With the support of CRESC, I initiated an ethnographic study of the contemporary and burgeoning interest in family history and genealogy. Building on previous fieldwork in the north of England and a theoretical interest in kinship, I have been interested in the contemporary passion and enthusiasm for genealogical research.  It not only speaks to kinship, both past and present,  but  also reveals lively marriages between, amongst other things, digital and material technologies, ancestors and heirlooms, archives and spirits, serendipity, fate and chance. I have written elsewhere about thecollection of a local history society and of the expertise of local historians (see e.g. Edwards 2000), of interest here is how they are re-mobilized, with a new lease of life, in the pursuit of family history. 

The ethnography also feeds a research interest in social class and emerging discourses of indigeneity in Britain. A CRESC sponsored workshop will be convened (with Gillian Evans) in May 2010 which will explore these themes further through a conversation between anthropology, sociology and history.