Family History is for Everyone Spotlight: Dr. Penny Walters – Author, Professor, and Lecturer

When is the last time you thought about “why” you are interested in researching your ancestors? Have you run into any ethical dilemmas in your genealogy? Today we’re spotlighting our friend and colleague, Dr. Penny Walters. She teaches at Bristol University and lectures widely on several family history-related topics. Penny has also authored the books: Ethical Dilemmas in Genealogy (2019) and The Psychology of Searching (2020), available on Amazon in paperback or on kindle www.searchmypast.co.uk.

As an adoptee who discovered her biological parents through DNA, she has developed many lectures around that topic as well as researching in England and Wales. You can view several presentations on RootsTech by Penny.

Interview with Penny

Tell us about yourself
I’m the mother of six children, I work as a part-time University lecturer teaching Masters’ psychology in a Business program, and I live in Bristol in the UK.

How did you get started in family history? Do you remember an initial “spark” or incident that inspired you?
I became interested in researching my biological family after I had my first baby.

Did you have any experiences as a child/teen in school or at home that helped you be more inclined toward family history?
No, not really; as an adopted person that line of questioning was something of a no-go area. I became more inspired after my children were asked to compile family trees for school projects, and I was upset that I knew nothing about my bio-family background.

What mentors influenced you to get started in family history and genealogy research?
No mentors as such. I became interested to get more engaged with the process after I got a membership for Ancestry.com and realized the huge potential of the available record sources.

What personality traits, hobbies, or professional pursuits have helped you in your genealogy research?
I am very keen, interested, have an enquiring mind, and a huge ability to think laterally to look for record sources. I am fascinated by social history and try really very hard to think what life was like at the time of the people I’m researching, which enables and triggers lateral thinking.

Why do you do genealogy?
The jokey question, ‘why are you looking for dead people’ resonates with many people. I was adopted and lived my life as a single child, but I have six children, whose family dynamics with siblings; and heritage/ ancestry fascinated me. My children’s ancestors were from outside the UK, Jamaica, and Ghana.

Why do you think genealogy is important?
I think that it’s very interesting to get a background context to your ancestors and this, in turn, informs your identity.

What is the most rewarding part of researching your family’s history?
Going back as far as I have. Each person enthralls me.

What has been the most difficult part of your genealogical journey?
Not knowing what records are available, wasting time with a scattergun approach.

What are your research interests?
Ireland and Wales; and social history.

How do you preserve your family history?
My tree is online at Ancestry and I need to get more organized with this. I have printed many items and each ancestor is in a plastic wallet in 2 lever arch files: 1 for my family and 1 for my bio family.

What is your favorite way to share genealogy and family history with others?
I lecture and do presentations, hoping to inspire people. I have also written two books, one asking why do you even ‘do’ genealogy (The Psychology of Searching), and the other book is something that I would like everyone to consider beforehand and engage in some introspection about revealing their findings in Ethical Dilemmas in Genealogy.

If you had all the time in the world to spend on family history, what would you do?
I would visit each and every person in my pedigree’s hometown.

What’s the best discovery you’ve made about your family?
I’ve been humbled by my Irish ancestors fleeing a famine, and my Welsh ancestors working in coal mines and bringing up 10-15 children.

Who is your most interesting ancestor?
I don’t have a specific one, I find them all fascinating; especially as I haven’t met any in my bio family. None have done anything noteworthy, each one seems to have literally raised many children and worked themselves to death. Therefore, I am honoring them, in micro-histories. “Say their name.”

Penny’s Books

The Psychology of Searching

Historically, family history research and compiling pedigrees were needed for the landed gentry, but doing genealogy is now a popular hobby. Why the sudden interest? This book will look at psychological explanations as to why we are interested in our family tree and our ancestors’ pasts. We will look at the psychology of contextualizing ourselves, tribal territoriality, kinship, experiencing genealogical voids from separation, the notion of homelands, romanticizing heritages, cultural Deja Vu, race memory, becoming obsessed with searching, and putting all the pieces in our jigsaw. Why do we research distant ancestors who we share so little DNA with, and feel less connection to second cousins? We will discuss the role of gender and culture in devising a tree, and how we develop an apparently seamless narrative based on fragmented information we have gleaned from various sources. Has social media made us lonely, and we hoard people? Do you like your name? What are the naming patterns in your community? How do we feel about death and dying? What do you want written on your gravestone? Are we searching for who they were, or who we are?

Ethical Dilemmas in Genealogy

Many people enjoy researching their family history. However, have we stopped to ask ourselves if some of the things that we are doing within our family tree research are ethical? Have you asked people’s permission to include them on your tree? What will you do if you discover secrets and lies? For example, should you tell your grandmother that her mother was six months pregnant when she got married? How do you approach people on your DNA testing site about matching and potentially collaborating? If you were adopted, would you try and trace your biological mother? If you have a Caribbean ancestor, how would you feel if your DNA ethnicity came back as Nigerian? A variety of ethical dilemmas will be described and discussed, and adoption, DNA testing, and ethnicity will be discussed in detail. A brief overview of the history of genealogy and its recent move towards professionalizing will be addressed. What is the potential future of genealogy? Will computers fill out our tree for us? Should babies be DNA tested at birth? Will people in the future be able to marry their robot? With more than 700 references, this book will also aid further investigation into the topics.

Dr. Penny Walters has been a University lecturer for 30 years, teaching Masters’ Business studies at Bristol University. Penny’s interest in genealogy started after having her first child and then wondering about her biological parents, as she was adopted. Penny has 6 mixed-race children, who have all enjoyed discovering their roots through DNA ethnicity results. Penny lectures internationally in-person, writes articles, and is sought after for a wide range of webinar topics. Penny has authored the books: ‘Ethical Dilemmas in Genealogy’ (2019) and ‘The Psychology of Searching’ (2020), available on Amazon in paperback or on kindle www.searchmypast.co.uk