The Single Family History
In the narrower sense of the term, a family history is a biography of a single family over several generations, based on a tested genealogy and fleshed out with the fuller story of the family's place in society, the dramas of its achievements or failures and its acquisition or loss of wealth and rank.
Such a study mainly draws on oral history for the recent period and archival records for the period beyond living memory. Where an individual's own story is unknown, much can be inferred from other literature. For example, a single soldier's experiences can be inferred from the history of his military unit, or a migrant's journey can be described from the shipboard diary of a fellow traveler.
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Famous quotes containing the words single, family and/or history:
“The pure serene of memory in one man,—
A ripple widening from a single stone
Winding around the waters of the world.”
—Theodore Roethke (1908–1963)
“The family is on its way out; couples go next; then no more keeping cats or parrots.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)