Journal Description
Genealogy
Genealogy
is an international, scholarly, peer-reviewed, open access journal devoted to the analysis of genealogical narratives (with applications for family, race/ethnic, gender, migration and science studies) and scholarship that uses genealogical theory and methodologies to examine historical processes. The journal is published quarterly online by MDPI.
- Open Access— free for readers, with article processing charges (APC) paid by authors or their institutions.
- High Visibility: indexed within Scopus, ESCI (Web of Science), and many other databases.
- Rapid Publication: manuscripts are peer-reviewed and a first decision is provided to authors approximately 24.9 days after submission; acceptance to publication is undertaken in 4.9 days (median values for papers published in this journal in the second half of 2023).
- Recognition of Reviewers: reviewers who provide timely, thorough peer-review reports receive vouchers entitling them to a discount on the APC of their next publication in any MDPI journal, in appreciation of the work done.
Impact Factor:
0.8 (2023)
Latest Articles
He Whiringa Wainuku: A Weaving of Māori Genealogies in Land, Water, and Memory
Genealogy 2024, 8(3), 80; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8030080 - 26 Jun 2024
Abstract
Māori conceptualisations of ancestral environs and its connections to memory often reside in the realm of whakapapa (genealogy) having originated from Papatūānuku and Ranginui (primordial ancestors and gods), their loving embrace, and their eventual separation that carved the space for nourishing lands and
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Māori conceptualisations of ancestral environs and its connections to memory often reside in the realm of whakapapa (genealogy) having originated from Papatūānuku and Ranginui (primordial ancestors and gods), their loving embrace, and their eventual separation that carved the space for nourishing lands and waters. These stories of whakapapa were passed down intergenerationally through many Māori creative expressions, including waiata (songs), haka (posture dance), pūrākau (stories), whakataukī (proverbial sayings), ruruku (sequence of incantations), and karakia (prayers). This has resulted in a genealogically and environmentally derived Māori music theory. The disruption of settler-colonialism aimed to sever whakapapa from the memory as being reflected in our ancestral environs and within the hearts of Māori. ‘He Whiringa Wainuku’ refers to the weaving of water elements on earth and sets the imagery for decolonising the interconnections of whakapapa, land, water, and memory through Kaupapa Māori methodologies and Māori creative expressions.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decolonial (and Anti-Colonial) Interventions to Genealogy)
Open AccessArticle
A ‘Usable Past’?: Irish Affiliation in CANZUS Settler States
by
Patrick Broman
Genealogy 2024, 8(3), 79; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8030079 - 26 Jun 2024
Abstract
In a 2023 article in this journal, Esther and Michael Fitzpatrick wrote that “complicated are those diaspora people who yearn to claim ‘Irishness’ in their places as something distinct from colonial settlers”. An Irish identity seems to offer something unique in these contexts,
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In a 2023 article in this journal, Esther and Michael Fitzpatrick wrote that “complicated are those diaspora people who yearn to claim ‘Irishness’ in their places as something distinct from colonial settlers”. An Irish identity seems to offer something unique in these contexts, having been embraced by Joe Biden, for example, as a keystone of his political identity. In this article, I utilise census data from the four primary Anglo-settler polities of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States to demonstrate the comparatively greater extent that Irish ethnic antecedents are remembered by local-born Whites. While acknowledging that drivers of ethnic affiliation are personal and multifaceted, and not directly discernible from answers on a questionnaire, I consider the nature of Irishness as a political identity in settler-colonial contexts.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Seeing Ethnicity Otherwise: From History, Classification and Terminology to Identities, Health and Mixedness in the Work of Peter J. Aspinall)
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Open AccessArticle
Genealogical Ethics in the United States and the Popularization of Genealogical Research in the Digital Age
by
Thomas Daniel Knight
Genealogy 2024, 8(3), 78; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8030078 - 24 Jun 2024
