Family History Research Research Articles

Inheriting the family: emotions, identities and things

This introduction to the special issue ‘Inheriting the family: emotions, identities and things’ briefly explores how attention to different forms of inheritance as emotional practices offers new ways to understand ‘intergenerational emotion’. It explains the importance of new methodologies to interrogating this emotion and introduces a range of possibilities that are taken further by the contributors in the issue. These include analysis of emotional concepts, object-oriented investigations, particularly as parts of interviews and ethnographies, postmemorial creative practices and researcher self-reflexivity, notably in relation to family history research.

Mosaic Database: Consolidation, Innovation, and Challenges in the Comparative Family Demography of Historical Europe

Abstract This paper looks at the progress that the Mosaic database has enabled in the study of family structures in continental Europe in the past. Our main argument is that the combination of comprehensive archival research, digitization and computation, data mining, and open-access dissemination that is at the core of the Mosaic project is bringing about an important shift in the fundamental principles that have driven European family history research to date. These transformative features of Mosaic go beyond mere data infrastructural developments, as scaling up to much larger datasets leads to qualitative differences in measurements, methods, and questions. Integrating these perspectives can lead to an important incremental shift in both the scale and the scope of knowledge about historical European family systems.

DNA Testing and Identities in Family History Research

In the preceding decades, rapid technological advancements and increasing democratisation of historical records have been coupled with scientific data from DNA testing, which has revolutionised the family history industry. Going beyond the traditional archives and databases, DNA profiles present nuanced confirmations, puzzles, and contradictions generated through this biological lens. Family history researchers seek iterative engagements with their familial pasts and, in the process, amplify their contemporary identities. This specialised group of historians illuminates their families’ travels through the broader historical landscape, constructing micro-narratives using a broad range of investigative modalities. This article reports on the findings of a large international study (n = 1016) that investigated family history researchers’ motivations for undertaking DNA testing, their experiences, and its impact on their perceptions of individual, national, and global identities using Berzonsky’s socio-cultural model of identity construction (2003, 2011) as an analytic frame. Using a survey methodology, it was concluded that DNA testing can expand and disrupt long-held notions of identity and has the power to shift perceptions and understandings of the self while simultaneously providing a new era of opportunity to reconceptualise national and international affiliations. It suggests further investigative avenues to assess the potential of DNA testing, which may promote social cohesion, inclusiveness, and global citizenship.

Priests’ Influence on the Seasonality of Marriages and Births at the End of the XVIII–XIX Centuries in Staroshvedska (Gammalsvenskby) Colony

The article is dedicated to the seasonality of marriages and birth rates in the Old Swedish Colony, as well as the potential influence of a Lutheran pastor on these demographic processes. Hypotheses regarding the connection between marriage dates and the seasonality of firstborn births and the differences in marriage seasonality between the Old Swedish Colony and Josephstal colonies are examined. Metric books and family lists serve as the primary sources. Marriage dates and firstborn birth dates are compared based on data partially reconstructed through family history research methods. Due to the specificity of the sources (lack of surnames, matching names, age information, or its fragmentary nature), it was possible to link personal information regarding marriage records from metric books and family lists for only some couples. Marriage dates and firstborn birth dates were identified for only 63 cases. Spearman’s rank correlation was used to search for correlations, and a correlation between marriage months and the seasonality of firstborn births was found (Rs = 0.32, p = 0.01, n = 63). However, no differences in marriage seasonality between the Old Swedish Colony and Josephstal were detected. Still, differences in the seasonality of firstborn births and subsequent children were observed. In spring, the number of firstborn births was lower compared to later children. Some cases of premarital conception were also identified. Most marriages, both in the Old Swedish Colony and Josephstal, were recorded in September, contradicting the observations of Anton Karlgren (1905), who claimed that most marriages in the Old Swedish Colony occurred in November. Nearly half (48%) of the marriages were double weddings, where multiple couples got married on the same day (2–4 couples). However, the number of such weddings decreased starting from the 1850s. It is worth noting that there was no significant concentration of double weddings in any particular year. The high concentration of double weddings in the late 18th century is explained by compensatory marriage rates after the cholera epidemic. Nevertheless, double weddings in the 1830s‑1850s may have been influenced by the short periods when the pastor visited the colony for wedding ceremonies.The author concludes that pastors had the opportunity to influence the seasonality of firstborn births through the timing of their visits to the colony for marriage ceremonies. However, the most significant impact of pastors on demographic processes was seen in the increase in double weddings, which resulted from the necessity of marrying when the pastor was present in the colony.

