The role played by unexpected kinship in identity and memories

The project centers on Swedish genealogy – what happens when genealogists come across unexpected origins in a line of descent, and how this impacts identity creation and cultural memory.

Thanks to its long tradition of public records, Sweden is one of the best countries in the world in which to trace ancestry. Since the 1960s genealogy has become both popularized and “democratized”, and since the 1990s and 2000s new online and DNA technologies have further improved accessibility and fueled growing interest.

In the wake of these trends, the genealogy movement – a kind of grass roots producer of cultural memories – has become one of the most important arenas in Sweden for the creation and negotiation of cultural identities.

The researchers in the project, comprising a group of ethnologists, historians and archivists, will be analyzing contemporary Swedish genealogy, focusing particularly on what happens when genealogists come upon something that confounds their expectations. Examples might be previously unknown ancestors or indications of ethnic origins or occupations different from those anticipated. 

Unexpected discoveries can completely reshape how identities are created, and previously stigmatized or “forgotten” ancestry may be reevaluated in the light of contemporary norms. The researchers will be conducting a rigorous analysis of material and in-depth interviews, a questionnaire in collaboration with Nordiska museet, as well as studies of social media and publications within the genealogy movement. This will enable them to examine how contemporary genealogy creates and recreates origins and ancestry, and how this contributes to identity creation and cultural memory. 

The three researchers will each be focusing on different aspects. One study examines gender relationships; one focuses on ethnicity; the third examines class and occupational identity. The researchers are innovatively combining genealogical ethnography with critical cultural heritage and memory studies to renew research debates on the topics of ancestry, memory and identity.