Martin, David S.

Williams, Robert Lee

English

Western Connecticut State University: WestCollections - digitalcommons@wcsu

JADARA 
Volume 31 Number 2 Article 8 
October 2019 
Genealogy Interests in Deaf and Hearing Adults: Educational and 
Psychological Comparisons 
David S. Martin 
none 
Robert Lee Williams 
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Recommended Citation 
Martin, D. S., & Williams, R. L. (2019). Genealogy Interests in Deaf and Hearing Adults: Educational and 
Psychological Comparisons. JADARA, 31(2). Retrieved from https://repository.wcsu.edu/jadara/vol31/
iss2/8 
Brief Report
GENEALOGY INTERESTS IN DEAF AND HEARING ADULTS:
EDUCATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPARISONS
David S. Martin & Robert Lee Williams
Genealogy and Personal Factors
Relatively few studies have addressed the connections between
personality or femily factors and interest in genealogy. Gostnan (1995)
stated that interest in genealogy may stem from the need to investigate
inherited diseases, attain social status, bring the past "alive," and develop a
"sense of belonging" to some group. Rice (1992) indicated that amateur
genealogists use femily stories as a kind of "empowerment,"whereas Chance
(1988) said that genealogy promotes mental health for older persons by
fulfilling a number of personal needs such as the life-review process. Low
(1992) pointed out fiiat genealogists can derive a "cultural place attachment"
through family history study. Thus, genealogy has been found to fulfill a
variety of personal needs. No literature relates these needs to the difference
between Deaf and hearing persons.
Genealogy among people who are Deaf
The authors raised the following questions in the process of comparing the
motivation of Deaf vs. hearing people in the pursuit of genealogy:
1. Would Deaf persons be interested in genealogy primarily for the
purpose of learning about the medical background (e.g., hearing
status) of fiunily members?
2. To what extent must genealogists who are Deaf need to overcome
barriers to access to information?
3. Do Deaf genealogists benefit from group genealogical experiences?
4. To what extent would the satisfactions derived from genealogy be
different for Deaf vs. hearing persons?
Method
A specially developed questionnaire was distributed to three cohorts
during 1996 ~ the Metropolitan Washington (DC) Deaf Genealogists'
Association, a national Deaf person's computer List-Serve network known
as "TFA" but which also includes hearing people who work in Deaf
education, and the 1996 annual conference of the Federated Genealogical
Societies in Rochester, New York. In all instances, participation in the
survey was voluntary.
Vol. 31, No. 2 & 3,1998 38 JADARA
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Martin and Williams: Genealogy Interests in Deaf and Hearing Adults: Educational and P
Published by WestCollections: digitalcommons@wcsu, 1997
Brief Report
A total of 38 subjects returned the questionnaire. Of that total, 22
classified themselves as Deaf and 16 classified themselves as hearing. There
were no significant differences in the gender of the respondents or average
ages of either the Deaf or hearing samples.
Findings and Discussion
A. Interest in Genealogv. We found no significant difference
between Deaf and hearing persons in their reasons for pursuit of family
history. The majority of both Deaf and hearing respondents listed as their
prime genealogical interests: preparing a history for Ae family, an enjoyable
hobby, and qualifying to join a lineage society. There are several possible
explanations for this unexpected finding. In the 19th century, extremely
detailed genealogical records on Deaf children were kept as they were
enrolled in schools for the deaf in order to trace hereditary deafiiess; these
records were analyzed by Alexander Graham Bell (who was married to a
Deaf woman) and are still available today in Washington, DC at the
headquarters of The Volta Bureau, a subsidiary of the Alexander Graham
Bell Association. However, in the late twentieth century, interest in the
hereditary aspects of deafiiess from a pathological point of view has waned
in fevor of increased pride in Deaf culture and the resulting general societal
openness to the rights of people with disabilities in the United States. Thus,
it is possible that Deaf adults as a group have moved beyond interest in the
specific medical aspects of deafiiess, and are more interested in family
history for some of the same reasons as hearing persons.
On the other hand, approximately one third of the Deaf respondents
referred to deafiiess eifiier in their reason for becoming involved in genealogy
or in one of their major satisfactions in working in the field. One Deaf
woman wrote of wanting to be "able to tell family history to my mother who
never heard before because she is the only Deaf child in my family," or ".. .to