The banal significance of family history research: Experiences and narratives from participants of Swedish non-formal family history courses

Is family history research always life-changing and sensational? Or is there something significant in the banal that the participants in this study reported? This study aims to explore the spectrum of experiences of family history research, focusing specifically on the banal. I argue that it is in examining the banal everyday motivations, experiences, and findings that a greater understanding of how the average individual negotiates and builds meaning through their use of cultural heritage, family history, and the past. The everyday banal is what is reproduced and remains after the effervescence fades away and the normal redundancy in traditional society continues. The banal withstands the sands of time and effectively (re)produces narratives and binary tropes of identity and the past. This study examines the narratives collected from semi-structured interviews with seven participants from two Swedish non-formal courses in family history research. These narratives are important as they reveal participants’ engagement with historical consciousness and the relationship between the past, present and future. Moreover, the stories they tell are significant in revealing that participants learn family history research for numerous reasons, including “something to do” alongside those who wish to have a deeper historical understanding. Family history research is a collective and collaborative activity despite the individualised nature of focusing on one’s ancestors. Participants’ research led to discoveries that were not always revolutionary, reinforcing, for example, banal traits seen in themselves and banal activities they carry out today. This study found that while the reasons for participation, the act of attending class, and participants’ research may not necessarily result in the extraordinary–thieves or kings–for these individuals participating in family history research, the banal reasoning and banal results are significant.

Amateur Family Genealogists Researching Their Family History: A Scoping Review of Motivations and Psychosocial Impacts

A rapidly rising number of people are engaging in family genealogical research and have purchased home-based DNA testing kits due to increased access to online resources and consumer products. The purpose of this systematic scoping review is to identify and elucidate the motivations (i.e., pathways, reasons for conducting family history research) and the consequences (i.e., psychosocial impacts) of participating in this activity by amateur (unpaid) family genealogists. Studies published from January 2000 to June 2023 were included in our review, using the PRISMA methodology outlined by the Joanna Briggs Institute’s (JBI) Reviewer Manual. A total of 1986 studies were identified using selected keywords and electronic databases. A full-text review was conducted of 73 studies, 26 of which met our eligibility criteria. The multiple dominant themes that emerged from the data analysis are organized into five categories: (1) the motivations for practicing family history research, (2) emotional responses to family secrets and previously unknown truths, (3) impacts on relationship with the family of origin and other relatives, (4) impacts on personal identity (including ethnic/racialized and family/social), and (5) identity exploration and reconstruction. Finally, these themes are connected to broader theoretical/conceptual linkages, and further, an agenda for future research inquiry is developed.

Tracing Jewish family history in a post-Holocaust world

ABSTRACT The growth in online platforms and documentary aggregator sites has revolutionised the process of Jewish family history research. This article records how the loss of EU citizenship rights following Britain’s departure from the European Union encouraged the author to investigate their own family history. Drawing upon the author’s findings, it describes how communal record books left on the shelves of town halls across Romania for over a century have been given new life thanks to the efforts of community archivists. This article chronicles their efforts to identify, preserve and digitise these documents which help to shed light on the history of the Jewish community of Dorna Watra, now Vatra Dornei, a small town in the former Austrian crownland of Bukovina. This article provides a detailed evaluation of the opportunities facing Jewish family researchers and the strengths and weaknesses of online aggregator sites such as Ancestry.Com and JewishGen.

Review of the monograph: Bonwetsch B. Mit und ohne Russland. Eine familiengeschichtliche Spurensuche. Essen: Klartext-Verlag, 2017. 168 S. ISBN 978-3-8375-1770-5 = Bonwetsch B. With and without Russia / translated from German by L. Bashkina. Moscow: Izdatel'stvo «IstLit», 2019, 240 p. ISBN 978-5-6042416-0-8

This review considers the last lifetime monograph of the famous German historian Bernd Bonwetsch (19402017) With and without Russia, dedicated to a multifaceted study of the history of his family and its kindred clans in the context of German-Russian relations of the XIXXX centuries. This research is marked by unique fragments on the history of a group of Russian Germans (the so-called imperial Germans) in the Middle Volga region and in the Samara region in particular. B. Bonwetsch's historical and memoir book, subtitled family history research, combines a number of chronological essays marked by interesting personalities and analytics of social, gender and confessional groups of Russian Germans and their ethnic subcultures. The research of Professor Bonwetsch, integral in its design, based on unique memoirs, summarizes the complexity and diversity of relations between Germany and Russia at the turning points of modern history.

