Family folklore is the branch of folkloristics concerned with the study and use of folklore and traditional culture transmitted within an individual family group. This includes craft goods produced by family members or memorabilia that have been saved as reminders of family events. It includes family photos, photo albums, along with bundles of other pages held for posterity such as certificates, letters, journals, notes, and shopping lists. Family sayings and stories which recount true events are retold as a means of maintaining a common family identity. Family customs are performed, modified, sometimes forgotten, created or resurrected with great frequency. Each time the result is to define and solidify the perception of the family as unique.
Family folklore has long been included in the documentation of regional, ethnic, religious or occupational groups. Responding to a call in 1958 from oral history pioneer Mody Boatright to document the "family saga",Mody C. Boatright (1958). "The Family Saga as a Form of Folklore". In The Family Saga and Other Phases of American Folklore, eds. Mody C. Boatright, Robert B. Downs, and John T. Flanagan. Urbana / University of Illinois Press. folklorists responded with published accounts of stories and traditions passed down in their own families.Kim S. Garrett (1961), "Family Stories and Sayings", pp 273–281. In Publications of the Texas Folklore Society, Vol. XXX. In the 1970s began to be considered a defining element of the family group. L. Karen Baldwin's unpublished dissertation (1975)L. Karen Baldwin (1975). Down on Bugger Run: Family Group and the Social Base of Folklore. University of Pennsylvania / Unpublished Dissertation. laid the further theoretical groundwork for family folklore "… not only is the family a folk group, but it is also the first folk group anyone belongs to."Polly Stewart (2008), "Karen Baldwin (1943 - 2007)", pp. 485–486. In Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 121, Fall 2008.
Thereafter the field broadened to include the expanding definition of family. The conventional extended family, consisting of a heterosexual married couple with children and grandparents, now incorporates gay partners, unmarried committed relationships and children adopted or born through non-traditional methods and procedures. Family traditions themselves are changing accordingly.
The study of family folklore is distinct from genealogy or family history. Instead of focusing on historical dates, locations and verifiable events, this area of study looks at the unique stories, customs, and handicrafts that define the family as a distinct social group. Family lore often changes to convey a sense of the family and a set of values. Family lore defines the family story. In 1996, American folklorist Barre Toelken wrote:
For an individual family, folklore is its creative expression of a common past. As raw experiences are transformed into family stories, expression, and photos, they are codified in forms which can easily be recalled, retold, and enjoyed. Their drama and beauty are heightened, and the family’s past becomes accessible as it is reshaped according to its needs and desires. … Its stories, photographs, and traditions are personalized and often creative distillations of experience, worked and reworked over time.
Folklore A child is born or adopted into an established family group, which contains a microcosm of the social alignments found in many larger groups: the vertical relationship between grandparents and grandchildren, the horizontal relationship between siblings and cousins of a generation or age group, clusters of girls or boys and skill-based family alliances.Sims, Martha C., Martine Stephens (2005). Living Folklore, p. 31. Utah / Utah State University Press. The child grows up in this family and learns the family lore as it is performed throughout the seasons and the life cycle. The family is the first folk group of the child, and "the group in which important primary folkloric socialization takes place and individual aesthetic preference patterns".
The dynamics of family folklore change through the addition of children, but especially via the regular incorporation of new adult family members through each marriage or a committed relationship. With the formation of each new family node, a unique subset and combination of the customs and traditions of both families are incorporated into a new story, both modifying and enriching the current family lore.
As the definition of family broadened to encompass more arrangements, the folklore associated with those arrangements came to be considered family folklore.
Transmission The transmission of individual stories and customs within a family depends for the most part upon the personality, character and lifestyle of its members. No single member typically is responsible for passing along family lore. As a family reshapes itself around each birth, death, marriage or other life event, individual members pick up items of family lore to own and perform. This might be learning a skill, telling a story (or story cycle) or baking a traditional dessert for a holiday table. Individual items can be picked up by multiple family members, for example when grown siblings adopt a family recipe or tradition in their households. This type of transmission through multiple individuals was first described in an article by Dégh and Vázsonyi as "multi-conduit transmission".Linda Dégh and Andrew Vázsonyi (1975). "Hypothesis of Multi-Conduit Transmission in Folklore", pp. 207–255. In Folklore. Performance and Communication, ed. Dan Ben-Amos. Den Haag, Paris. By choosing to own a piece of the family lore, family members signify that this tradition embodies beliefs and values to which they adhere. By spreading it to the rest of the family, these beliefs and values come to define the family.
