World Cup, Citizenship, and the Genealogy of Belonging

By Andre Kearns

This summer, from June 11 to July 19, the world is gathering around the beautiful game. The 2026 FIFA World Cup has brought soccer’s biggest stage to North America, and like millions of families, mine is fully caught up in the joy and excitement.

In our house, the rooting interests are wonderfully complicated.

The author and his wife at the Haiti–Brazil FIFA World Cup match in Philadelphia. Their family embodies two of the many pathways that shape the American story—US-born and Haitian-born. 

I was born in the United States with deep roots here, so Team USA has my heart. My wife was born in Haiti, and this year Haiti is back on the World Cup stage for the first time in 52 years. That means our children are cheering for both countries, because both countries are part of who they are.

That is what I love about this World Cup. It is not only a celebration of sport. It is a celebration of origin, migration, belonging, diversity, and identity.

The US men’s national team tells that story beautifully. Some players were born in the United States to families with deep American roots. Others are children of immigrants. Some were born abroad to American parents, including military families stationed overseas. Others are birthright citizens, born on US soil to parents from other countries. The Guardian recently described this mix as one of the team’s strengths—a “magnificent mess” of American pathways.

The 2026 US Men's National Team reflects the many pathways that shape the American story. Born in the United States and abroad, with roots spanning the globe, the team demonstrates that citizenship, identity, and belonging are often woven from many family histories. 

For genealogists, each pathway requires a different research strategy.

For a player born in the United States to US-born parents, we might begin with familiar records: birth certificates, census records, city directories, school records, military records, newspapers, and oral history.

For someone with recent immigrant roots, the trail may quickly lead to passenger lists, naturalization records, alien registration files, consular records, foreign civil registration, church registers, and records in another language.

For the child of a US military family born abroad, we may need overseas birth records, military service records, base records, passports, State Department documentation, and records created in both the United States and the country where the family was stationed.

For birthright citizens, the key record may be a US birth certificate, but that is only the beginning. To understand the family story, we must then follow the parents’ origins, migrations, languages, communities, and records across borders.

That is the joy and challenge of family history. Citizenship may be recorded in one document. Identity is rarely that simple.

In my own family, the World Cup has become a living genealogy lesson. It reminds us that our children do not have to choose between their American and Haitian roots. They inherit both. They can cheer for both. They belong to both stories.

So enjoy the World Cup. Celebrate the goals, the flags, the anthems, and the drama. But also pay attention to the deeper story on the field.

Every player has a pathway. Every family has an origin story. And every one of those stories is worth discovering, preserving, and cheering for.

References:

Schaerlaeckens, Leander. “From Military Brats to Birthright Citizens: How USMNT’s Diverse Pathways Reflect America.” The Guardian, June 24, 2026. 

Reflections from Hamilton (the Musical)

by Sunny Jane Morton and Kimberly Powell, AG

Before many of us saw Lin Manuel Miranda’s revolutionary musical Hamilton, we heard it. From our child singing every word in their room upstairs. Or from a friend insisting, “No, really, you have to listen to this.” From one song in the car turning into three, then five.

Once we’re singing along, the story pulls us in. But when we stop singing and start pondering, we realize that Hamilton gives us so much to think about as genealogists. Where do we begin when retelling our own ancestral stories? Whose versions do we trust? What if no one wrote them down? How do we write about people who were brilliant, broken, ambitious, loving, selfish, brave, and deeply flawed? Or the (apparently) humdrums or unknowns?

Hamilton’s masterful storytelling helps us see that history—Alexander Hamilton’s and ours—is not just what happened. History is what survived, what was remembered, what was written down, what was destroyed, and what someone later chose to tell.

Which brings us to the first choice every storyteller has to make.

We have to decide what story we’re telling.

How could a destitute orphan from the Caribbean become a founding father of the United States? A perplexed Aaron Burr asks this question in the opening line of the show. The odds were absolutely against such an outcome for Alexander, yet this is what happened.

The opening scene—a fast-forwarded version of Alexander’s life up to his arrival in New York City as a young man—could have been an entire Act I. His father was a Scotsman in the Caribbean—how did he get there? His mother was a prostitute—how did that come about? How did they meet? His father’s abandonment, his mother’s fatal illness, Alexander’s way out through writing…all of it is worthy of storytelling.