Abstract
This article examines genealogical ethics in the digital age. At a time when more resources for research are available digitally than ever previously, digital media also pose challenges for the large-scale dissemination of false or misleading information as well as the incautious presentation
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This article examines genealogical ethics in the digital age. At a time when more resources for research are available digitally than ever previously, digital media also pose challenges for the large-scale dissemination of false or misleading information as well as the incautious presentation of more careful research that then might be misconstrued by some. This article first reviews the literature about the development of academic genealogy and professional ethical standards. It then provides a series of case studies, each of which examines particular situations in which ethical questions have arisen about the presentation of research findings. This article argues for a greater need among lay researchers to pursue careful research and for a greater need among commercial genealogical databases to foster that. It also argues for the need, grounded in the ethical respect for human dignity, to recognize the individuality and to respect the dignity of the life stories of those whom we study and about whom we write, which should undergird the research process and the presentation of findings. In a concluding section, this essay presents several suggestions that could be used by commercial genealogical companies and researchers to promote more careful investigation and to improve the presentation of findings in commercial databases, online trees, genealogical websites, and other genealogical works that do not routinely undergo peer review.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ethics and Family History: Challenges, Dilemmas and Responsibilities)
Open AccessEditorial
Introduction to the Special Issue of Genealogy on Surnames
by
Richard Coates and Harry Parkin
Genealogy 2024, 8(2), 77; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020077 - 18 Jun 2024
Abstract
Giving personal names to individual children is a cultural universal [...]
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Family Names: Origins, History, Anthropology and Sociology)
Open AccessArticle
Negotiating Gender and Kinship within Multicultural Families in Non-Highly Urbanised Areas of South Korea
by
Johanna O. Zulueta
Genealogy 2024, 8(2), 76; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020076 - 14 Jun 2024
Abstract
This study examines the lives of marriage migrants, primarily coming from the Philippines to non-highly urbanised areas (i.e., “rural” areas) of South Korea. It looks at how these women negotiate gender norms and expectations in these multicultural families within the context of state-led
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This study examines the lives of marriage migrants, primarily coming from the Philippines to non-highly urbanised areas (i.e., “rural” areas) of South Korea. It looks at how these women negotiate gender norms and expectations in these multicultural families within the context of state-led multiculturalism. Semi-structured interviews with 20 Filipino marriage migrants were conducted from August to September 2023 in selected areas of Chungcheongnam-do (South Chungcheong Province) and Jeollabuk-do (North Jeolla Province). Based on the data gathered, it was found that these women have navigated gendered cultural expectations in the Korean household, thus reproducing gendered norms within the traditional Korean family and playing a significant role in keeping the family intact. However, there are also instances where these gendered expectations were subverted within these families. This study would like to interrogate whether these women are able to re-imagine a different kind of “womanhood” away from traditional family norms, thus challenging existing models of how marriage migrants are expected to perform in the context of what I call “performative multiculturalism” in ethnonationalist states such as South Korea and Japan.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges in Multicultural Marriages and Families)
Open AccessArticle
DNA Testing and Identities in Family History Research
by
Emma L. Shaw, Debra J. Donnelly, Gideon Boadu, Rachel Burke and Robert J. Parkes
Genealogy 2024, 8(2), 75; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020075 - 12 Jun 2024
Abstract
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
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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.
