Join us on Sunday for our monthly meeting featuring guest speaker Dr. Penny Walters who will share “The Psychology of Searching and Ethical Dilemmas in Genealogy.”
WHEN: Sunday, 11 June 2021
TIME: 12:00 p.m. SLT (same as Pacific Time) <— NOTE EARLIER MEETING TIME
WHERE: The Fire Pit at Just Genealogy SLurl
A short business meeting will be held prior to the speaker’s presentation.
Please note that we will be meeting at 12:00 p.m. PDT instead of our usual evening meeting time. This is to accommodate the time difference for Dr. Walters who will be speaking to us live from London!
Description
Dr. Penny Walters, author of The Psychology of Searching (Amazon, 2020), explains that compiling pedigrees was needed for landed gentry, but genealogy is now a popular hobby. This session will look at kinship, homelands, heritages, race memory, becoming obsessed with searching, and putting all the pieces in our jigsaw. Why do we research ancestors we share so little DNA with? Has social media made us lonely, and we hoard people? How many people do you interact with on your tree? Does your personality influence your interest in compiling your family tree? Are we searching for who they were, or who we are? “I’m just compiling our family tree, what can go wrong?”
The second half of this session will discuss what ethics and morality mean, and what these have to do with genealogy. Ethical dilemmas in genealogy came to the forefront since law enforcement utilized information from GEDMatch to apprehend a suspected serial killer. These issues include exposing secrets and lies, and unexpected DNA results. Many people have to struggle through ethical dilemmas on their own, so attendees at this session will benefit from considering ethical issues with more empathy and sensitivity, as covered in Penny’s book Ethical Dilemmas in Genealogy (Amazon, 2019).
All are welcome at our meetings. You do not need to be a member of the SLVGS in order to attend, but we’d love it if you’d join!
About The Speaker
Dr. Penny Walters has been a University lecturer for 30 years in Psychology and Business Studies. Penny’s interest in genealogy started after having her first child and then wondering about her biological parents, as she was adopted. DNA testing has revealed 94% Irish heritage; and fascinating insights into her children’s heritage.
Penny lectures internationally in-person, presents webinars, and writes articles about a variety of genealogy topics including ethical dilemmas, the psychology of searching, adoption, ethnicity, and identity, Irish heritage, and mixing DNA results with a paper trail. Penny has authored the books Ethical Dilemmas in Genealogy and The Psychology of Searching. Both are available in paperback or Kindle on Amazon.
Please get in touch to discuss booking her as a speaker: https://www.searchmypast.co.uk.
