their familial ties. Their desire to understand these ties, however, extended far beyond their

curiosity. Last week, in episode 416, we were joined by Karen Wolf,

who shared with us her now-finished project on genealogy and family history in early America

called lineage, genealogy in the politics of connection in the British Atlantic world,

1680 to 1820. Karen's book is built on research that she originally shared with us in 2016,

so I thought it would be fun to go back into our archive

and return to our first conversation with Karen about her research

so that we can see how her thoughts, ideas, and her book project changed over time

as she did more research and thinking on her subject.

I also think it's really fitting to turn back to Karen's first episode,

because that was part of the Omohundro Institute's Doing History, How Historians Work Series.

So for us to consider how Karen's ideas and work have changed over the last eight years

...