Palatines or Pennsylvania German Pioneers?: The Development of Transatlantic Pennsylvania German Family and Migration History, 1890s–1966

This article situates the development of Pennsylvania German migration genealogy as a popular historical practice in time and ideological context, while contrasting perceptions of the role of the family in the nation in the US and in Germany. While Pennsylvania German family historians interpreted migration during the colonial period as a radical departure from the European past, German researchers, driven by völkisch ideology, interpreted migration as a moment of separation from a mythical German nation. National Socialist efforts to claim Pennsylvania Germans as Germans and foster closer cooperation during the 1930s had little success. However, these efforts left a legacy of infrastructure and resources that were developed, transformed, and used by researchers after the Second World War, when transatlantic Pennsylvania German migration genealogy became one means of establishing cooperative ties in an international environment.