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Kinship, affinity and connectedness : exploring the role of genealogy in personal lives

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Kramer, Anne-Marie Caroline. (2011) Kinship, affinity and connectedness : exploring the role of genealogy in personal lives. Sociology, Vol.45 (No.3). pp. 379-395. ISSN 0038-0385

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038511399622

Abstract

Drawing on the 2008 Mass Observation Directive 'Doing Family Research', this article explores the role of genealogy in personal lives from the perspective of genealogists and non-genealogists in the UK. Analysing the ends to which genealogy is put, it finds that genealogy is a key kinship practice, mapping connectedness, offering a resource for identity-work, and allowing belonging in time. Engaging with anthropological work on kinship, relatedness and remembrance and with recent sociological work on identity and affinity, this article explores how family history as a creative and imaginative memory and kinship practice is simultaneously used to map affinities and connectedness, enact relatedness, and produce self-identity. It argues that examining the role of genealogy and the genealogical imaginary reveals that conventional as well as non-conventional kinship produces partial and insecure identities. This compels everyday personal engagement with the meaning and legacy of inheritance for collective and individual identification and identity.

Item Type:

Journal Article

Subjects:

C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CS Genealogy
H Social Sciences > HM Sociology

Divisions:

Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):

Belonging (Social psychology), Genealogy, Kinship, Group identity, Identity (Psychology)

Journal or Publication Title:

Sociology

Publisher:

Sage Publications Ltd.

ISSN:

0038-0385

Official Date:

June 2011

Dates:

Date	Event
June 2011	Published

Volume:

Vol.45

Number:

No.3

Page Range:

pp. 379-395

Identification Number:

10.1177/0038038511399622

Status:

Peer Reviewed

Publication Status:

Published

Access rights to Published version:

Restricted or Subscription Access

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