Unexpected Genealogies? Genealogical Research, Identity, Memory and Kinship in Sweden

With its long history of keeping census records, Sweden is one of the most favourable countries in which to conduct genealogical research. Since the 1960s, it has become both popularised and ‘democratised’, and since the 1990s and 2000s new online- and DNA-technologies have further increased availability and interest. As a result, the genealogical movement – here understood as ‘grassroots producers’ of cultural memory – today constitutes one of the most central arenas in which popular cultural identities are constructed and negotiated.

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. The study conducted at Mid Sweden University (Samuel Edquist) focuses on national and/or ethnic identification, while the two studies at Södertörn University (Jenny Gunnarsson Payne and Emma Pihl Skoog) examine gender relationships, 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.