Family history is one of the most widely practiced forms of public
history around the globe, especially in settler migrant nations like
Australia and Canada. It empowers millions of researchers, linking the
past to the present in powerful ways, transforming individuals'
understandings of themselves and the world. This book examines the
practice, meanings and impact of undertaking family history research for
individuals and society more broadly.
In this ground-breaking new book, Tanya Evans shows how family history
fosters inter-generational and cross-cultural, religious and ethnic
knowledge, how it shapes historical empathy and consciousness and
combats social exclusion, producing active citizens. Evans draws on her
extensive research on family history, including survey data, oral
history interviews and focus groups undertaken with family historians in
Australia, England and Canada collected since 2016.
Family History, Historical Consciousness and Citizenship reveals that
family historians collect and analyse varied historical sources,
including oral testimony, archival documents, pictures and objects of
material culture. This book reveals how people are thinking historically
outside academia, what historical skills they are using to produce
historical knowledge, what knowledge is being produced and what impact
that can have on them, their communities and scholars.
The result is a necessary revival of the current perceptions of family
history.
