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Archiver > APG > 2009-05 > 1242058435


From: "Allison Ryall" <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Genealogical Education
Date: Mon, 11 May 2009 12:13:55 -0400
References: <498045.37465.qm@web31608.mail.mud.yahoo.com><055EE485DBE84D4DB9A31561AE7F1317@MAMA> <006c01c9cf8b$24a97960$6dfc6c20$@net> <97E8815ECCA24CF5B4B3E041AD6DDA99@MAMA> <00c201c9d014$eabe8e90$c03babb0$@net> <4A04BB7C.5020903@worldnet.att.net> <00d801c9d02d$bc58ed20$350ac760$@net> <4A04D32E.9080209@worldnet.att.net> <00eb01c9d048$363c6440$a2b52cc0$@net> <4A05AF0B.4000505@worldnet.att.net><000501c9d0dc$1591a9a0$40b4fce0$@net> <4A05F313.1050403@worldnet.att.net><A8B6311CC583458F9C23409690F381FD@acer511eba12df>
In-Reply-To: <A8B6311CC583458F9C23409690F381FD@acer511eba12df>


As someone who is involved in the academic field having just finish my
master's degree, I have found that most historians actually respect the
genealogical approach to history and research, although many of them tend
refer to it as micro-history (i.e. history through the study of individual
lives).

What I have found, in my personal experience, is that historians (i.e.
history professors) don't respect at the large amounts of people who
proclaim themselves to be genealogists without having any formal education
or degree. The perception that many academic professors hold is that many
genealogists have no university level degree and those that do often have
one in what the academic professors perceive to be an unrelated field.

In my opinion the only way to get an academic field (i.e. history
professors) to acknowledge the field of genealogy and to respect it, is to
allow genealogy to develop into an academic field.

Allison L. Ryall

-----Original Message-----
From: [mailto:] On Behalf
Of LBoswell
Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 10:57 AM
To: Kathy;
Subject: Re: [APG] Genealogical Education

The idea that historians treat genealogy with little respect is an old,
tired line. The progress that genealogy as a field has made in the area of
evidence gathering and analysis hasn't gone unnoticed. Was just reading
about one historian who has his class undertake family history research as
part of an introductory class in Asian history partly because of the lack of

records in that subject area. Having students employ a genealogical approach

opens up understanding of how to use a wider range of records than have
generally been used in the past.

"We don't get no respect...." ...it's time to ditch that kind of
self-conscious, demeaning view of ourselves. At best it makes us look as
though we don't have any confidence in the legitimacy of this field

Larry


> That's exactly the point I was trying to make, because it seems the only
> thing we ever hear on this list is that genealogists get no respect from
> historians or other academics.
>
> Kathy
> ======================
> Kathleen Lenerz, Ph.D.
>
>
>
>
>
> .
>
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