Full article
Open AccessArticle
Honoring Inágofli’e’ and Alofa: Developing a Culturally Grounded Health Promotion Model for Queer and Transgender Pacific Islanders
by
Santino Giovanni Camacho, Wilson Ta, Kilohana Haitsuka, Såhi Velasco, Roldy Aguero Ablao, Falefia Jr. Brandon Fuamatu, Eve Cruz, V. Kalei Kanuha and Michael Spencer
Genealogy 2024, 8(2), 74; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020074 - 10 Jun 2024
Abstract
(1) Background: Although culturally grounded health interventions (CGHI) have shown efficacy in improving Indigenous health, few CGHI for Queer and Transgender Pacific Islander (QTPI) communities exist to address their health promotion. This study explores QTPI experiences of health for cultural mechanisms to develop
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(1) Background: Although culturally grounded health interventions (CGHI) have shown efficacy in improving Indigenous health, few CGHI for Queer and Transgender Pacific Islander (QTPI) communities exist to address their health promotion. This study explores QTPI experiences of health for cultural mechanisms to develop CGHI for QTPI health promotion. (2) Methods: Using Indigenist community-engaged research methodologies, we collaborated with the United Territories of Pacific Islanders Alliance of Washington and Guma’ Gela’ to conduct 11 exploratory semi-structured interviews with QTPI community members living in the Puget Sound area of Washington state. These interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. (3) Results: QTPI well-being was greatly influenced by how settler colonialism impacted their connectedness to their families, communities, and cultures. We also found that inágofli’e’ and alofa, relational values in CHamoru and Sāmoan culture, played essential roles in facilitating QTPI health. Many participants fostered these values through chosen family, community care, and Indigenous mobilities. (4) Conclusions: Our findings indicate a need for CGHI that facilitate inágofli’e’ and alofa for QTPI to combat settler colonialism’s impacts on QTPI well-being. Finally, we present a community-centered conceptual model for culturally grounded health promotion in QTPI communities.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Health and Wellbeing of Indigenous Peoples)
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Open AccessArticle
A Hypothesis of Conspiracy to Re-Enchant the World
by
Sofia Scacco
Genealogy 2024, 8(2), 73; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020073 - 6 Jun 2024
Abstract
Many scholars have understood conspiracy theories as sense-making mechanisms. Among them, a particular strand further inspected them in parallel with religion and magic. This comparison bears the risk of framing conspiracy theories as irrational interpretations and anachronisms with respect to contemporary ways of
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Many scholars have understood conspiracy theories as sense-making mechanisms. Among them, a particular strand further inspected them in parallel with religion and magic. This comparison bears the risk of framing conspiracy theories as irrational interpretations and anachronisms with respect to contemporary ways of explaining reality. This contribution takes off from the reflections of those who have highlighted this risk. It tries to confront the possibility of using the concept of enchantment without implying a normative judgment on the irrationality of conspiracy theories. This paper carries out this effort by closely inspecting Max Weber’s texts. I argue that Weber’s notion of enchantment and disenchantment allows for a punctual use of both, devoid of normative implications. After setting out this non-normative notion of enchantment, this paper examines the characteristics of the enchanted worldview and its usefulness in reading conspiracy theories. Finally, this paper supports this effort using the identified characteristics to systematise a reading of conspiracy-based accounts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conspiracy Theories: Genealogies and Political Uses)
Open AccessArticle
Japanese Migration Patterns to Mexico: Settler Colonialism and Corporate Mobility
by
Alejandro Mendez Rodriguez
Genealogy 2024, 8(2), 72; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020072 - 6 Jun 2024
Abstract
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This article describes two distinct periods in the migratory flow of the Japanese to Mexico under the framework of settler colonialism. A historical review revealed that some agriculture colonies were formed by the Japanese in the south of Mexico with the goal to
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This article describes two distinct periods in the migratory flow of the Japanese to Mexico under the framework of settler colonialism. A historical review revealed that some agriculture colonies were formed by the Japanese in the south of Mexico with the goal to settle those lands. This was possible thanks to inter-governmental agreements in the early 1900s. Recently, the migration flow of the Japanese to Mexico is due to corporate mobility, mainly in the Bajío region in Mexico where many Japanese automakers are located. The implications of both types of immigration in both regions are described as part of this research. This research contributes to the understanding of migration flows and mobility patterns of the Japanese in Mexico.