Family History Research and Distressing Emotions

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the popular pastime of exploring one’s family history can unleash strong emotions, both positive and negative. The aim of this study was to chart the extent and nature of negative emotions among family historians, and profile those most vulnerable to distress. Data from an online survey of 775 adult Australian hobbyist family historians showed nearly two-thirds experienced strong distressing emotions such as anger, shock and sadness while researching their forebears. Triggers included discoveries which led to feelings of betrayal and distrust or posed moral dilemmas. Also distressing were findings about ancestors who behaved badly, were treated cruelly/unfairly, or who experienced tragedy. Family historians who reported strong negative emotions were more likely than those who did not to be younger, female, spend more time on their hobby, have half-siblings, driven by the motive for greater self-understanding, and score higher on the personality trait of openness to experience but lower on emotional stability. The study is important because it raises issues of (a) what support is available to family historians who find their discoveries strongly distressing and (b) whether purveyors of genealogical research products should provide more education and support to their clients.

Automation of Genealogical Records at the National Archives of Zimbabwe

The emergence of automated systems created tremendous opportunities for access promotion in archival institutions throughout the globe. Genealogical research at the National Archives of Zimbabwe (NAZ) has been boosted by technological access systems conveyed by the FamilySearch organisation. Public archivists in national archival institutions must adopt digital finding aids to facilitate effective and efficient retrieval mechanisms in this green revolution epoch. The transition from traditional retrieval tools, which include card catalogues, inventories and guides, to digital finding aids has provided greater opportunities for genealogists to search large databases for information. Genealogists or family historians are major users of the archival collection, and archival institutions should take advantage of best practices brought in by technology to create flawless access systems. The researcher used a qualitative case study methodology with an interpretivist perspective where the main focus of the research was on the head office of the NAZ in Harare. Interviews, document analysis and observations were used as the major data collecting tools. The results show the NAZ automated a few classes of genealogical records, including deceased estate records, and is yet to automate immigration, chieftainship and census returns records, which are also crucial in family history research. The study recommends the adoption of the best of both worlds, which involves automation and digitisation of all family history records to facilitate effective and efficient service delivery to genealogists.

Sugyvenimas ir meilė. Jokūbo Nagurskio šeimos pavyzdys

Concordance and Love. The Case of Jacob Nagórsky’s Family From the second half of the twentieth century, studies into family history in the Western historiography were particularly intensified. The biggest attention was paid to the structure and type of the household and the family, the distribution and prevalence of different types of households in different European regions, the functioning of the household, changes, strategies, and so on. On the other hand, numerous studies of this kind have been written that can be attributed to the psychoanalytic and emotional direction in family history research. The history of the family in the former Republic of the Two Nations has also already attracted the attention of its researchers. The article highlights the story of one provincial feudal family ( Jacob and Marianna Nagórsky) from the second half of the eighteenth century in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and attempts to trace its emotional climate. There is a quite large base of sources about it, such as personal letters, wills, economic letters, etc. Unfortunately, Jacob Nagórsky’s letters to his wife are missing, which makes it difficult to trace his emotional relationship with his spouse. The study is influenced by the English historian Lawrence Stone who wrote about the “rise of the nuclear family” in the eighteenth century, which gradually pushed out the “open lineage family”. The historian perceived this concept of the nuclear family as a social and psychological unit based on the emotional connection and closed kinship ties. Both spouses came from wealthy families and were educated. They married quite young, had at least six children, and this number was slightly higher than in typical aristocratic families of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The surviving correspondence of Jacob Nagórsky and other sources show his rather cold and unemotional attitude towards his wife, but he was constantly concerned about the well-being of his family. Meanwhile, Marianna’s surviving letters reflect more expressions of love. Children were the main binding tie of the family. They were given the mutual care and love of their parents. Both Nagórsky attended to the children’s daily well-being and education. Although much less often than her husband, Marianna engaged herself in the running of the estate; she was active in family concerns. The emotional ties between the spouses can already be attributed to the “nuclear family” model. Keywords: Jacob and Marianna Nagórsky, family, wife, husband, children, Kurtuvėnai.