Yet in the musical, Alexander’s childhood is compressed into one scene. That may be in part because so much less is known of his early years. But mostly, it’s because the story Lin Manuel Miranda wants to tell is about Alexander becoming a founding father—and there’s only so much room in every story.

We weren’t in the room when things happened.

At a crucial point in the story, Hamilton meets for a private dinner with his rivals, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Historical accounts conflict about what happened. As the storyteller, Lin Manuel Miranda had to choose which version of the story to portray. He chose to admit he wasn’t sure what to believe. He even embraced the mystery by having the cast sing about what each party said happened in the song “The Room Where It Happened.” 

Our ancestors have little control over how they are remembered.

When General George Washington sings, “History Has Its Eyes on You,” he expresses his awareness that all the world is watching him—not just now, but future generations—and that he won’t get to choose how he is portrayed in the future. But he knows he is making history, and he warns Alexander Hamilton of the same.

Alexander’s wife Eliza is just as conscious that she is on a historical stage, and she tries to exercise some control. When she learns that Alexander not only was unfaithful to her but declared it publicly, she tears up his letters to her. She had fallen in love with him through his gift of writing, and she wants to erase the evidence of it—not just from her own life, but from the historical record. She wants to keep as much of her heartbreak from the world—including future generations—as possible.   

Those who came before us were real humans, with real feelings.

When Alexander and his nemesis, Aaron Burr, both become fathers for the first time, they are caught off guard by fierce new depths of parental wonder, protectiveness, and pride. In “Dear Theodosia,” they sing to their newborn children. The men are mired in the violent birth of a new nation, yet for a few minutes they are simply fathers, looking at their children and imagining the future. They pledge to make the world better for them, as parents do, even when so much is beyond their control.

Despite Alexander’s intentions, his choices lead to the fracturing of his marriage and the death of their son. The heartbreaking song “It’s Quiet Uptown” captures the time afterward for Alexander and Eliza. Shared grief gives the estranged couple a horrible, but possible, starting place for reconciliation. “Unimaginable:” the word repeats in a hushed, sympathetic chorus. There’s no glossing over how hard this must have been. 

Who tells the story changes what we hear. 

The final song of Hamilton, “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story,” asks a question larger than just Alexander’s life: who gets the microphone and who doesn’t?

Who told our family’s stories before we arrived? A county historian? A newspaper editor? A courthouse clerk? A descendant with something to protect, prove, or hide? Someone with the power to be believed? Someone inside or outside the family? Sympathetic, indifferent, or hostile?

And who appears in the records only when someone else needed to count, tax, sell, sue, employ, punish, or control them?

One of the bold choices in Hamilton is that actors who do not look like the founding fathers tell their story. People of color (including women) are cast as the storytellers, and their own perspectives are included. 

Who tells the story does not change what happened. But it changes how we hear the story—and what survives in the telling.

Preserving our family’s story is a choice.

At the end of Hamilton, Eliza gathers what she can. She interviews soldiers. She preserves Alexander’s writings (except those she destroyed, of course). She tells his story. And, in doing so, she leaves pieces of her own.

Most of our ancestors left us only fragments, not the reams of papers Alexander left behind. They left a signature. A mark. A tax entry. A name in a will. A silence where a letter might have been.

The stories we tell now from the fragmented past will always be imperfect. Some pieces are missing. Some are uncomfortable. Some voices are loud with power in the records—and some are absent.

Maybe that is Hamilton’s reminder for genealogists. History is not only made by the famous, the powerful, or the people who expected to be remembered. It is also made by people whose quiet lives appear in scattered remnants, waiting in the records until someone asks better questions—or looks closer at the gaps and works harder to fill them.

What will survive because we cared enough to ask—and act?

Latest Issue of NGS Magazine Is Now Online

 

The July–September 2026 issue of NGS Magazine, Volume 52, No. 3, is being printed and is now available digitally in the Members Only section of the website. This issue continues the year-long theme of America250, with a spotlight on the 1900s.