Full article
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Open AccessReview
Critical Adoptee Standpoint: Transnational, Transracial Adoptees as Knowledge Producers
by
SunAh Marie Laybourn
Genealogy 2024, 8(2), 71; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020071 - 3 Jun 2024
Abstract
Drawing on Asian adoptee-authored research, this article conceptualizes a critical adoptee standpoint. It underscores the significance of adoptees as knowledge producers and offers new insights into family dynamics, racialization processes, and adoptee personhood. Through three conceptual themes derived from adoptee-authored research, it illuminates
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Drawing on Asian adoptee-authored research, this article conceptualizes a critical adoptee standpoint. It underscores the significance of adoptees as knowledge producers and offers new insights into family dynamics, racialization processes, and adoptee personhood. Through three conceptual themes derived from adoptee-authored research, it illuminates the intersectional power dynamics shaping adoptees’ lived experiences and challenges traditional adoption narratives. This approach repositions adoptees as agentic subjects who have cultivated a group consciousness that transcends traditional boundaries of belonging. While focused on Asian adoptees, the essay ultimately calls for broader recognition of adoptees’ contributions to adoption discourse and a more comprehensive understanding of a critical adoptee standpoint in both academic and advocacy settings and among the broader adoptee population.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Manifestation and Contestation of White Privilege in Multiracial Families)
Open AccessArticle
“Wartime” Ephemera from the Family Home in German and Austrian History Museums: A Counterexample to the British Case
by
Chloe Paver
Genealogy 2024, 8(2), 70; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020070 - 3 Jun 2024
Abstract
When discussing “wartime ephemera”, of the kind that has been passed down through families since the Second World War, Germany and Austria could be considered as a counterexample to Britain. In German and Austrian historical memory, “wartime” cannot be separated from pre-war Nazi
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When discussing “wartime ephemera”, of the kind that has been passed down through families since the Second World War, Germany and Austria could be considered as a counterexample to Britain. In German and Austrian historical memory, “wartime” cannot be separated from pre-war Nazi society (beginning in 1933 and 1938, respectively). Moreover, what we might loosely call the “Antiques Roadshow experience”—discussing family objects from the Second World War in a sympathetic public forum—has never been open to the majority of Germans and Austrians, who were rather inclined to hide and forget such objects in the family home. Even so, mundane Nazi-era objects survived in their millions and this essay discusses their display in German and Austrian history museums. There, they serve to illustrate a history of mentalities during and after the Nazi regime. Austrian museums are currently playing a proactive role in the transfer of objects from the private, family archive to public, cultural memory. This article considers how notions of “family” are constructed in museum discourse and asks how the millions of German and Austrian citizens and residents with no family connection to the Second World War can be included in a form of national family storytelling that arguably “re-ethnicizes” memory.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wartime Ephemera and the Transmission of Diverse Family and Community Histories)
Open AccessEssay
Time and Place for Counter-Storytelling as Liberatory Theory and Collective Healing Practice in Academia: A Case Example of a Black Feminist Psycho-Socio Cultural Scholar-Artivist
by
Alexis D. Jemal
Genealogy 2024, 8(2), 69; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020069 - 30 May 2024
Abstract
The institution of slavery engineered racialized gendered capitalism that locks Black women in multiple social identity-labeled boxes on the sociocultural and economic hierarchy. Acts of cultural invasion have produced controlling images and oppressive narratives to maintain the status quo of white male wealth
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The institution of slavery engineered racialized gendered capitalism that locks Black women in multiple social identity-labeled boxes on the sociocultural and economic hierarchy. Acts of cultural invasion have produced controlling images and oppressive narratives to maintain the status quo of white male wealth and power. Critical race theory scholars have offered counter-storytelling as a theorizing method to study the impact of intersectional oppression on Black women and to develop strategies for resistance and healing for those who are at the margins of society. This manuscript weaves the voices of Black feminists with a creative arts methodology to explore resistance and healing practice rooted in lived experience and provides a case example of counter-storytelling in a predominantly white academic space. For future directions, there is a need for guidelines on how to navigate the use of counter-storytelling to safely engage and protect the Black woman’s humanity and not be a tool for public displays of Black pain or for trauma voyeurism.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Liberating Gender and Race from Coloniality’s Prescriptive Normativity)
