Goth Genealogy?
January 30, 2010This post is about Talkin' 'bout my generation.
I am proud to present the following guest post by Thomas MacEntee of GeneaBloggers.com.
During my recent meetings with ancestry.com management and staff as part of ancestry.com’s Bloggers Day, one topic of discussion involved ways in which genealogy and family history could attract a younger demographic. As Andrew Wait, Senior Vice President and General Manager at ancestry.com stated during his presentation The Changing Face of ancestry.com, the current demographic is as follows[1]:
- Genealogy currently has 13 million active researchers – up from 9 million in 2005[2]
- Over 185,000 are 25 years or younger (this translates to only 1.4%)
In addition, during the same event, Joshua Taylor of the New England Historic Genealogical Society in his presentation The Changing Face of Genealogy discussed various successful methodologies recently used to engage a group of 18 to 21-year olds in researching their own family history. As an already accomplished 24-year old genealogist, Josh seems a natural choice for leading younger folks to the genealogy and family history field in the 21st century.
Merely “hoping” that genealogy becomes “hip” isn’t going to make it so; nor will the demographics of the field moprh overnight into one dominated by the 20 and 30-something set. And unfortunately, the upcoming media exposure being given to genealogy via Faces of America on PBS and Who Do You Think You Are? on NBC – with the use of celebrities and subjects mostly over the age of 40 – may not help skew the demographics younger either.
The CSI Factor
What do we need? One only has to look to the field of criminology and forensic science to see how the media depiction of crime scene investigators and other personnel has helped to bring new and younger people into those fields.
I’ve often told people that the reason I love genealogy is that it is “like CSI without the icky bodies.” I’m not kidding. When I watch television crime dramas such as NCIS, CSI, and others, if there is a depiction of an autopsy or some other scene, my palms cover my face, I peek out through my fingers and/or I ask others, “is it over yet?”
A Common Character – The Quirky Yet Hip Investigator
Watch closely during almost any CSI-type television show and you’ll notice one character that stands out but serves the same purpose: the geeky, nerdy, quirky but hip forensic investigator. NCIS’s Abby Sciuto with her tattoos and piercings which give her goth cred, is a nerd at heart and often provides the one-liners and zingers that a show often needs. On CSI NY the character Danny Messer serves a similar purpose. I’d even say that a show like The Good Wife fits into this category with its sharp-witted private investigator/paralegal Kalinda Sharma.
Wither the boring old librarian or archivist?
One only need look to Elyse Luray of The History Detectives on PBS to see how America’s image of a historian has been forced to change. And librarians no longer live up to the image of their namesake Marian with her cat-eye glasses, sweater over the shoulders, tissue stuffed in one sleeve. Nowadays a librarian is just as likely to have been an ex-punk rocker who runs her own blog about Jane Austen and attends mixers and meet-ups geared towards the information resources industry.
More than just serving as characters whose dialog help the story line, these same television roles have made the under-30 set stand up and notice. They see that it isn’t boring or nerdy to be an analyst in a crime lab. They notice that working as a forensic investigator can be fun and rewarding. They watch as the guy or gal behind the screen and keyboard very often provides the missing clue to solve the mystery.
Moving From Boring To Hip
So what does it take to move a field like genealogy in its perception by the public from boring to hip? Here are some ideas:
- Create an “under 30” club at your local genealogical society. Many non-profits especially opera and symphony societies have experienced tremendous growth by allowing younger patrons access to the same benefits of membership as others but only at a lower membership price and with special events geared towards their interests.
- Use younger genealogists as role models and spoke persons. In your organization’s materials, including printed versions as well as on-line, make sure to include a balance of young and old.
- Go to the schools where the younger set rules. Along with exposing school-aged children to various professional fields, make sure your local district includes genealogists and family historians in such outreach efforts.
- Focus on ancestors when they were in their teens and 20s. When writing narratives or blog posts, try to highlight ancestors at a time in their lives which young people can relate to. Did Grandpa go off to college or have trouble adjusting when he moved away from home? Did Grandma leave a diary with thoughts on dating?
- Don’t be afraid to let the young lead the way. Those “whippersnappers” with solid genealogical research and scholarship skills should be allowed to lead and not relegated to just following. Doing so is probably the best way to create a win/win situation for all of us in the genealogy field.
Genealogy can only continue to expand by attracting new participants. And the exchange of information, techniques and methodologies between old and young will help keep genealogy a vibrant and engaging pursuit.
© 2010, copyright Thomas MacEntee
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Thomas MacEntee is a genealogist specializing in the use of technology and social media to improve genealogical research and as a means of interacting with others in the family history community. Utilizing over 25 years of experience in the information technology field, Thomas writes and lectures on the many ways in which blogs, Facebook, and Twitter can be leveraged to add new dimensions to the genealogy experience. As the creator of GeneaBloggers.com he has organized and engaged a community of over 900 bloggers to document their own journeys in the search for ancestors.
[1] Wait’s comments were made during a presentation at a banquet held in Salt Lake City on Saturday, 9 January 2010.
[2] According to a summer 2009 @Plan survey, approximately 14 million people researched their family history online in the prior 30 days.
Katrina McQuarrie is a Gen Y genealogist who believes in making genealogy more accessible to non-nerds and young people. If you want to get free articles on how to improve your mad genealogy skillz,
Great suggestions. I’m 38 now, but I was 21 when I started doing research. For years, I felt uncomfortable at genealogy events, because I was the youngest person by a decade or two (although I’m sitting here waiting for the hair color to cover my grey hairs…so I think I’m catching up).
