Treading Warily into the Lives of Others

ABSTRACT

Between 1947 and 1953 Australia accepted over 172,000 refugees from post-war Europe. Many of these displaced persons are now deceased and have left little record outside of their official presence in the archive. Although their life stories may live on within families, and occasionally in often unpublished memoirs, as individuals they are apt to disappear from the historian’s gaze. As an academic historian I increasingly find myself using family history methods to inform my broader historical research, reconstructing life stories of refugees and migrants, to fill the gaps and silences that exist once the archival record ends. Using examples from my research I will examine how family history methods help to provide a deeper understanding of the longer-term experiences of this migration and the policies which governed it. Furthermore, the use of family history websites for academic research is becoming increasingly popular and yet the legal and ethical constraints, to date, have received very little scholarly attention. This paper will also consider these, both from the point of view of the academic researcher, and from a personal perspective given that even those with public online family trees may not welcome our intrusion into what is ultimately, a very private space.

KEYWORDS:

• Family history
• displaced persons
• migration
• life stories
• ethics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Examples of projects which bring all types of historians and the general public together include ‘The Virtual War Memorial Australia’, a digital memorial to commemorate all Australians who have served with contributions of content from the public https://vwma.org.au/ ‘The 1947 Partition Archive’, a community archive documenting the history of partition through a crowdsourcing approach https://www.1947partitionarchive.org/.

2 Between 1939 and 1971 all non-Australian/British subjects in Australia over the age of 16 were required by law to register as an ‘alien’. Once registered, they also had to notify the authorities of any change of address. Such reporting was no longer required after the migrant gained Australian citizenship. These records are held in the National Archives of Australia.

3 As this is very recent history, out of respect for the privacy of the refugees mentioned, some of whom are still living, and their descendants, I have chosen to use only Christian names in this paper. Similarly, as National Archives of Australia files often use the surnames, birthdates and other identifying factors in the identification of files, particularly in the control symbols and titles, I will use the standard referencing format National Archives Australia: Series number, control number where it does not identify the subject. Where control numbers and titles identify individuals, I will provide the individual file identification number, along with the location of the file. This will allow researchers to identify these items without revealing the full names and other identifying information of these refugees to the general reader.

4 The National Archives of Australia has suffered enormous funding cuts over the last few years and as a consequence no longer has the staff to access examine large numbers of records. For family historians who wish to consult a small number of files re their ancestors/relatives this is generally not a problem however, for academic researchers such as myself who wish to consult records en masse after 25 requests for access examination users are issued an email warning that they have exceeded the current allowance. The email states: ‘Our records indicate that your current applications seek access to more than 25 items, exceeding the application cap … triggering an extension of the time for the Archives to make a decision on your applications … we have now extended the consideration period for all of your applications … If applications are cancelled, the consideration period for the remaining applications may be reduced.’ Effectively the researcher is punished with a time delay (which can be many months or longer) for requesting access examination of multiple files.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karen Agutter

Karen Agutter is an historian with a focus on the history of migration, particularly issues of migrant identity and the relationship between new arrivals and receiving populations. Karen is a registered professional historian and a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide. She has published widely on many aspects of Australian immigration.