" - ‘Pandora’s box’ of damaging ‘secrets and skeletons’ - "

[Finley 1]

Your local Uni ---!?!?!? maybe   

xin

[Tephra]

I must inquire if they do the same in depth and fascinating studies ..........     

[alpinecottage]

Bearing in mind this report is from the Metro and looking at the calibre of the other articles in the same paper and remembering that one should never believe what one reads in the news..........and I'm left wondering what the researchers were actually looking at and what their report really said 

[Tephra]

I'm shocked......... ........ shocked and stunned.... ...... does that mean there would be no jobs in the research field??                 

[Finley 1]

Maybe I shouldn't say this............ But one of my Rellies is a 'Proffff' at Warwick uni ..  ( hides under the table quickly)

xin

[Gadget]

Bearing in mind this report is from the Metro and looking at the calibre of the other articles in the same paper and remembering that one should never believe what one reads in the news..........and I'm left wondering what the researchers were actually looking at and what their report really said 

Entirely agree about Metro - kind of dumbed down 'Sun'! 

A couple of links for you to give some balance ~

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00scxbv

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/staff/academicstaff/amkramer/home/


Gadget

[alpinecottage]

Thank you for those links, Gadget.  Reading the abstracts from the talk presenters certainly casts a very different light on the seminar (compared to the "information" in the Metro).  It sounds to have been a most interesting symposium and great value at £20 - shame it all happened last May!

We all have stories of who we think we are and exploring our family history often challenges these beliefs.  For me, I have gained a massive and entirely unexpected insight into the lives and experiences of "foreigners" and their opposing efforts to assimilate and to maintain their language and customs.  That's a lesson for today and one of the themes the symposium explored, but the Metro didn't say "be kind to your immigrant neighbours because your family may have been in that position too"....hmmm, I wonder why?...not what their readership wants to hear, maybe?

[Tricia_2]

The Metro is just a free paper ~ nothing sinister ~ but the item actually struck a chord with me.

The part I mentioned probably refers to the quote on that other page ~ that this study of genealogy / family history 'aims to ......... tease out some of its potentially dangerous consequences.'
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/staff/academicstaff/amkramer/home/

And I certainly know people who wouldn't touch their family tree ~ out of concern for what they might find and because of how their relatives might react.

The article did remind me of some of my own qualms. It does bother me that some matters that were kept secret, by deceased relatives, because they found them so upsetting, have now been made freely available, by me, to others. Some of my loved-ones would be really upset and disappointed in me ~ they would feel that I had let them down, if they knew.

I have a distant relative, who has not made some things generally known, and who has asked me to do likewise, out of respect for their deceased relatives

I have mostly met with positivity from relatives ~ just a tiny few have been unpleasant ~ but I do feel a little bit guilty that some aspects of my hobby could cause hurt to my loved-ones, if they were alive to see what I had found out and made known on my family tree.

Does anyone else share these feelings?

[Tricia_2]

I just listened to the programme that Gadget linked to ~ very interesting. Did you listen?

Some of the points made by Anne-Marie Kramer and the other interviewee:

1 in 7 researchers consulted said that their family history research had resulted in conflict

Possible reasons:
~ Exposes ancestors' negative hidden pasts ~ low social class, illegitimacy, criminality, etc.
~ Destroys loved family myths, exposing the fantasy
~ May cause disruption to the family and
~ Makes living relatives feel neglected because deceased relatives are being sought out.

But there were positive results, too:

~ Posthumously rehabilitates relatives.
~ Repairs rifts
~ Shows respect and appreciation by remembering past family members.
~ Democratises history

Edited because of typo - sorry