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Constructing Symbolic Ancestry: Befriending Time, Confronting Death

The present study examines: a) the relationship between religious orientations and interest in the ancestral past; and b) the discursive practices of genealogists in dealing with time and death. Genealogy refers to the construction of family pedigrees in terms of births, marriages, and deaths, embellished with stories about the historic family and individual ancestors. Analyses are based on quantitative and qualitative data taken from personal interviews and surveys conducted in Canada (in 1994 and 1998) and Australia (in 1999). Multivariate analyses of national data failed to find effects for religiosity on passive or active interest in genealogy, but found significant negative effects for belief in an afterlife on both measures. Qualitative analyses of genealogists' accounts of their experiences in the pastime revealed symbolic and largely secular strategies designed to extend the time frame of their lives beyond their personal biographies, and to address the twin challenges posed by aging and death on the part of close family members and themselves.