Multiple spheres within the family and household have been "traditionally" defined as the purview of one gender or the other, creating an intersection between folklore studies and gender studies. Thus transmission runs through either the male or the female lines. An obvious area of gender-related transmission is seen in the kitchen, where food preparation and mealtime customs have historically been performed by women. In the course of everyday meal preparation, family folklore is typically transmitted from mother to daughter. A variant of this is seen when a man takes over the preparation of a special meal or special recipe. One common example of this practice is described by Thomas Adler in the article "Making Pancakes on Sunday: The Male Cook in Family Tradition".Thomas A. Adler (1981). "Making Pancakes on Sunday: The Male Cook in Family Tradition", pp. 45–55. In Western Folklore, Vol. 40.
A different gender-related variation in folklore transmission is seen in storytelling. The same story can be shaped and told differently each family member, even though they were both present at the original event. For an event occurring during the apple harvest, for example, a woman's narration might include details of the apple butter recipe they were preparing at the time. In contrast, the man's narration might give only enough detail to "make a point worth telling". This gender-based variance has been studied by Baldwin and Margaret Yocum. They found "… women's telling to be more collaborative, interruptible, and filled with information and genealogy; men's telling, by contrast, is often uninterrupted and more competitive."Margaret Yocum, Family Folklore, pg. 282.
Deference is typically to family member who is the designated performer of a specific custom or tradition, even though the custom is known to everyone. When the "last basketmaker" dies, another member steps up to become new "last basketmaker." No one else performs the tradition as long as the designated bearer of the tradition is available, as family members acknowledge this individual as the (current) keeper of this tradition. "Traditional deference" can be found in many folk groups but is particularly evident within the family group.
Detritus of family lore If family lore which is picked up and transmitted represents the chosen familial beliefs and values, then lore that does not support and enhance these values becomes problematic. Therefore, items such as newspaper clippings on arrests, photographs of estranged members, stories of infidelities, or papers about a dishonorable discharge from military service often are not saved.
Family traditions may be lost or modified in response to difficult family events. This is obvious when one of the tradition bearers has died. If no one steps up, the tradition is lost. In a divorce one parent is frequently no longer available to play his or her role in the established traditions. The customary tall Christmas tree decorated by the (missing) tall father might be traded in for a short tree for the children to decorate. Ornaments may be discarded and new ones purchased. The toy train is no longer set up. These became the new traditions.
When the tradition is too painful in a certain circumstance, it may temporarily be held in abeyance until the circumstance changes. If one storyteller dies, hearing one of the stories may for a time remind family members more of the lost storyteller than of the story's subject.
Each family passes its traditions from generation to generation. New members do not recognize family customs as "traditional" and must learn of their significance. New members also bring their own traditions that need to be reconciled with the existing set.
Forms In the 1970s, family folklore began to be investigated as a defining element of the family group. As part of this investigation, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. set up a tent for several yearsFrom 1974–1978 to collect the family lore of festival visitors. The goal was to establish an archive of family folklore as part of the Smithsonian collections. Using taped interviews, representative pieces were published in the book A Celebration of American Family Folklore: Tales and Traditions from the Smithsonian Collection.
Stories and sayings A family story recounts a historical event concerning specific family members. Seasoned with time and re-telling, the story gets revised to express specific values and character treasured family traits. Instead of historical accuracy, the narration becomes a medium to restate and re-enforce shared values. These stories generally take the form of an anecdote and follow the pattern of traditional tales.For further examples including traditional heroes, rogues, survivors, migrants and more, see A favorite family story might tell how the parents met, or how one parent chose the other among rivals. According to one family's story, the prospective bride had to untie all the knots in a string to demonstrate her care and diligence. Another family tells how the young couple was stuck at the top of a Ferris wheel when he proposed, and she had either to say yes or jump. Given time and repetition, the anecdotes serve to shape the overall family story, populating it with real individuals and historical events that are made personal.
The setting for telling family stories becomes part of the tradition. It can include family occasions, a particular location and/or a designated raconteur. Such elements need to be documented as part of the storytelling tradition. In one family, for example, following a holiday meal the men would retire to the study and the women would move into the kitchen. At some point in the cleanup, usually, after the best dishes had been washed and put away, the mother would bring out a bottle of schnapps to help complete the work. This became the trigger for family stories and jokes, with the laughter from the kitchen bringing the men to join in.Told by the Riedel family from Freiburg, Germany. Recorded October 2014