Genealogical Epiphanies: Exploring How the Revelations of Family Secrets Affect Boundary Work Around Kinship and Family

This paper examines a Swedish radio program where narrators share their stories of revealing a family secret, asking What main recurring themes emerge in the narratives? What are the consequences of revealing a family secret regarding the boundary work around kinship and family? The methods used are qualitative content analysis and reflexive thematic analysis. The result shows some of the ways in which boundaries and stories can be affected by revealing a family secret. The consequences of revealing a family secret are found to hold dual potential: they can disrupt, but also reinforce, existing social constructions of kinship and family.