Intergenerational Family Stories: Private, Parochial, Pathological?

National surveys investigating the ways in which the public connects with the past have identified the significant role played by family memories and stories. While historians have largely been dismissive of this dimension of historical consciousness, sociologists and psychologists perceive these stories to be essential elements in human development and the creation of social identity. In this study, a cohort of twelve multigenerational families in the southwest of England recounted their family stories, the shared narrative patterns and themes of which challenge existing paradigms of family memory and historical consciousness.