Journal of Family History

In civil law the heir to an estate reaped all assets and debts, such that an estate burdened with liabilities could prove deleterious. Some heirs chose to reject such estates, but in other cases the heir simply did not formally accede to the estate. Estates left in abeyance were a source of strategies and confusion. Florentine sources disclose how many ways property was hidden and exploited if left as nominally unclaimed. Professional attorneys called upon to render their learned opinions about such estates found first-hand how confusing this area of the law could be.

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.

This article analyzes the phenomenon of mixed marriages in the areas belonging to Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth whose society was religiously and ethnically diversified. Special attention is paid to the cultural Polish-Ruthenian borderland in two regional contexts: Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Belarusian, whose population was Roman Catholic (a minority) and the majority Greek Catholic. Based on the census like material, we found that the households of mixed marriages accounted for between 5 and 20 percent of all those recorded in the sources, and there was a good chance in family relationships that both spouses and their children would keep their denomination.

Traveling to explore family origins has become one of the contemporary ways to enjoy leisure tourism. Although academic research has been conducted, little attention has been paid to profiling individuals who travel to investigate their family history in archives. Data from a self-administered questionnaire to Hispanic-American genealogists was analyzed through descriptive and latent class analysis to profile genealogical tourists. Based on their sociodemographic characteristics and motivations, two types arise: roots genealogical tourist—primarily interested in connecting with the family's place of origin—and researcher genealogical tourist—who focuses on archival research tasks and acquiring family history knowledge.

Genealogical practices are a compelling site for exploring identity work. This paper explores privately held genealogical records among caste Hindu Assamese families to examine how they are intertwined with social institutions. The paper discusses the primary use of family trees as a reference for the ancestor worship rite śrāddha, demonstrating the embeddedness of genealogical record-keeping in religious culture. Additionally, it analyses lineage construction in family trees to understand their role in constituting and reinforcing caste identity and upholding a “pure” Brahmin identity. I argue that genealogical records are a site for demonstrating and constituting religious and caste identities and reinforcing hierarchies.

This article examines the role of Soviet children in ground squirrels’ extermination campaigns in the 1930s–1950s, influenced by state propaganda. It contextualizes the practice of using children in pest control efforts as part of a wider Soviet agricultural modernization, where nature was perceived as an adversary to be subdued. The article examines Soviet debates on the messages children’s literature about nature should convey and explores how these practices shaped values such as kindness, compassion, and cruelty. It also addresses the ethical implications of child labor, the normalization of violence against nature, and the impact of these experiences on children’s moral development.