I’ve said that exact same thing about CSI…and I’m a big Elyse Luray fan.
Great post Thomas. I agree that we need to engage the young. Other shows that offer an element of genealogy and mystery is the ghost-hunting and paranormal shows. They always offer research on the house and or people where the ghostly experiences are occurring. Genealogy wrapped up in a more intriquing package. At the end of the day it does hit that same vein that the youngsters are attracted too. It is terrible that when I attend a genealogy conference, at 46 years old, I’m the youngster in the group. Thanks for bringing awareness to this opportunity.
Absolutely fantastic! I truly believe we should get our youth more involved and excited about being involved, in genealogy and family history!
As always, great writing Thomas!
I’m glad things are changing for the young people. I started doing research when I was about fifteen, and I took a genealogy class. I was the youngest person in the class by about 40 years! We had some wonderful field trips to local repositories of interesting stuff, and one was the wonderful American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts. I was excited because I didn’t drive yet, and I could get there by bike. However, I learned that anyone undert the age of 21 had to apply for special permission to use the library! That didn’t deter me! I applied and had a special interview with a board of old guys and won the approval to use the reading room. That summer I added ten generations to my family tree riding back and forth on my bike. I think I was the youngest person to ever be approved. It is still one of my favorite places in New England to do research. But now I take the car!
I had these same thoughts this week! I went to my first genealogy meeting in many many years and I told friends that if you want to feel young, just go to a genealogy meeting. I am beginning to fit into the group and look the part, but when I began genealogy at 16 and helped start the High Plains Genealogical Society in Canyon, Texas, I was distinctly out of place, I felt. For now, I’m doing my best to put our family histories down in an interesting way so that when the younger generation does get interested, there are stories and not just dry facts and dates.
Loved the post, Thomas. I plan to share it with my local genealogy society and see if we can follow some of the suggestions.
As a 25-year old genealogist-by-day, goth-by-night, I heartily approve! I think that young people are engaging more and more in the genealogical, archival and librarianship fields. It may just be my group of friends, but for us, a love of history, books, archives and old stuff in general is our preferred geeky way of life. And with geeky TV role models like Abby Sciuto, you can’t go wrong! Thanks for this post.
Very thoughtful post. Great issues. I especially like the idea of reporting specifically about stories of our ancestors in their younger years – and, going to the schools to tell our ancestor stories. We can all contribute to each of the suggestions, as well. Thanks for sharing!
A nice post – thanks for sharing your ideas with us.
I think we have the same problems here in Germany – we need to get more younger people involved in genealogy …
I gonna talk to my local club staff about this
Thanks …
- Timo, Germany
http://www.kracke.org
Great ideas! I’m 23, and most people my age think my interest in genealogy is either boring and absurd, or interesting but nothing they’d be interested in. Even in my own family, who I would expect to be interested in their own family’s stories, I’m my great-uncles’ favorite niece but my cousins just tease me. The closest I could get to getting my teenage sister interested was pointing out that a 3rd great-grandmother’s maiden name was Cullen – you know, like in Twilight
I think that “Focus on ancestors when they were in their teens and 20s” is a particularly good idea; one of the things that most makes me feel connected to my ancestors is this picture of my great-grandmother and her sister in their early 20s: http://whereyoucamefrom.blogspot.com/2009/11/not-even-close-to-wordless-wednesdays.html
“Create an “under 30” club at your local genealogical society” is probably more difficult, though. If I’m at all representative of people my age, membership in most organizations – even at reduced cost – is out of the question financially. I only work part-time; I’m paying grad school tuition; I have to use free genealogy software, because “the real thing” is too expensive; I’m about to let my ancestry.com subscription lapse and start trying to utilize free online sources and trips to county courthouses to the greatest extent possible, because I have very little disposable income. Genealogy isn’t a cheap hobby to begin with, and membership in societies only adds to that, especially for young people, just starting out and without a lot of extra cash.
Great post Thomas. Thank you for your thoughtful post/ I like the idea of talking about ancestors when they were younger. And going to the schools. We need to make it hip to sleuth our family trees!
My mother and aunt introduced me to the world of genealogy at 14 and i never looked back… they found some details from church registers and it just got the thought processes going about how these people lived and what they did for a living….all it needs is encouragement and a an inquisitive mind..kids love a challenge…easier now than when i started in 1976…it was all by leg and the usual mail system – viz…weeks to get any results!
I just published a book on our family. We’ve put out 2 other books before – one by my aunt on which I used the state-of-the-art IBM Selectric to do the original; the second by me using a PC and Kinko’s; and this one by me using MS Word, then my cousin who used In-Design to do the graphics and design, then a high-end copier. I have the same fears – how do we get someone younger than 50 involved? This last book was successful because we included family recipes, poems, historical stories and a variety of photos dating from 1860 to the present. I do like the idea of writing more to the younger ages but the pre-1970’s are so far away from today’s people, to the extent that a description of life in the 50’s is not comprehensible to people born in the 90’s. Many of our institutions barely recognize history as a critical component of understanding current life events and anticipating future events. I suppose it’s possible that the best way to overcome that is by a slow ground-up dissemination of culturally-appropriate genealogical information, but we would all be better served by an approach that is much broader and comprises top-down education also.
Can you fix the output for this website? The lines are jammed together.