Paper short abstract:

Transatlantic migration taken from the anthropological perspective enhances to explore politics of how ‘Europeanist’ identities are handled. The case of ‘newly discovered’ belonging to the descendants of the ancestors of ‘New-Europeans’ in Texas is in focus. Our aim is to answer how the 'reclaim' of heritage, by using of genealogy and history, and also how family re-union networks of mutuality are practiced.

Paper long abstract:

Transnational migration is one of the most relevant themes in 'Europeanist' research today, which might be applied for the exploration of multiple 'Europeanist themes' in politics of identity in the non-European world. Transatlantic migration taken from the anthropological perspective enhances us to explore politics and practices of how 'Europeanist' identities are handled. The case of 'newly discovered' belonging to the descendants of the ancestors of 'New-Europeans' in North America, could be one of it.

The interest in local and family histories and cultural heritages in the nowadays USA refresh and re-frame cultural identity processes and even evoke local politics of identity. Especially after the fall of the Berlin wall and Singing Revolution in the Baltic States such identity processes are enhanced by the reclaim of the 'overlooked for generations' cultures and histories, and do provoke identity politics focused on the New European heritages in local areas of the US.

It is in particular true in East Texas, where since early 1990s a group of descendants of early Lithuanian immigrants created network of 'searching for the roots and ancestry'.

Their activities are in the focus of this, based on fieldwork in 2002-4, presentation, which aims to answer the question of how do they 'reclaim' their socio-cultural background by using genealogical and historical frameworks, and how they build mutuality based on family re-unions' networks.