New book: Common People

Coolnabacky1873

Article on Guardian books about it.

Article title is "in defence of family history", which is addressed in first paragraph, but that is not the core of the article. I do remember a John Grenham Irish Times column where he was said he was verbally accosted by a historian.

Slowly but surely there are more and more books coming out about genealogy as a practice, industry, discipline, etc. There was a book last year that came out in the US, Family Trees: A History of Genealogy in America.

pinkypinky

Vg article. I think she is right: historians, especially in the academic sector, are still a bit sniffy about family history. But it's quite clearly here to stay, challenging in some cases the classically established history of books and victors. It would be great to see a full undergraduate or postgraduate course in an Irish university. I love my level 7 cert from UCD but I'd love to have a BA, MA or Phd specifically in family history.

Coolnabacky1873

Yeah, I wonder is there a feeling that their position as gatekeepers between history and the masses is under threat now that primary documents are available online; coupled with the idea that those without training in historiography, methodology, theory, etc., are publishing and writing based on their work in said primary sources.

One of the things I want to try and do is to start adding to the small body of genealogical theory that is starting to emerge. A recommend read is Ann Patterson Rodda's Trespassers in Time. There was an Irish Roots column about it. She focuses on microhistory as a theoretical framework.

Hermy

Coolnabacky1873 wrote: »

One of the things I want to try and do is to start adding to the small body of genealogical theory that is starting to emerge.

@Coolnabacky
I wonder could you elaborate on what you mean by genealogical theory?