Note to longtime members and newer members who elected to purchase the print version of NGS Magazine: Delivery of print copies depends upon USPS schedules.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

Features

1910 Census Entries: Fraud and Supplements

Michelle Chiachiere, CG

Finding Immigrants in US Records: A Layered Approach

Shayna Muckerheide, MLIS

 

When Relatives Disappeared: Mexican “Repatriation”

Colleen Robledo Greene, MLIS, FTxSGS

 

Researching the Ruthenians: Tracing Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Ancestors

Justin K. Houser

 

Presidential Censuses and Passenger Manifests, Part II

Stephen P. Morse, PhD

 

Departments

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

David Rencher, AG, CG, FUGA, FIGRS, FNGS

 

EDITOR’S NOTE

Sunny Jane Morton

 

NGS NEWS

NGS 2027 in Madison: Get Ready!

In Memoriam

 

NGS Awards and Competition Results Announced

REFERENCE DESK

The SS-5 Form: Its Origin and Genealogical Value

Kathy Petlewski, MSLS

 

SOCIEY FORUM

Redressing Redlining: Using Genealogy to Uplift Homeownership

Jennie Cole, MA, MLIS

 

GENTECH SOLUTIONS

David Rumsey Map Collection, Part I

Robert Raymond, MS

 

DNA DISCOVERY

Stronger Together: Correlating Multiple Forms of DNA Evidence

Paul Woodbury, MEd, AG

 

 

NGS Magazine is published quarterly to update members of the National Genealogical Society on NGS activities and to provide genealogists with special information and guidance on conducting effective genealogical research. The magazine is sent to libraries by subscription. Online access to NGS Magazine is available as long as membership is active. An index to the titles and authors of articles in issues from 2005 to 2025 is available.

Three Ways to Celebrate America 250

 

The 4th of July weekend is America’s yearly celebration of independence. This year, we have something else to celebrate, the semiquincentennial, 250 years of independence.

When you think about it, 250 years is really something to celebrate. There’s no doubt we are celebrating America’s story, but America’s story is also our family’s story. As family historians, this is a perfect occasion to consider how America250 relates to our family history.

Why not take this opportunity to write up a narrative of your family history? Whether it’s writing about your ancestors’ immigration stories, their experiences in the Revolutionary War, or even family celebrations in 1976 during the bicentennial, this 4th of July is a good time to get that information written and shared with family.

As you consider ways to celebrate America250, consider the following three ideas.

1.      Share Your Memories. Remember the bicentennial? Where were you in 1976? If you remember the bicentennial, now’s the time to share your memories and photos with your family. If you weren’t around in 1976, it’s a good time to ask your family about their memories of the celebration. Even if you don’t remember the bicentennial, there are collections online that can help you create writing prompts or interview questions to ask older family members. You can read more about bicentennial activities on websites such as The Story of the 1975-1976 American Freedom Train, American Archive of Public Broadcasting’s The Bicentennial Collection, and The Smithsonian’s 1976 Bicentennial of American Independence.

 

2.      Cook Up Some History. Hot dogs and hamburgers are standard fare on the 4th but consider this an opportunity to cook up some history for America250. Historical digitized cookbooks provide some ideas about things to cook. The first cookbook by an American for Americans was authored by Amelia Simmons and is titled American cookery, or The art of dressing viands, fish, poultry, and vegetables, and the best modes of making pastes, puffs, pies, tarts, puddings, custards, and preserves, and all kinds of cakes, from the imperial plum to plain cake… You can find a digitized copy at Michigan State University’s Feeding America collection . Other digitized historical American cookbooks can be found at Internet Archives’ Cookbooks and Home Economics digital collection.

 

3.      Family History is America’s Story. Even though the 4th of July will be over soon, don’t let that stop you from telling your uniquely American story. NGS has published a tool kit guide with resources to tell that story. Focusing on what genealogy societies and other organizations can do in 2026, this FREE PDF points to practical, easy ways to increase outreach, engage a wide range of people, and work with partners to grow the genealogy and family history community. It includes:

·         An introduction to America250,

·         Organizations for resources, information, and partnerships,

·         Tips and suggestions to support success,

·         Ideas for activities and events, and more.

Download this toolkit from the NGS website. NGS OrgConnects! on Outreach and Partnerships for America at 250 and Beyond provides more ideas.