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Archiver > GENBRIT > 2004-04 > 1080810455


From: "Roy Stockdill" <>
Subject: Genealogy to be made a criminal offence
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 10:18:33 +0000


I was talking yesterday to an old newspaper friend who is a political
correspondent with one of Britain's major national newspapers and has
excellent contacts in Whitehall. He told me of a most alarming rumour
that is circulating in government circles.

It seems that some of the more extreme left of the New Labour
government, being in their zeal for political correctness determined
to destroy every aspect of Britain's history and cultural heritage,
wish to dismantle the entire apparatus of genealogical research and
make it impossible for anyone to trace their ancestry back beyond
themselves and their immediate living ancestors (parents,
grandparents etc), and also to eradicate all history beyond living
memory. This would mean that birth, marriage and death certificates,
along with census returns, would be closed forever and no longer be
available; record offices would be closed down and their records
destroyed; people would be banned from practising genealogy and,
indeed, there are apparently some extremists among Cabinet ministers
who would go so far as to make the researching of family history a
criminal offence.

These zealots are secret admirers of Pol Pot, the fanatical former
leader of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, who operated a policy of
genocide of the educated and professional classes and also of wiping
out the country's history and starting again from scratch. They
apparently wish to see Britain go along similar lines but
(fortunately) without the genocide of the infamous killing fields of
Cambodia.

The thinking, I am told, is that the practice of genealogy is
contrary to the idea that all citizens should be equal, living in a
completely multicultural society with no identifiable ethnic groups
of any kind, and that all should have equal self esteem and respect
irrespective of racial and social origins. Given this aim, it
is regarded as vital that any history which may appear to give one
group superiority over another, or identify racial and social
differences of any kind, must be eradicated. Genealogy, so the
arguments goes, runs counter to this concept by encouraging people to
trace their roots and thus assume a false pride in their origins.
"Genealogy is elitist and largely a hobby of the white middle
classes," a minister told my informant. "It gives those involved in
it a false and inflated sense of their own importance over others
whom they consider to have a less impressive ancestry and we are
determined to stamp it out."

Further, given the desire to break down the longstanding model of the
family, based on husband and wife and children, and to encourage
non-marital partnerships and gay marriages, the PC zealots point to
the fact that genealogy only encourages and preserves a system and
way of life that is regarded as being outmoded and virtually extinct
in today's society.

We live indeed in alarming times. Is the day when genealogists will
fear a dawn knock at the door and the police raiding their computer
and files soon to be upon us?

Roy Stockdill
Web page of the Guild of One-Name Studies:- www.one-name.org
Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History:- www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html

"It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of
people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean
advantage of them."

- P. G. Wodehouse

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