Family History, Historical Consciousness and Citizenship: A New Social History

233 Pages·2022·4.708 MB·English

by  Tanya Evans

Family History, Historical
Consciousness and Citizenship
New Directions in Social and Cultural History
Series Editors: Sasha Handley (University of Manchester, UK), Rohan
McWilliam (Anglia Ruskin University, UK) and Lucy Noakes
(University of Brighton, UK)
Editorial Board:
Robert Aldrich, University of Sydney, Australia
James W. Cook, University of Michigan, USA
John H. Arnold, University of Cambridge, UK
Alison Rowlands, University of Essex, UK
Penny Summerfield, University of Manchester, UK
Mrinalini Sinha, University of Michigan, USA
The New Directions in Social and Cultural History series brings together the
leading research in social and cultural history, one of the most exciting and
current areas for history teaching and research, contributing innovative new
perspectives to a range of historical events and issues. Books in the series engage
with developments in the field since the post-cultural turn, showing how new
theoretical approaches have impacted on research within both history and other
related disciplines. Each volume will cover both theoretical and methodological
developments on the particular topic, as well as combine this with an analysis of
primary source materials.
Published:
Art, Propaganda and Aerial Warfare in Britain during the Second World War,
Rebecca Searle (2020)
Family History, Historical Consciousness and Citizenship: A New Social History,
Tanya Evans (2022)
New Directions in Social and Cultural History, ed. Sasha Handley,
Rohan McWilliam and Lucy Noakes (2018)
Welfare State Generation: Women, Agency and Class in Britain since 1945,
Eve Worth (2022)
Forthcoming:
British Humour and the Second World War: ‘Keep Smiling Through’,
edited by Juliette Pattinson and Lindsey Robb
Capital Labour in Victorian England: Manufacturing Consensus, Donna Loftus
Captive Fathers, Captive Children: Legacies of the War in the Far East,
Terry Smyth
Intersectional Encounters in the Nineteenth Century Archive: Power and
Discourse, edited by Rachel Bryant-Davies and Erin Johnson-Williams
Family History, Historical
Consciousness and Citizenship
A New Social History
Tanya Evans
9781350212060_txt_print.indd 3 16/11/2021 18:40:10
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK
1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA
29 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, Ireland
BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo
are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in Great Britain 2022
Copyright © Tanya Evans, 2022
Tanya Evans has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on pp. viii–x constitute
an extension of this copyright page.
Cover image: Tanya Evans ‘Family Business’ © State Library of NSW. Photo by Joy Lai
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system,
without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for,
any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given
in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher
regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have
ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Evans, Tanya, 1972- author.
Title: Family history, historical consciousness and citizenship : a new
social history / Tanya Evans.
Description: London ; New York, NY : Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. |
Series: New directions in social and cultural history |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021038575 (print) | LCCN 2021038576 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781350212060 (hardback) | ISBN 9781350212114 (pdf) |
ISBN 9781350212107 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Genealogy. | Australia–Genealogy. |
Great Britain–Genealogy. | Canada–Genealogy.
Classification: LCC CS9 .E93 2022 (print) | LCC CS9 (ebook) | DDC 929.1–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021038575
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021038576
ISBN: HB: 978-1-3502-1206-0
ePDF: 978-1-3502-1211-4
eBook: 978-1-3502-1210-7
Series: New Directions in Social and Cultural History
Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.
To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com
and sign up for our newsletters.
Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction: The origins and practice of family history in Australia,
Britain and Canada 1
1 ‘Giving Little People a Voice’: Family historians, the ‘new social
history’ and public history 25
2 ‘She told me I had destroyed her memories’: How family historians
work with memory 41
3 It ‘makes me come alive’: The emotional impact of family history 59
4 ‘Random acts of genealogical kindness’: How family historians
share their knowledge and break down national boundaries 79
5 ‘I’m much more empathetic now’: Family history, historical
thinking and the construction of empathy 101
6 ‘I don’t want my life to mean nothing’: The future of family
history 119
Epilogue 147
Appendix – Survey and Interview Questions 154
Notes 156
Bibliography 194
Index 213
Illustrations
1a Picture of collaborative workshops with family historians in
Manchester in September 2017 © Tanya Evans and
Jerome de Groot 5
1b Picture of collaborative workshops with family historians in
Manchester in September 2017 © Tanya Evans and
Jerome de Groot 5
1c Picture of collaborative workshops with family historians in
Manchester in September 2017 © Tanya Evans and
Jerome de Groot 6
1d Picture of collaborative workshops with family historians in
Manchester in September 2017 © Tanya Evans and
Jerome de Groot 6
2 Picture of collaborative workshops with family historians in State
Library of New South Wales, Sydney, July 2018 © Tanya Evans
and Jerome de Groot 7
3a Collaborative workshop with family historians in Orange City
Library, Regional New South Wales, August 2019 (credit and
copyright Tanya Evans and History Council of NSW) 8
3b Collaborative workshop with family historians in Orange City
Library, Regional New South Wales, August 2019 (credit and
copyright Tanya Evans and History Council of NSW) 9
3c Collaborative workshop with family historians in Orange City
Library, Regional New South Wales, August 2019 (credit and
