Beyond the Family Tree : An Examination of the Impact of Researching Jewish Family History

Wallman, Adrienne and Peniston-Bird, Corinna and Hurst, Mark (2026) Beyond the Family Tree : An Examination of the Impact of Researching Jewish Family History. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

This thesis examines the impact on individuals when they research their Jewish family history. Using specially recorded interviews with 28 people with a wide variety of backgrounds, it contributes to knowledge by showing that Jewish identity is much broader than religious affiliation. While some of the interviewees identify their religion as Jewish, others are practising Catholics or come from Protestant backgrounds and several describe themselves as atheists or agnostics. The interviewees all live in Britain but their immediate ancestors came from Poland, the Russian Empire, Germany, Austria, Gibraltar, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Iraq. Some grew up knowing a great deal about their Jewish family histories while others knew very little. The relationship with Jewish ancestry is explored through the themes of memory and memorialisation, relationship with place and diasporic identity, and the emotional impact that learning about their Jewish ancestry has had on the interviewees and how they move forward with that knowledge. While the thesis is rooted in the practice of genealogy, and many of the interviewees are members of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain, it is not an examination of the practice of genealogy per se. The thesis places the stories that the interviews tell within the practice of history, in particular personal history, and shows how the interviewees are engaging in the historical process, reflecting E.H Carr’s definition of history as a ‘dialogue between present and past […] between the society of today and the society of yesterday.’ More philosophically, the thesis also acknowledges that it is impossible to ‘go back’, as you can never go back to the same place or the same time.