International Federation for Public History Plenary Address: On Genealogy

This article argues for the importance of genealogy and family history to contemporary understanding and experience of the past. Through looking at various ways that genealogy might be undertaken and imagined, the article argues that this important area needs to be further conceptualized and studied by public historians. The article looks at the implications inherent in the broad shift to global online genealogy and family history. The argument is interrogative and assertive in order to provoke debate amongst public historians about how we might investigate, theorize, and interrogate genealogy and family history further in the future.