copyright Tanya Evans and History Council of NSW) 9
4 Maria Linders and I in the Friends Room of the State Library
of New South Wales (credit Joy Lai) 50
5a Image of Australian Lebanese Historical Society collaborative
workshop, History House, Sydney, January 2019
© Tanya Evans 106
5b Image of Australian Lebanese Historical Society collaborative
workshop, History House, Sydney, January 2019
© Tanya Evans 106
Illustrations vii
6 Image of Australian Lebanese Historical Society collaborative
workshop, History House, Sydney, January 2019
© Tanya Evans 107
7a Richard Reid, family archive © Richard Reid 129
7b Richard Reid, family archive © Richard Reid 129
8 Anne Coote’s postcard (credit Anne Coote) 130
9 The reverse of Anne Coote’s postcard (credit Anne Coote) 130
10 Greer Gamble’s Family Bibles © Greer Gamble 132
11 Orphan Family Bibles © Tanya Evans (credit Society of Australian
Genealogists) 133
12 Family Historians at a Cemetery (credit Society of Australian
Genealogists) 134
13a Doreen Leamey’s Bible © Doreen Leamey 135
13b Doreen Leamey’s Bible © Doreen Leamey 136
14 Doreen Leamey on a cruise (credit Doreen Leamey) 137
15 Gemma Beswick with her great-great grandmother’s cookbook
© Tanya Evans 141
Acknowledgements
I want to begin by thanking the many wonderful family historians who
dedicated their time to answering my questions in their surveys, interviews
and focus groups in Australia, Britain and Canada. I loved communicating
with you all. I have learned so much about the meanings of history in your lives
and what historians might do with that knowledge. You are an inspiration. I
hope thousands of others can learn from your brilliant example and that your
contributions encourage many more researchers to take up your passion. Long
may our conversations continue.
Macquarie University funded the research upon which this book is based
with two Outside Studies Program grants that relieved me from two semesters of
teaching, one in late 2016 and one in late 2020 – I used one semester to travel and
research and one to write this book. The Australian government’s financial cuts
to universities in 2020 and 2021 mean that my colleagues cannot reap the same
benefits as I, and that makes me both sad and incredibly angry. I was fortunate to
be awarded an Australian Research Council Linkage grant in 2020 which protects
my capacity to research as well as to teach over the next few years, but I hope that
this book demonstrates what can be done when you get a few months off from
teaching to research and write. I also hope that this work reveals the fruitfulness
of undertaking international travel and global collaboration with fellow public
historians. I miss those days. Our international research collaborations will be
sorely impacted by Covid and continued funding cuts.
On that note I want to thank the colleagues who hosted me on my many
family history-related travels over the past few years starting in London in 2016.
My hosts and collaborators include Nicola Phillips at Royal Holloway, in Leeds
Laura King and in Bristol Josie McLellan. In Ottawa, Canada, thanks to David
Dean for hosting me at the Centre of Public History at Carleton University.
I am also enormously grateful to my International Federation of Public History
colleagues Thomas Cauvin, David Dean and others for enriching my work in
public history over the last five years.
This book has benefited enormously from my engagement with a number
of international research networks including my lovely #HistoriansCollaborate
friends including Laura King, Mike Esbester, Nick Barratt, Natalie Pithers,
Acknowledgements ix
Mary Stewart and Julia Laite. I have also benefited from many conversations
about family history and the history of the family with my colleagues in the
#InheritingtheFamily network Katie Barclay, Ashley Barnwell, Laura King and
Joanne Begiato.
Thanks are also due to the numerous family history societies who allowed
me to talk about my research with members including the Society of Australian
Genealogists, Botany Bay Family History Society, the Lake Macquarie Family
History Society, Parramatta Family History Society, Orange City Council and
Library. Thanks to Heather Garnsey, Ruth Graham and Martyn Killion who
have long facilitated my research. Ruth Graham read and provided many helpful
comments on a draft of Chapter 4. The city and regional library networks have
also been supportive, especially the State Library of NSW who gave me a non-
Stipendiary Research Fellowship to work on the project in 2017, thanks to Rachel
Franks and Richard Neville for their support. The library remains a haven for
Sydney-based researchers.
I am also grateful to readers and audiences of various draft papers and
chapters including my Macquarie University colleagues over the years – Paul
Ashton, Paula Hamilton, Michelle Arrow, Clare Monagle, Robert Reynolds,
Sean Brawley, Chris Dixon, Mark Hearn, Alison Holland, Nic Baker, Keith
Rathbone, Penny van Bergen, Malcolm Choat, Rachel Yuen Colleridge, Margaret
Sampson, Leigh Boucher and Kate Fullagar. Thanks also to my Canberra-based
ANU collaborators on family history, including Melanie Nolan, Stephen Foster,
Malcolm Allbrook and Sophie Scott-Brown (who is now back in Britain). For
help with Chapter 1 I need to thank Frank Bongiorno for his assistance piecing
together the trajectory of social history in Australia as well as James Opp and Del
Muise for their help with the same topic in Canada.
I have benefited enormously from my collaborations with Jerome de
Groot and his research assistant Matthew Stallard. Jerome and I have worked
together on family history since 2016 and he has been such a supportive friend
and colleague since then. His scholarship is exemplary, and he is a marvellous
academic citizen.
Thanks to the lovely team at Bloomsbury, especially Abigail Lane and
the Series Editors, particularly Sasha Handley, for their guidance, words of
encouragement and support.
My former PhD student Marian Lorrison read the entire draft of the book
closely and helped me with my writing. My wonderful kind, compassionate,
conscientious partner Noah Bassil also read the entire draft and has talked
about the project with me since it began. I would be lost without your guidance,