Open AccessArticle
Truth Commissions and Teacher Education in Australia and the Northern Nordics
by
Björn Norlin, Mati Keynes and Anna-Lill Drugge
Genealogy 2024, 8(2), 68; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020068 - 30 May 2024
Abstract
In Australia, like in several of the Nordic countries, truth commissions (TCs) are becoming part of the political and educational landscape. These developments are related to a global phenomenon over the past 40-odd years, where states are examining their relations to minority groups
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In Australia, like in several of the Nordic countries, truth commissions (TCs) are becoming part of the political and educational landscape. These developments are related to a global phenomenon over the past 40-odd years, where states are examining their relations to minority groups and/or Indigenous people, including acknowledging historical mistreatment and addressing remaining injustices. A common aim of these processes is to spread knowledge to the broader public via institutions for education. This paper focuses on ongoing TC processes in the Australian and Nordic contexts, with a specific focus on their potential consequences for teacher education (TE). By addressing barriers and possibilities on systemic, institutional, and practical levels of TE, the paper aims to develop an understanding of (1) how new knowledge produced through TCs meets the organization of teacher training; possible ways for TE to respond to new requirements; and (2) of the pedagogical and didactical challenges that might entail. The main argument is that a closer professional dialogue is needed between scholars engaged in TCs and TEs for TE to better respond to the requirements of TCs and for TCs to better recognize conditions for organizing TE.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Indigenous Issues in Education)
Open AccessArticle
Traces in the History of Swedish Transnational Adoption—A Diffractive Mapping through the Voices of Adoptees and Their Parents
by
Ingrid Bosseldal
Genealogy 2024, 8(2), 67; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020067 - 24 May 2024
Abstract
The initial Swedish discourse of transnational adoption as a win-win situation has changed over its more than 60-year-long history. This article aims to trace and present some themes in this history, with a particular focus on the public debate and the different narratives
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The initial Swedish discourse of transnational adoption as a win-win situation has changed over its more than 60-year-long history. This article aims to trace and present some themes in this history, with a particular focus on the public debate and the different narratives that representatives of the adoption triangle—the adoptees, the adoptive parents, and the biological parents—tell when dealing with transnational and transracial adoption as a personal and political phenomenon. The article draws from an ongoing study of discourses and narratives of transnational adoption based, above all, on journalism, memoirs, governmental documents, and previous research. It attempts to present the contradictory perspectives on transnational adoption to create a diffractive pattern. The diffractive analysis makes it possible to show how the investigated narratives and discourses on transnational adoption change in encounters with experiences made, and even more so, made visible and knowledgeable, in social practices.
Full article
Open AccessArticle
Sociopolitical Genealogy of Populist Conspiracy Theories in the Context of Hyperpolitics
by
Alessio Esposito
Genealogy 2024, 8(2), 66; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020066 - 23 May 2024
Abstract
The wide circulation of conspiracy narratives and their frequent intertwining with populist rhetoric is both an element of concern and a topic of intense scientific and philosophical debate. The depth of the link between conspiracy theories and populism represents a crucial issue whose
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The wide circulation of conspiracy narratives and their frequent intertwining with populist rhetoric is both an element of concern and a topic of intense scientific and philosophical debate. The depth of the link between conspiracy theories and populism represents a crucial issue whose comprehension can facilitate understanding their specific nature and the factors behind their diffusion in public communication. To this end, it is necessary to cultivate an interdisciplinary approach and great critical attention, eschewing monocausal explanations. This paper addresses the question of the essentially political nature of conspiracism, confronting the recent epistemological debate that, by putting the positivist paradigm aside, has sought to explore and understand the socio-cultural roots of conspiracy rhetoric, with its sceptical, antagonistic and hermetic traits. By integrating the reflections of epistemologists such as Cassam or Harris with the considerations of political scientists such as Taggart and with Schmitt’s radical reflections on politics, it is perhaps possible to reintegrate the different approaches to populist conspiracism into an overall social genealogical perspective, thanks also to recent demographic elaborations. Thus, we could ascribe the spread of conspiracism to the prevalence in societies of a hyperpolitical discursive regime, i.e., founded on the principle of opposition, without the possibility of compromise, between different groups and interests. At the basis of such Manichaeism, it is plausible to place in the first place the growing inequalities and related social disintegration, which hinder the circulation of trust and recognition between individuals and groups, thus ending up undermining democracy at its roots, as a political system that legitimises and thus peacefully regulates conflict.