Recent studies of the genealogy craze focus on how family historians appeal to ancestors to fashion their own identities, but practicing family history can also be a form of national identity-work. In this paper I explore how Larissa Behrendt’s notion of “colonial storytelling” might apply to the hi/stories told within families, as they seek to reproduce or challenge inherited narratives of settler colonialism. To do this, I analyze a sample of self-published family histories of “settlement” held at the National Library of Australia. With close attention to family historians’ books, I consider how genealogical research can revise the collective memories that shape both familial and national imaginaries and offer a model for truth-telling.

对家谱热潮的最新研究集中于家庭历史学家如何吸引祖先塑造自己的身份，但是实践家族史也可以作为一种民族身份工作。在本文中，我探讨了拉里萨·贝伦特（Larissa Behrendt）的“殖民地讲故事”概念如何适用于家庭内部诉说的喜事/故事，因为他们试图重现或挑战定居者殖民主义的传承叙事。为此，我分析了在澳大利亚国家图书馆举行的自我结算“和解”家族历史样本。在密切关注家庭历史学家的著作的同时，我考虑了家谱研究如何能够修改形成家庭和国家想象的集体记忆，并为讲真话提供一个模型。