A Request - studying why and how people do family history

[jennyblain]

Dear all,
I have a request... As some of you may know, I'm a social scientist. I'm attempting to do some work on how and why people do this ancestor quest - what it means to us, the attachment we have to it, how 'real' these ancestors are to us and what it tells us about ourselves and who we are.

My work is in anthropology and sociology, and in looking at this I'm doing what's called 'auto-ethnography' - that is I'm examining what I myself do. Obviously the search for my ancestors is important to me, and I've been doing it a long time. However I'd love to get some sense of what it means to others of us, and include some of this in the paper I'm writing just now. I'm be very interested in doing some interviews, either in person or through email or a virtual interface (not this forum though). I will send PMs to a few people, but if anybody's reading this and would be interested, could you drop me a PM and I'll respond?

(This isn't a 'survey' - I'm trying to get in-depth understanding from a few people, not a broad sweep representing many.)

All best,
Jenny

[Liz Turner]

Jenny

This sounds like an interesting study. Hope you did get some responders.

Liz