Family History Research as a Transformative Pedagogy

Abstract

Around the world, millions of individuals are driven by a variety of motives to discover and explore their ancestral pasts. For the vast majority, their family history research represents connections, remembrance, and an increase in knowledge—about themselves, their familial pasts, the acquisition of historical research skills, and a deeper knowledge of history itself. The subsequent impact of family history research on an individual is multifaceted and in many ways deeply transformative, changing the ways one might view and understand history, how it affects and is in turn affected by individual agency and family experience. This chapter discusses these transformations. The data are drawn from a survey in Australia of over 1,400 individuals, 11 interviews, and two case studies. The chapter explores family history research as a pedagogical practice and positions it as a manifestation of popular culture. The author explores the role of family history in the development of a historical imagination and provides an example of how family history research is a transformative pedagogy using one of the case studies developed for the study.