Family Genealogy: A Sociological Imagination Reveals Intersectional Relations

Abstract

This article depicts everyday family genealogy as a vehicle for the sociological imagination that links personal biography to social–historical contexts across generations. As genealogists construct current from past identities, they engage a sociological imagination that potentially enables them to grasp how intersectionality – gender, race, ethnic, sexuality, nation, class, and age relations – is articulated through history. The key aims here are: (1) to provide background conditions behind the growth of genealogy; (2) to reveal how doing and studying family genealogy engages a sociological imagination that can be a vehicle for perceiving the intersectional underpinnings of social memories. Genealogy can be seen as a political practice where race‐class‐gender within social memories can contribute to diverse stories from new standpoints in American history.

Genealogical Relatedness: Geographies of Shared Descent and Difference

“…Genealogy ranges from personally meaningful but largely un-contentious projects to explore a family tree [31], to genealogical practices that are ways of making sense of deeply political contexts and recovering genealogical knowledge in response to historical violence [32,33]. Recent efforts to consider how genealogy can be used in progressive and critical ways offer important practical as well as conceptual tools for doing so [9,[15][16][17]. However, an appreciation of the progressive possibilities of genealogy does not mean that the problems of ideas of genealogical relatedness more broadly should be overlooked.…”

“…This understanding of genealogy as a practice that can be a critical tool in addressing questions power and inequality has become a notable analytical emphasis in recent work. Genealogy has been figured as constructive and even therapeutic means of addressing the nature and costs of the intersections of race, class, and gendered subordination [9,[12][13][14][15][16][17]. This starting point for much of this work is indeed a critical engagement with the ways in which genealogy and family history, including family history in the media especially television, can elide questions of power and inequality in the past and the present.…”

“…This starting point for much of this work is indeed a critical engagement with the ways in which genealogy and family history, including family history in the media especially television, can elide questions of power and inequality in the past and the present. Recent, efforts to address the potential of genealogy to be undertaken in ways that stimulate and inform a critical and progressive engagement with structures of power and privilege offer practical frameworks for harnessing personal interests in ancestry to address wider political questions of historical and contemporary inequality and injustice [9,[15][16][17].…”

Visualizing genealogy through a family-centric perspective

“…This is turn contributes to diverse stories from new standpoints in history. 9 In other words, where individuals and families form identities and cultures based on their genealogy, society also forms an identity based on the narratives and stories that we tell ourselves.…”

“…She suggests that individuals construct current identities based on genealogical research by looking at how their family’s past can be seen within “social memories.” This is turn contributes to diverse stories from new standpoints in history. 9…”