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Many people likely know the broad strokes of their family history up to a few generations. Your parents came together at the same place and time to have you, and perhaps your grandparents at some point left their homes to establish a new one elsewhere. Or maybe your family has been rooted in the same place for generations.
But do you know who these ancestors really were? What were the texture and color of their lives? How far up and how far out can you fill the branches of your family tree?
Many family histories are filled with mysteries and unknowns that make it difficult to compose a cohesive narrative. For Andrea Kaston Tange, a historian at Macalester College, a picture of her enigmatic great-grandmother inspired her to investigate the story of her own family. Instead of relying on DNA tests and genealogy sites, however, she drew on the skills and techniques of an archival researcher – an approach that anyone interested in “filling the silences” of their family history can take.
“Questions that begin with ‘why’ can rarely be answered easily,” she writes. “Researchers thus often prefer to start with ‘who’ and ‘when’ and ‘how,’ locating a person in one spot and then tracing them through time.”
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Excerpt from Faith’s diary: “This evening did some ironing and helped G. with her English. I have just about decided to let my hair grow for who can stand $1.25 for a hair cut? I do the girls’ so save some there.”
Andrea Kaston Tange
Andrea Kaston Tange, Macalester College
You can uncover the depths and hidden details of your own family’s unspoken narratives by thinking like an archival researcher writing an ‘investigative memoir.’
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Environment + Energy
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Tyler Hansen, Dartmouth College; Abraham Silverman, Johns Hopkins University; Elizabeth J. Wilson, Dartmouth College; Erin Baker, UMass Amherst
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Education
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David M. Houston, George Mason University; Alyssa Barone, George Mason University
Presidents generally don’t sway the public on education issues – except when they take a stance that separates them from their party.
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Ethics + Religion
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Jonathan Krasner, Brandeis University
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Michael Brenner, American University
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International
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Ian Parmeter, Australian National University
The killing of the Hamas leader in Iran may provoke a wider regional war.
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Colin Flint, Utah State University
Recent tensions between the US and China can be explained by the geopolitics of sea power and the geography of near and far waters.
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Politics + Society
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Duchess Harris, Macalester College
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Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, Stetson University
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Economy + Business
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Elizabeth Schmidt, UMass Amherst
Reports first surfaced in 2019 that the former NRA leader had spent millions from the group’s coffers on his own personal needs and whims.
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Kristen Ferguson, University of Notre Dame
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