Familial load of psychiatric disorders and overall functioning in patients newly diagnosed with bipolar disorder and their unaffected first-degree relatives

BackgroundOverall functioning is already impaired in patients newly diagnosed with bipolar disorder (BD) and, to a lesser degree, also in their unaffected first-degree relatives (UR). Further, aggregation of psychiatric disorders among the patients’ first-degree relatives seems to be associated with higher illness burden and poorer prognosis. However, whether this aggregation of psychiatric disorders among first-degree relatives, the familial load (FL), impacts overall functioning in patients newly diagnosed with BD and their UR remains unresolved.MethodsIn total, 388 patients newly diagnosed with BD, 144 of their UR and 201 healthy control individuals were included. Overall functioning was assessed using three different assessment methods: The interviewer based “Functioning Assessment Short Test” (FAST), the questionnaire “Work and Social Adjustment Scale” (WSAS) and six outcome measures covering the participants’ socio-economic status (SES); educational achievement, employment, work ability, relationship, cohabitation and marital status. Familial load of psychiatric disorder was assessed using the “Family History Research Diagnostic Criteria” interview. Associations between FL and overall functioning in patients and UR were investigated categorically using logistic and continuously in linear regression models.ResultsContrasting with the hypotheses, the FL of psychiatric disorders was not associated with impaired overall functioning, neither in patients newly diagnosed with BD nor in their UR.ConclusionThe findings indicate that impaired functioning in the early phase of BD is not associated with aggregation of psychiatric disorders among first-degree relatives. The observed functional impairment in patients newly diagnosed with BD seems driven by the personal impact of the disorder rather than the impact of having first-degree relatives with psychiatric disorders. Keywords: bipolar disorder, first-degree relatives, familial load of psychiatric disorders, functioning, socio-economic status.

The sources of information of the genealogical tourist: the influence of social networks and genealogical associations

The increased demand for genealogical travel to places of family origin in recent years and its consequent economic and social repercussions have justified the aim of this research to obtain the sources of information used by genealogical tourists to prepare for their trip, and the influence that genealogical associations and groups operating on the Internet have on them. For this purpose, a survey was carried out among 223 genealogy enthusiasts who participate in or consult these groups and associations. Through a descriptive statistical analysis of the data obtained, using frequencies and percentages for qualitative variables and means with standard deviations for quantitative variables, this work confirms the outstanding influence that social networks and genealogical associations and groups have on general family history research information, and on specific questions of tourist interest that genealogists receive, and the lesser influence of travel agencies and traditional media. On the other hand, their results support the idea that the main reasons for these tourists to travel are to visit places where their ancestors lived and to research their family history in public archives. All these issues have implications for public cultural and tourism administrations and private sector companies in promoting the provision of historical documentary resources and materials on the internet, as well as the activity of genealogical associations and groups.

Writing That Is Not Written: Clues, the Unconscious, the Indirect, and Traces; What Genealogy Can Learn from Microhistory

After reviewing recent genealogists’ writings that genealogy is a kind of microhistory, the article lists six characteristics of microhistory and argues that genealogy is not microhistory though the two share a focus on small scale groups or people.  However, genealogy may learn from microhistory’s use of clues in reading texts.  What is revealed by studying clues is a form of indirect evidence.  A comparison of the Freudian unconscious and its relevance to genealogy helps draw out the usefulness of clues in family history research.  The article wraps up with a brief overview of traces in genealogical research.

From Human Remains to Powerful Objects: Ancestor Research from a Deep-Time Perspective

Family history research has seen a surge in popularity in recent years; however, is this preoccupation with who we are and where we come from new? Archaeological evidence suggests that ancestors played crucial and ubiquitous roles in the identities and cosmologies of past societies. This paper will explore how, in the absence of genealogical websites and DNA testing, kinship structures and understandings of personhood beyond genealogy may have influenced concepts of ancestry. Case studies from later prehistoric Britain will demonstrate the ways in which monuments, objects and human remains themselves created bonds between the living and the dead, prompting us to reflect on genealogy as just one aspect of our identity in the present.

How Ancestor Research Affects Self-Understanding and Well-Being: Introduction to the Special Issue

The idea for this Special Issue of Genealogy came from my fascination not just with my own family history research, but through my involvement with groups of other passionate fellow family history researchers [...]

