Släktskapande - en etnologisk studie av släktforskning som historiebruk och identitetsmarkör

Sammanfattning: Genealogy is a rapidly growing and popular hobby in Sweden and all over the world. This thesis is an ethnological study based on five qualitative interviews and fifteen questionnaires answered by genealogists. The aim and purpose of the study is to find out how genealogists define ”history” in relation to their own family history. How they produce their own history through their research and how it affects their identity-work. I examine this in the thesis by using discourse theory and Peter Aronssons theories on the use of history. The study shows that my informants relate to two main discourses linked to the word ”history”. ”The general" history related to kings and wars and ”the common person” history related to the everyday stories of the people of the public. Of the two there is one which constitutes a hegemony: ”the general” history. The informants then produce their own version of history through their genealogy research. They do this to be able to relate to ”history” in a more personal way, both to confirm their own identity and as a criticism against the existing production of history.