Telling Multi-Dimensional Family Histories: Making the Past Meaningful
Family history is both extremely popular and pervasive in British culture. Part of its attraction is its capacity to reclaim attention for the formerly ‘unseen’, to make space for the ‘intangible’, the dead, the deliberately forgotten, the misplaced and the over-looked. In so doing, family history c...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2011-10-01
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| Series: | Methodological Innovations |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.4256/mio.2011.003 |
| _version_ | 1818280284442853376 |
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| author | Anne-Marie Kramer |
| author_facet | Anne-Marie Kramer |
| author_sort | Anne-Marie Kramer |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Family history is both extremely popular and pervasive in British culture. Part of its attraction is its capacity to reclaim attention for the formerly ‘unseen’, to make space for the ‘intangible’, the dead, the deliberately forgotten, the misplaced and the over-looked. In so doing, family history centres the imagination, memory, feelings and the role of story-telling. Drawing on original data from my recent research project, The Cultural Status of Genealogical Research , in this article I will explore how I have used integrated mixed qualitative methods to try and capture some of this complexity and depth in personal, family, and social lives, or what we might also call the multi-dimensionality of personal lives (Mason, 2006). I explain how and why I designed my research from the outset to use integrated methods, and what consequences this has had for the project. Discussing my methodological strategies, I suggest that social researchers need to do more to develop methodologies which adequately capture embeddedness in time and in history, and that that we might learn methodological strategies from genealogists, given their expertise in the intangible and barely visible yet compelling aspects of social life. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T23:46:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1929118acadd466ba08adfd61d9906f5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2059-7991 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T23:46:47Z |
| publishDate | 2011-10-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Methodological Innovations |
| spelling | doaj.art-1929118acadd466ba08adfd61d9906f52022-12-22T00:06:48ZengSAGE PublishingMethodological Innovations2059-79912011-10-01610.4256/mio.2011.003Telling Multi-Dimensional Family Histories: Making the Past MeaningfulAnne-Marie KramerFamily history is both extremely popular and pervasive in British culture. Part of its attraction is its capacity to reclaim attention for the formerly ‘unseen’, to make space for the ‘intangible’, the dead, the deliberately forgotten, the misplaced and the over-looked. In so doing, family history centres the imagination, memory, feelings and the role of story-telling. Drawing on original data from my recent research project, The Cultural Status of Genealogical Research , in this article I will explore how I have used integrated mixed qualitative methods to try and capture some of this complexity and depth in personal, family, and social lives, or what we might also call the multi-dimensionality of personal lives (Mason, 2006). I explain how and why I designed my research from the outset to use integrated methods, and what consequences this has had for the project. Discussing my methodological strategies, I suggest that social researchers need to do more to develop methodologies which adequately capture embeddedness in time and in history, and that that we might learn methodological strategies from genealogists, given their expertise in the intangible and barely visible yet compelling aspects of social life.https://doi.org/10.4256/mio.2011.003 |
| spellingShingle | Anne-Marie Kramer Telling Multi-Dimensional Family Histories: Making the Past Meaningful Methodological Innovations |
| title | Telling Multi-Dimensional Family Histories: Making the Past Meaningful |
| title_full | Telling Multi-Dimensional Family Histories: Making the Past Meaningful |
| title_fullStr | Telling Multi-Dimensional Family Histories: Making the Past Meaningful |
| title_full_unstemmed | Telling Multi-Dimensional Family Histories: Making the Past Meaningful |
| title_short | Telling Multi-Dimensional Family Histories: Making the Past Meaningful |
| title_sort | telling multi dimensional family histories making the past meaningful |
| url | https://doi.org/10.4256/mio.2011.003 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT annemariekramer tellingmultidimensionalfamilyhistoriesmakingthepastmeaningful |