Homo Explorens and Their Nostalgia. Cultural Contexts of Amateur Genealogy in Contemporary Poland

Abstract

The article deals with the cultural contexts of the phenomenon of popular genealogy in contemporary Poland. The author looks at the external and internal factors shaping the phenomenon of Polish genealogical research and discusses the results of her research conducted as part of the project ‘Between the Great History and Small Histories. Popular Genealogy in Present-day Poland’. As an introduction to the issue, the author gave an overview of the history of amateur genealogy in Poland against the background of social and cultural changes. She also drew attention to the phenomenon of so-called cybergenealogy, i.e. the effect of the development of information technologies and social media on the popularity of genealogy and the ways in which Poles practice it, paying attention to the problem of memory and collective imagination. The main question posed by the author is: what can we deduce about the condition of contemporary Polish collective memory from community genealogical practices? This is illustrated by an analysis of the discourse in the Genealodzy PL discussion group on Facebook. The article also includes reflections from case study research on individual genealogical practices.

Keywords

• Genealogy
• Family history
• Poland
• collective memory
• memory studies