Dr Dianne Snowden with some of the sources used in Family History

I eventually found out that his name was Joseph, he was a farm worker, and he was my great-great-grandfather. From that moment, I have had a deep passion for social history, what we called in the 70s ‘history from below’, and local history. Family history provided the foundations for both of these. And then as I delved further into my family history I developed an enthusiasm for convict history – not that I had much choice with 20 convicts perched on my family tree … 

In 1984, I did my first Adult Education course in family history, joined my first family history society, and then started teaching family history, writing about family history and presenting at conferences. 

I was one of the first to introduce family history skills and resources into academic work, and did so in my doctorate, ‘A White Rag Burning’ (University of Tasmania, 2005), which traced the post-sentence lives of a group of Irish female arsonists. At the time, there was still quite a bit of condescension shown towards family history methodology; family historians were commonly depicted as amateur hobbyists. I continue to use family history techniques in my academic and community historical research. My forthcoming publication, Van Diemen’s Women, to be published by The History Press Ireland in 2015, relies on family history techniques.

Since 2005, there has been significant shift in the acceptance of family history methods and techniques in the academic world, particularly in the area of convict and migration studies. Today, the skills of many family historians, their active and rigorous pursuit of archival evidence, their understanding of record-linkage and their determination to explore individual lives hidden from history, contribute significantly to academic history. Furthermore, enthusiasm for family history has generated a proliferation of easily-accessed digital records electronically – benefitting not just family historians but also the wider research community. The recognition of the significance of our convict records, inscribed on the International Memory of the World Register in 2007, is an example of this.

In December 2014, the University of Tasmania introduced an innovative and highly successful online unit, Introduction to Family History. More than 1000 students enrolled from all around Australia with a handful of Australian residents living overseas participating as well. The unit covered the basic principles of family history research, methods and techniques and introduced students to a range of family history sources. A second unit was run in 2015.

The unit demonstrated that family history is more than a hobby and that there are many in the community who are serious family history researchers keen to learn new skills. For some, it provided a window into an unfamiliar academic world and delivered a pathway to future university study. Flexible ways of higher education learning allow a greater number of students to access courses like Introduction to Family History and experience the mysteries of university life. At the end of the unit, many were keen to continue to study and to acquire broader historical skills and qualifications, particularly in the area of family history and history. 

After many years of family history research and teaching, I am convinced that knowing about your past and where you came from can be important in understanding who you are today. Of equal importance, family historians, by exploring the social, economic, political, and geographic context of their ancestors’ lives, are introduced not only to an understanding of the past but those factors which shaped it. 

Family history is a legitimate academic discipline, not just a contributory one. Scholars of the marginalised and ‘ordinary people’ have pioneered the acceptance of family history, continuing the tradition of social historians and ‘history from below’. There is now recognition of the value of individual life stories to wider historical research: recent ANZAC research exemplifies this. 

Family history has the potential to revise conventional approaches to history as well as reinterpret traditional historical narratives. Family history is more than a hobby. It provides a bridge to the past and a radical approach to the study of history.

About the author: Dr Dianne Snowden, PhD 2005 (Tasmania) is a lecturer in Family History in the School of Humanities. Former Chair of the Tasmanian Heritage Council, Dianne is active in community history circles. She is founder and convenor of the Friends of the Orphan Schools and is an Executive Member of the Female Convicts Research Centre. She was the first Tasmanian to receive a Diploma in Family Historical Studies through the Society of Australian Genealogists (1989).