find out whether deafiiess is hereditary or not..." Another Deaf man's reason
for pursuit of genealogy is to discover "why there was no history of deafiiess
in [my] family 'til now." Because deafiiess is not commonly viewed as a
pathological condition in the Deaf community, looking for "deaf roots" is
not viewed as a "medical reason," rather it is viewed as a cultural affiliatinn
B. Length of Time Involved. Though 47% of the hearing respondents
had been involved actively in genealogy for more than 15 years, only 18%
of the Deaf respondents had been involved for as long a period. Yet there
was no significant difference in the ages of the Deaf and hearing cohorts.
This finding would coincide logically with the beginning of increased
captioning on television in the early 1990s and thus the beginning of greater
access to media programs related to femily history.
JADARA 39 Vol. 31, Nos. 2 & 3,1997-98
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Brief Report —
r. Education in Relation to Hearing Status. Hearing persons in this
sample had a higher average level of education than the comparable cohort
of Deaf persons. This finding is not surprising in view of the fact that higher
education is still not as widely accessible to Deaf as for hearing persons.
Level of education, however, seems not to have affected the seriousness of
purpose nor satisfections derived by either subgroup, as indicated by results
on other survey items.
D. fienealogical Training? Experiences. Hearing individuals reported
having attended an average of three training workshops, and more than
60% of the hearing respondents had attended at least one genealogical
conference or training session. In stark contrast. Deaf individuals averaged
less than one workshop (.6), and in fact only 25% had attended any kind of
formal training session. The lack of available qualified sign language
interpreters in many workshops and conferences is clearly one major
explanation for this discrepancy.
Conclusions
Though the accessibility to training activities is clearly more
restricted for Deaf than hearing persons, the highest-interest priorities in
genealogy seem to be equally strong among both Deaf and hearing persons,
in spite of the persistent differences in accessibility. The interest among
Deaf genealogists must be sustained by a strong individual perseverance
that is not as important for hearing persons, in view of the barriers posed
by lack of interpreters in workshops, conferences, and many public libraries
and archives. Therefore, one of the most important next steps in relation to
equity must be the equal provision of support services for Deaf persons in
genealogical events and research fecilities so that all genealogical
information and activities are fully available to Deaf clients at all times.
Deaf genealogists are in fact interested specifically in some of their
genealogical connections to other Deaf families and ancestors. Several
original families of Deaf persons have been identified in the past by
historians in Colonial America located in four different colonies, and for
some members of the Deaf community, there is a sense of pride to be able to
be connected to one of those original families (T.W. Jones, Personal
Communication, December, 1996). Properly taught, genealogy can help Deaf
or hearing children to develop a healthy curiosity about differences in the
world around them. Through still better understanding of these motivations,
then services and education may then be better developed to serve this deep-
seated human need to find our roots.
Vol. 31, No. 2 & 3, 1998 40 JADARA
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Martin and Williams: Genealogy Interests in Deaf and Hearing Adults: Educational and P
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Brief Report
References
Chance, S. (1988). The psychological functions of genealogy in the
aged. Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, 1(2), 113-115.
Gosman, L.M. (1995, June). The keys to yesterday. Fifty and
Forward Magazine, 6-7, 32.
Low, S.M. (1992). Symbolic ties that bind: Place attachment in the
plaza. Human Behavior and Environment Advances in Theory and
Research, 12, 165-185.
Rice, J.S. (1992). Discursive formation, life stories, and the
emergence of co-dependency. Sociological Quarterly, 33(3), 337-364.
David S. Martin
Robert Lee fVilliams
Gallaudet University
Author Note
The authors wish to thank Ms. Nancy Abbott of the Metropolitan Washington Deaf
Genealogists' Association and Dr. Thomas W. Jones of Gallaudet University for their
valuable advice on this report
JADARA 41 Vol. 31, Nos. 2 & 3, 1997-98
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Genealogy Interests in Deaf and Hearing Adults: Educational and Psychological Comparisons

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Genealogy Interests in Deaf and Hearing Adults: Educational and Psychological Comparisons

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