Improving Psychological Well-Being of Young Adults by Conducting Family History Research at a Religious University

Prior research suggests that knowledge of one’s family is correlated with, but does not produce, psychological well-being. We test this conjecture, by examining whether participating in family history research (i.e., genealogical research) is associated with psychological well-being above and beyond the effects of knowledge of one’s family, documented in prior research. To test this, we examine whether students enrolled in a university level family history course, improve in family identification, selfesteem, anxiety, resilience, and locus of control more than a control sample. For students enrolled in the family history course, we find an increase in family identification, which in turn leads to improvements in each of these areas of psychological wellbeing. Direct effects of being in the family history course show improvements in selfesteem of 8% and reductions in anxiety of 20%. In follow-up tests we examine which aspects of genealogical research are associated with measures of psychological wellbeing and find that researching genealogical records (e.g., examining census records) is associated with greater self-esteem and reduced anxiety but that posting memories about families and expanding one’s family tree do not have the same relation with measures of psychological well-being.

Land will tear us apart: family-farm division and real estate market in Slovenia (sixteenth to eighteenth centuries)

ABSTRACT The article addresses the question of family and farm in the eastern Alpine area in the pre-statistical period in the case of Slovenia. In particular, it questions the prevalence of the ‘Bauer-type’ family, in which the farm is indivisible, the male farm head has a pronounced autocratic power, while his siblings and other family members are relegated to a subordinate role. Since family and kinship history research in early modern rural Slovenia doesn’t offer sufficiently solid foundations, the division of farms is investigated as a signal of the absence of the ‘Bauer’ model and instead of the presence of a partible succession system. The figures on farm division in different areas in the long run are integrated by information on inheritance and dowry practices, taken from the literature and archival sources. Furthermore, by identifying the actors on the peasant land market, who were entitled to sell and purchase farms and plots, family and gender-related aspects of land-ownership rights are disclosed. The research combines scholarly literature with archive sources to present regional overviews and case studies, on which it reconstructs a wholly original and comprehensive insight into family, farm and land market in Slovenia. The resulting picture is more complex than the simple extension of the ‘Bauer’ family-type would suggest, somehow resembling the composite situation of Tyrol, and it reverses the existing interpretation in Slovenian literature. In fact, farm divisibility seems to prevail, although indivisibility was present. Partible succession was the rule, both in the case of divisible and indivisible farms. The prevailing customary law among peasants was partible inheritance, preferably to males, combined with a dowry system and the separation of property between spouses.

(Re)discovering the Familial Past and Its Impact on Historical Consciousness

Family history has become a significant contributor to public and social histories exploring and (re)discovering the micro narratives of the past. Due to the growing democratisation of digital access to documents and the proliferation of family history media platforms, family history is now challenging traditional custodianship of the past. Family history research has moved beyond the realms of archives, libraries and community-based history societies to occupy an important space in the public domain. This paper reports on some of the findings of a recent study into the historical thinking and research practices of Australian family historians. Using a case study methodology, it examines the proposition that researching family history has major impacts on historical understanding and consciousness using the analytic frameworks of Jorn Rüsen’s Disciplinary Matrix and his Typology of Historical Consciousness. This research not only proposes these major impacts but argues that some family historians are shifting the historical landscape through the dissemination of their research for public consumption beyond traditional family history audiences.

Historical thinking and family historians: Renovating the house of history

Family history research, as a multi-billion-dollar industry, is one of the most popular pastimes in the world with millions of enthusiasts worldwide. Anecdotally regarded by some in the academy as being non-traditional, family historians are changing the historiographic landscape through the proliferation and dissemination of their familial narratives across multiple media platforms. Learning to master the necessary research methodologies to undertake historical work is a pedagogic practice, but for many family historians this occurs on the fringe of formal education settings in an act of public pedagogy. As large producers of the past, there have been many important studies into the research practices of family historians, where family historians have been shown to draw upon the research methodologies of professional historians. Paradoxically, little attention has been paid to how these large producers of historical knowledge think historically. This paper reports on interview findings from a recent Australian study into the historical thinking of family historians. Drawing on Peter Seixas’ (2011) historical thinking concepts as a heuristic lens, this research finds that some family historians, despite being largely untrained in historical research methodologies (Shaw, 2018), display the theoretical nuances of the history discipline in (re)constructing and disseminating their familial pasts.