Family histories and geographies: interrelationships between genealogy and geography

The basis of this paper is that family history and geography are fundamentally interrelated and that geography can benefit from association with the rapidly expanding field of genealogy. A number of influences has contributed to the huge growth in family history research and it has been facilitated in particular by the internet. Geography is vital to genealogy in part because of the use of maps and administrative areas but especially because of the critical importance of places. The links are beginning to be recognised in geography. Two areas in which genealogy and geography are associated, migration and tourism, are discussed. In these sections and elsewhere in the paper reference is made to the Irish situation