Double Helix History: DNA and understanding of the past

Genealogy is one of the biggest activities on the planet. Genealogy is supported by massive subscription websites like Ancestry.com and Findyourpast.com, by huge institutions like the National Archives, and through a number of TV programmes and public history groups. Ancestry.com and the like provide access to millions of records around the world for the user, and an interface which both encourages the construction of vast 'trees' but also the uploading of data as well as social network interaction with other users. Genealogy, it might be argued, is the most influential way that people access their past, and certainly it is the most wide-spread citizen-history activity on the planet.

Increasingly these websites are adding a new tool to the researcher's armoury: DNA sequencing. The armchair genealogist investigates their past by spitting in a tube. The creation of huge repositories of DNA information about database users allows for data analysis to be undertaken, leading to 'scientific' speculation regarding the ancestry of the individual. Such sequencing changes the way that the participant thinks about the past, and about themselves.

At the same time, information about 'ancient' DNA is constantly being reported in newspapers, as scientists discover more and more about the 'species' that is homo sapiens. DNA science is squeezing both ends of the chronological spectrum, defining the 'human' thousands of years ago and attending to a precise sense of human identity in the present. Therefore understanding of the past is profoundly changed by understanding of, and use of, genetic science.

This project, therefore, seeks to think about what Jackie Pearson and others have termed the 'genetic imaginary'. That is, popular understanding of the work of DNA and, more particularly, how we might understand, represent, and visualise it. In particular, the project is interested in how DNA sequencing for 'leisure' purposes - making a family tree - might change the way that people think about themselves and the past. The project investigates the complicated intersection of genetics and popular narratives of the self and the past. How is this science represented and understood? How is it visualised? What does this mean for privacy, and the projection of the self online? What are the imaginative implications of sharing DNA data? Does DNA render an identity 'outside of history'? The project particularly seeks to understand how DNA sequencing changes the way that participants think about themselves and their relationship to the past.

The project will impact upon the career of the RA to whom the PI will transfer knowledge. They will develop expertise in communicating with non-academic and academic audiences, workshop and event management, online profile development and communication, and social media.

The Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society (MLFHS) was formed in 1964 and is one of the largest family history societies in the world. It is a registered charity, run wholly by volunteers. The National Archives (TNA) is the UK's centre for archival collection and work. Both organisations will gain from working with the project, from training, and from expertise exchange. Involvement in the project will allow TNA to enhance the quality of its service to its thousands of users. Involvement in the project will allow MLFHS to offer a more sophisticated and nuanced service, as well as filling a skills gap as the organisation currently lacks much expertise relating to DNA testing for genealogy. These organisations support hundreds (thousands in the TNA's case) of 'amateur' historians of all ages, genders, nationalities and backgrounds around the world in their family history projects, and involvement with this project will enhance their ability to aid these users. The project will allow these organisations to enable their users to think carefully about their relation to their past, to their genetics, and therefore help them to think differently about local, national, and international history and their place in it.

The project will positively impact upon the practice of a wide range of 'amateur' historians who undertake Family History and Genealogy. In particular the podcasts, social media, and blogposts will engage this large audience and introduce them to a number of key debates around DNA sequencing and information. These users will be encouraged to engage with the project through discussion, commenting, editing, and (for some in London and Manchester), physically participating in Focus Groups and Interviews. The various online presences will enable conversations and discussion, providing a direct route to engagement but also ensuring the involvement in the research conversation of a wide public. The blog for the project will include data illustration, information about events, links to further reading and, most importantly, draft work posted for discussion. One long blog posting at the conclusion of the project will reflect upon this experience of having online users contribute to the editing process. Another concluding blog posting will collect and reflect upon all the impact activities associated with the project. This will bring together all comments, edits, Twitter and Instagram activity, and images, and analyse the impact pathways in order to ensure that the public audience of the project are updated on the way that it is audited. This analysis will also provide a model for understanding impact of projects for the PI and UoM in the future, impacting positively upon their research and communication capacity.

The project will reach a wide number readers in the articles in History Today and on the Ancestry blog. The History Today article will reach a large number of non-academic historians based around the world.

The 'My Double Helix History' project is specifically designed to educate participants in research technique and to have them become themselves self-aware researchers. It is also designed to enable them to begin thinking about the communication and impact of their own research.

The international events will engage non-academic audiences in Focus Groups and impact upon their 'amateur' historical practice. They will also involve non-HEI organisations (see JFR) in three countries who will be positively impacted by the project's findings and approach. This will enable them to support their own users in a more complex and nuanced fashion.