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conspiracy Theories: Genealogies and Political Uses)
Open AccessArticle
Mongolian Interethnic Marriage, Ethnic Relations, and National Integration in the PRC
by
William ronald Jankowiak
Genealogy 2024, 8(2), 65; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020065 - 20 May 2024
Abstract
Interethnic marriage amongst China’s ethnic population has not received the attention it deserves. This is partly due to the hesitation and resistance of the more prominent ethnic groups—Tibetans and Uyghurs—to enter an interethnic marriage. Still, it is less so for China’s Mongols, who
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Interethnic marriage amongst China’s ethnic population has not received the attention it deserves. This is partly due to the hesitation and resistance of the more prominent ethnic groups—Tibetans and Uyghurs—to enter an interethnic marriage. Still, it is less so for China’s Mongols, who now have an interethnic marriage rate of almost 90 percent. The intermarriage pattern had previously involved urbanities, but over the last twenty years, it has included those living in townships and villages, suggesting that the integration of Mongols within the People’s Republic’s mainstream society was gradual and arose from shared cultural beliefs and practices among Mongols and Han Chinese. It further indicates that marital issues will be like those in non-ethnic marriages. The paper explores prevailing attitudes toward interethnic marriages of the 1980s and the 2000s. The analysis highlights commonalities and shifts in marital expectations initially grounded in ethnic reaffirmation that is motived more out of personal commonality, commitment, and affection, suggesting that the offspring from these unions have hybridized or mixed ethnic identities, whereby urban Mongols entertain two identities—one ethnic and the other national.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges in Multicultural Marriages and Families)
Open AccessArticle
Making the Memory Book: War-Time Loss and Memorialization through Ephemera
by
Bruce Scates
Genealogy 2024, 8(2), 64; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020064 - 20 May 2024
Abstract
This article explores the way a family fashioned a memorial to a son ‘taken by the war’. It focuses on the Robert’s collection in Melbourne, Australia’s largest bound collection of war time ephemera, and the making of what was called ‘Frank’s Memory Book’.
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This article explores the way a family fashioned a memorial to a son ‘taken by the war’. It focuses on the Robert’s collection in Melbourne, Australia’s largest bound collection of war time ephemera, and the making of what was called ‘Frank’s Memory Book’. It argues that families asserted ownership over their dead, crafting different modes of memorialization to authorized modes of remembrance, considers the way communities of mourners were brought together and highlights tensions between private loss and public memory. The making of ephemera is examined at length as is the part material culture plays in libraries and archives.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wartime Ephemera and the Transmission of Diverse Family and Community Histories)
Open AccessArticle
Adoption in the Era of Secrecy: Practical and Ethical Challenges Facing Adult Adoptees in the Search for Birth Families
by
Patricia Robinson
Genealogy 2024, 8(2), 63; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020063 - 20 May 2024
Abstract
This article explores findings from research into the impact of adoption throughout the life course of adults who were adopted in the era of secrecy, the 1940s–1970s. A narrative approach was used to explore their reflections, and semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 11
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This article explores findings from research into the impact of adoption throughout the life course of adults who were adopted in the era of secrecy, the 1940s–1970s. A narrative approach was used to explore their reflections, and semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 11 adults. The findings were then analysed through the lens of the Life Course Perspective. Previous studies on adoption have largely explored the outcomes of searching for birth family members, but few have focused on how adoptees went about this, the challenges they encountered, the decisions made and what happened as they began to dismantle layers of secrecy surrounding their adoption. For most of the participants, resources such as genealogical websites and particular guidance were not available at