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The way of genealogy to the library A study in the emergence of a microfilm archive of Växjö Diocese- and Country Library My purpose is to describe the underlying factors that influenced the growth of a microfilm archive of genealogy in Växjö Diocese- and Country Library and analysing the role of the country librarian Eric Eilert in this process. I do this by using an actor and structure analysis.The source material is mostly taken from the Municipal Archives in Växjö. To get a better preunderstanding, I describe how the microfilming of genealogical material was made available by the Mormons, but also the actions of the Swedish government. I also describe specifically what was done in the Växjö Library.My study shows that the specific underlying factors, that influenced the growth of a microfilm archive, was Mormon filming of the Swedish archives, the skills of AB Rekolid, the reorganization to a Diocese- and Country Library in Växjö, the demand of local scientists for research material, further the need of protection of the borrowed documents from abrasion damage and the decision to buy a reading unit.The role of Eric Eilert in the building up process of a microfilm archive was crucial. He was acting as an agent in several different structures such as AB Rekolid, the library board, the land archives in Vadstena, the County council in Kronoberg, the National Archives and the Library in Växjö. He was responsive for the requests and anchored each step of the process within the library board and the County council. He was also behind the financial plan where the county council and the municipalities would share the cost of microfilm archive.

During the past couple of years, genetic genealogy has been used as an instrument for law enforcement to identify and catch criminals of unsolved cases. The method has created an ethical discussion concerning individual integrity and the potential risks an implementation of a method like this could cause. The purpose of this essay is to examine this method from an ethical perspective and discuss aspects like personal integrity, legislation and in what way people who send in their DNA to genealogy companies can affect their genetic data. Five different DNA testing genealogy companies have been selected to study and discuss in this essay. By examining their terms of conditions and privacy policies, the study will investigate how these companies act regarding the potential use from law enforcement of their DNA-databases to solve crimes. Parts of the current ethical debate regarding the method will also be presented and discussed to show potential advantages and disadvantages using a method like this could lead to. The results from the study show that forensic genetic genealogy could have both its advantages and disadvantages. Using the method has shown to be successful in capturing perpetrators behind unsolved crimes but it has also led to innocent people getting involved into criminal investigations. There are multiple ethical aspects concerning the method and the results show that there is a lack of research about the method and these aspects. There is also a lack of legislation or other forms of regulations regarding the method. The conclusion that therefore has been made is that there needs to be more research made about the ethical aspects of the method and that there needs to be more regulations to avoid the disadvantages using the method potentially could bring.

The purpose of this thesis is, from a self directed learning perspective, to investigate the support of public libraries and genealogy associations of genealogists' own research, i.e. their search for ancestors as well as their possibilities to broaden their history outlook. Accordingly, five public librarians and five genealogy representatives in the west of Sweden have been interviewed regarding the support that can be offered to genealogists. The investigated support to genealogists in their own research is about working environment, literature and material, activities and the cooperation between public libraries and genealogy associations. In this thesis conclusions are merely drawn from a self-directed learning perspective, a perspective where also different forms of support are being recommended by scientists. The study shows that the public libraries offer a working environment with the necessary equipment and other means of assistance which leads to time saved for genealogists. Besides, the thesis shows how the public libraries provide information, rather than give advice regarding literature and material, while the support of the genealogy associations involves advice as well as information. The genealogy associations offer more activities than the public libraries which, from a self directed learning perspective, increases the possibility for genealogists to learn more efficiently. Through activities, and the above mentioned cooperation, genealogists are being offered different supporting persons, such as the librarians and the representatives of the genealogy associations. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this MA thesis is to examine the computerisation of sources that are of interest to genealogists. The primary focus of the thesis is an empirical study, by using a questionnaire addressed to 118 genealogical societies in Sweden, in order to find out what kind of computerisation is being performed by these genealogical societies and what their opinion is of the computerisation of sources of interest to genealogists. The result of this questionnaire has shown, together with printed and electronic material, that there is a good deal of interest from genealogical societies in the computerisation of sources. About half of the genealogical societies who answered the questionnaire are computerising sources themselves and the societies have a positive view in general of the computerisation that is being done and of the increased usage of modern information technology in genealogy. There are on the other hand certain issues that are being discussed such as the important question of the quality of the computerised material. In this thesis the computerisation of public sources of interest to genealogists as a means to strengthen democracy by making public material, culture and the cultural heritage available to more people, and how genealogical societies can be seen as partakers in this process, is also discussed. Furthermore the attitudes of genealogical societies towards the computerisation of sources is seen in relation to the attitudes of people in general to new technology and to the concrete advantages and disadvantages of certain aspects of modern information technology. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how genealogists create identity through their own research, and how they live with their ancestors in the everyday life. The questions at issue are: How do genealogists deal with concepts like “native home district”, “heritage” and “family”. Does it exist a problem in creating identity and how genealogists regard other people with a different background, for instance immigrants. This thesis consists of three parts: in the first I present my aim, questions at issue, my method with qualitative interviews, and my theoretical frame from sociology and anthropology. The second part consists of the results given from my interviews with my eleven genealogists from Uddevalla and Trollhättan. In the third and last part a discussion from the empirical and theoretical information from earlier in the thesis is made. Genealogists often “lives” close with their ancestors through their results of family history studies. I can se them as narratives in their minds. Hardly any person starts genealogical research to receive an identity. Most of them will anyhow be influenced by their studies in some way. Almost every person interviewed by me did not think that their identity had changed since they started genealogical research. / Uppsatsnivå: D

