According to research released this year, two-thirds of family historians experience sorrow or anger in the course of their research. In her paper ‘Family History Research and Distressing Emotions’, Swinburne University Emeritus Professor of Psychology Susan M. Moore explored some of the most common negative emotions that can arise from such research, and investigated the reasons people embark on family history research.
Through surveys of 775 respondents, Moore ascertained three main psychosocial motives for undertaking research into family history: self‑understanding; altruism, or the desire to offer something of value from their research; and cognitive challenge, or the desire
