Writing History, Writing Family

This paper explores the intersection between family memoir and history—whether forged as a balance between the two forms of writing in a single text or through the use of historical and archival research to undergird personal accounts. The paper builds on my forthcoming book, Keeper of My Kin: Memoir of An Immigrant Daughter, which traces one family (mine) living through the historical dislocations of migration and revolution; it also draws on my experience teaching an undergraduate course titled “Families and History.” I use both to suggest the ways in which combining family history and historical method can help incorporate new people into history—as historical subjects and as historical researchers.