the time they were searching for birth information or attempting to make contact with birth families. Their accounts highlighted how social workers with potential birth information did not appear to be able to consider the broader emotional impact this might entail for adoptees. Initial meetings were described by some adoptees as hurdles to be overcome, and little birth information was given. Some continued to search for birth relatives without support, using random methods to gain contact. The ways in which adults went about their search sometimes appeared to suggest a lack of consideration or awareness on their part of the possible impact on others involved. In reality, they were faced with obstacles and barriers as they attempted to learn about their origins. Their stories provide a valuable insight into how adult adoptees sought to dismantle layers of secrecy, highlighting the complex, challenging and isolated situation they found themselves in as they searched for birth information and birth families, as well as the ethical challenges and dilemmas they had to negotiate in order to do so.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ethics and Family History: Challenges, Dilemmas and Responsibilities)
Open AccessArticle
Waiting to Be Discovered? Community Partnerships, the Facilitation of Diverse Memory, and Reflections on Academic Success and Failure
by
Chris Kempshall, Catriona Pennell and Felicity Tattersall
Genealogy 2024, 8(2), 62; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020062 - 17 May 2024
Abstract
Community partnerships, based on ‘the collaborative turn’ in academic research, are an increasingly common framework through which ‘bottom-up’ histories, particularly of diverse and/or more marginalised communities, are being told. This article is about the ‘doing’ of this type of work. It focuses on
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Community partnerships, based on ‘the collaborative turn’ in academic research, are an increasingly common framework through which ‘bottom-up’ histories, particularly of diverse and/or more marginalised communities, are being told. This article is about the ‘doing’ of this type of work. It focuses on the question: what lessons can be made visible when attempted cooperation fails to deliver the outcomes initially hoped for? Firstly, this article outlines the events and activities undertaken by the authors in exploring the ways that ephemera and other objects can be used to understand and transmit the historical experiences of communities often on the periphery of mainstream war commemoration. It will discuss the ways in which connections with these communities were built, with the aim of undertaking several creative writing workshops, leading to a co-produced publication of the participants’ material. Secondly, as part of a broader acknowledgment of the possibility of failure and its benefits, it will explore why some of these creative workshop efforts failed to meet expectations and outline a series of recommendations for other historians and community-orientated projects to consider for future activities.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wartime Ephemera and the Transmission of Diverse Family and Community Histories)
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Open AccessArticle
Working Backwards, Moving Forwards: Ephemera and Diversity in Australian Stories of Indigenous Second World War Service
by
Rachel Caines
Genealogy 2024, 8(2), 61; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020061 - 16 May 2024
Abstract
Over recent decades, historians, communities, and museum professionals have worked to share and understand stories of Indigenous Australian military service. This article posits that ephemera from the Australian War Memorial’s National Collection offer a tangible way to engage with personal stories and enrich
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Over recent decades, historians, communities, and museum professionals have worked to share and understand stories of Indigenous Australian military service. This article posits that ephemera from the Australian War Memorial’s National Collection offer a tangible way to engage with personal stories and enrich the narrative(s) of Indigenous service in the Second World War. While many experiences were shared by the thousands of men and women who enlisted and served during the war, surviving ephemera and the related personal stories reveal the cultural, linguistic, and experiential diversity of the individuals who served. Using five case studies from the Australian War Memorial’s National Collection, this article explores the link between ephemera and stories of service and suggests that sharing these links with a wider audience can serve to broaden understandings of Indigenous service and sacrifice.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wartime Ephemera and the Transmission of Diverse Family and Community Histories)
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Contesting Power: Race, Ethnicity, and Self-Representations in Global Perspectives
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Genealogy
Mobilities and Precarities
Guest Editors: Rimple Mehta, Melissa PhillipsDeadline: 15 August 2024
Special Issue in
Genealogy
Expressions of Identities in African and African Diaspora Communities through Arts
Guest Editor: Zenenga PraiseDeadline: 31 August 2024