With the technological development of the last decades, an increasing number of genealogists are carrying out their research online. The purpose of this master’s thesis is to examine how and why genealogists' information behavior has been influenced by the use of online services for genealogy. Using a conceptual model of genealogists' information behavior as theoretical basis for the study, I examine how the use of online services affect genealogists’ search process, what information they are looking for and what information resources they use. Data is collected by seven qualitative interviews with experienced genealogists.The interviews indicate that online services have not completely taken over the genealogists’ search for information. Genealogists still went to physical repositories for a number of reasons. However, all participants in the study agreed that their visits to physical repositories and their use of physical records had declined since they began to use online services. The search for information was perceived to have become easier and more convenient with online services, although participants also acknowledged the risks of misleading information. Online services for genealogy also seem to have an influence on the contact between genealogists, especially on international contacts. This, together with the increasing research on foreign material, indicates that genealogy has been internationalized as a result of the use of online services. To the extent that the use of online services affects genealogists' information behavior, it seems in large part to be a result of online services removing geographical barriers that previously influenced genealogists’ information behavior. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archival Science.

The purpose of this study is to understand what future role archive institutions have for genealogists as a result of genetic ancestry testing. To answer the purpose of this study, three additional research questions have been given. The research questions are as follows (1) what type of information genealogists search for when using genetic ancestry testing (2) what kind of information genealogists are able to retrieve by performing a genetic ancestry test (3) how the archive institutions perceive genealogists who perform genetic ancestry testing. Three different methods have been used to retrieve relevant source material. The methods used are netnography, introspective action research and interviews. The source material has been retrieved by analysing three different discussion forums, interviewing representatives of archive institutions as well as performing genetic ancestry testing ourselves. The theories used in the analyses is based on the theoretical framework established by Martin Saar that involves three dimensions of genealogy, and a secondary framework based on Lisa M. Givens and Donald O. Case’s particular understanding of information behaviour, as well as information seeking. The results of the study have enabled us to conclude three different future scenarios on how the archive institution’s role for genealogists will change. The first conclusion is that the DNA-services will slowly phase out the primary role archives play for the genealogists today. Instead, the commercial DNA-services will become the primary source of information. The second conclusion is that the definition of “value” in regard to the material generated by a genealogist will change, and their research will in the future be seen as valuable by the archive institutions. The third and final conclusion is that the archive institutions will begin to facilitate information and knowledge regarding different aspects of genetic ancestry testing, due to demand of archival users. This is a two-year master’s thesis in Archival Science.

Introduction: The aim of this thesis is to investigate the factors that lead to the creation of meaning for Jewish genealogists. Research on the creation of meaning in genealogy has been carried out in the past, but not for this particular group. Method: The grounded theory process of textual coding was conducted on so called success stories in connection to two different databases with access to Holocaust related records. A group of genealogists without connections to the Holocaust serve as comparison. Analysis: Three phases in the genealogical process appear. The first is a practical phase. The second is a personal engagement phase. The last phase is emotional. The attributes and categories from the coding procedure are selected and placed into the most suitable phase. A perspective of archival pedagogy is incorporated. A discussion that ends with the final grounded theory follows. Results: The components that create meaning in the Jewish groups research are information gathering, conclusion, participation, inclusiveness, creation of identity and highlighting. The main differences between the two groups of genealogists are the event of the Holocaust. Conclusion: The genealogical research and its meaningful and creative processes are overall the same in the Jewish as in the other group. The Holocaust is however unavoidably affecting all the processes for the Jewish genealogists. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archival Science.

The purpose of this bachelor’s thesis is to explore the information practices present in hobby genealogy. The thesis uses a qualitative content analysis to analyse two popular Swedish genealogy magazines published between 2016 and 2019. The study investigates the information sources, objects, competences and emotions that the practice is built on. Our theoretical framework is centred around Reckwitz’ ideas of practice theory (2002), and the practice theory model introduced by Shove, Pantzar, and Watson (2012). The study finds that the information practices within hobby genealogy are heterogenous and extensive, and that information is a central part of the practice. The study also finds that emotions and motivations are important parts of understanding how the practice is maintained.