Well, this isn’t the blog post that I was going to write. I was going to tell you about my second day at THE Genealogy Show and in part I still will but this needs saying and it needs saying now. At the show, I listened to Daniel’s presentation Genealogy from a Young Genealogist’s Perspective. In the second half, he challenges older family historians to make life easier for young genealogists, who have a number of barriers to participation. Not least of these is the attitude of some of those of more mature years in the genealogy community. Engaging younger family historians is something I have been advocating since I was just a few years older than Daniel and that’s quite a long time!
Family History and Local History is perceived as a hobby for the older generation. When I attended my first meeting in 1982, I was the youngest person there, probably by about thirty years. Sadly, here we are, forty years later and I am STILL in the younger 25% of attendees. There are certainly younger genealogists out there but family history societies have singularly failed to engage the under 40s, let alone the under 20s. Family historians are constantly bemoaning the fact that their children/grandchildren are not interested in their family history. Here is a revelation. In most cases, what family history societies and individuals have been doing to encourage younger people hasn’t worked up to now. If we carry on doing the same thing, guess what, it isn’t magically going to become engaging and relevant to younger people. Nothing is going to happen except that older family historians will die off, no one will be interested in taking over their research and it will become increasingly difficult to recruit members and officers to societies.
If we value our hobby and our own research, we have to be pro-active in order to broaden its appeal down the age range. We need to be inclusive and work to break down some of those barriers. It is our job to reach out, not the young genealogists’ task to scale those obstacles. Younger genealogists need a safe, affordable place to interact and to pursue OUR hobby, with acceptance and nurturing from more experienced genealogists. We need to understand that the GenZ genealogists (aged c.13-25) have a valuable contribution to make. They have knowledge and a thirst for more, they have energy, they have ideas. Family History Societies need to take advantage of this in a mutually beneficial relationship.
So what can you do, or what can you ask your society to do? How affordable is membership, could it be free for under 18s? The response, ‘We’ve never been asked for under 18s membership’, may be true but is not satisfactory. Free under 18 or student membership needs to be publicised loud and clear in a prominent place on the society website, perhaps with posters on display in places where young people are, or mentions in school and college newsletters. It is no good doing this until the society has something attractive to offer those young genealogists. Can you provide activities that would engage school and college goers? Could you stage events (virtual or in person), where entrance is dependent on bringing along someone under 25? Some societies have premises with access to the major data providers, can we welcome young people to take advantage of this? Not in a passive, ‘well we wouldn’t turn them away’ manner but by doing things to actively promote this in a safeguarding compliant way, at young person’s open day perhaps. Could each society seek out a young person’s advocate to join their committee, if only on an ad hoc/advisory basis? Needless to say that advocate has to be a young person.
So you have read this far and thought a) She is ranting again and b) I’m not on a committee what can I do? If you are a society member, you can make suggestions to your committee. If you are not associated with a society, you can still ensure that you make our hobby engaging and accessible to the young people around you, be that your family, youth groups, schools, or young people in your neighbourhood.
I have been saying this for so long. Young people are interested in family history, they are just not interested in doing it OUR WAY. It is up to US as individuals/societies/whatever to adapt and take our hobby to them where they are, not just carry on in the same old way and lament the absence of those young genealogist in our own milieu.
If you have the opportunity to listen to Daniel’s presentation, please do. It is worth the now reduced entrance fee to THE Genealogy Show on its own. Do something, or before long, your research, your society, our hobby, will be dust.
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Daniel for his podcast last night but more of that another time. Do take a look at the activities of him and his Hidden Branch colleagues and let us ensure that the younger genealogists are no longer hidden.
This young man, now aged seven, is interested in his family history and is currently compiling a family history scrap book.
The History Interpreter - Janet Few 
Love the illustrations!
[…] 7.30pm. I set out some of my thoughts on this topic in a previous post and I would encourage you to take a look at this. I had intended that today’s session would be a short presentation, followed by a discussion but […]
Thanks Janet.
I recall my first Devon Family History Society meeting – it was about 1985, I think, and the meeting was in the Community College in Pilton one Saturday afternoon – it was during the spring or summer, I think, since it was a sunny afternoon. I heard a lady, also called Janet, talk about her family who came from farming stock from Challacombe (Devon), but her grandfather became a dentist and moved to Bristol. Janet was a school teacher, and brought these long dead relatives to life once more, and sparked an interest in me to find out more about where I came from. Being Devon, Janet and I were of course distantly related. Whilst there I met Jack – who still worked the family farm, where the photograph, now on my wall, was taken of my grandmother in the arms of her grandmother, standing at the front door. I have many memories of visiting Jack and family – usually leaving with home made clotted cream to take to mother, and a tonne of memories! Jack introduced me to relatives in Canada – who I have visited regularly over the years, including one reunion which gathered together more than 200 Canadians, who were all descended from Thomas and Ann who made the journey to the New World in the 1860s. Jack died nearly 30 years ago, and I can still hear his voice – where has that time gone? Janet and I still talk and meet up, and pre-Covid managed to visit the farm again and pass the time with Jack’s son, and other cousins. I also met Evelyn and George – one of my grandmother’s cousins; and we spent many happy hours talking about the family history. Evelyn was the family archivist, and the tales that she told I can still remember well – bringing alive those who came before, some of whom she recalled from her own childhood. Whilst Evelyn died more than 15 years ago, at 96, some of her memories live on through the conversations that we had.
I am now 49 and am probably one of the younger members of our Society – which is rather sad and just a little depressing! If we don’t do something to inspire those who come after us, the voices of people like, Evelyn, George, Jack and many others will fade away. I don’t know the answers – the tools and techniques I learned from the age of 14 or 15 (fiche and film) are no longer relevant – but the reasons I (we) became interested, and probably as relevant now as they were then – bringing to life the stories, and connecting us to our past. Not necessarily our long distant past, but that close enough to still just about be within living memory – creating the bridge from GenZ to our parents and grandparents. Who knows where the path will lead? Hopefully I won’t be one of the young ones for too much longer!
I have just listened to Daniel’s presentation and read your blog. There is so much to think about and we certainly need to do something. Time to act!
I’m (a youthful) fifty one years old and am the youngest person in my local genealogy society by twenty years. There is much food for thought here. Thanks for raising this Janet.
I know – it is pitiful that we can’t adapt to be more universally appealing.
We offer free entry to our branches WFA meetings in the hope we can encourage under 18s we changed it to 20s to try and encourage people it hasn’t worked so far but we are still hopeful for the same reasons. Online meetings have meant some primary school children have attended some of Paul’s astronomy meetings as they can do them from home in their PJs. Meetings at night in a rural place do not encourage youngsters as they have to travel to get there, daytime meetings mean they are at school I think if they can attend online meetings join in on groups like Facebook this media savvy age group prefers it then they may move onto doing more face to face exploration as it as you know is addictive. They also like seeing things that their ancestors may have used which means they ask questions maybe we need more interactive exhibitions just after school or on weekends. Compared with 30 years ago the age has gone down a lot though so there is hope.