En jämförelse mellan två släktarkiv
Ordnandet och förtecknandet av det Gardtmanska och det Hamnströmska släktarkivet
For my advanced degree in archival science, I have organised and catalogued two family archives; man Family Archives ("Gardtmanska släktarkivet") and the Hamnström Family Archives ("Hamnströmska säk- tarkivet"). Though both could be labelled "family archives", there were many differences between the two. The Gardtman Family Archives contained the records of several family members from a period of several centuries, spanning from the early 17th century, to the early 20th century. It was by far the larger of the two archives. A substantial part of the records consisted of documents regarding various agricultural estates the family had owned or been involved with in one way or another. The Hamnström Family Archives was smaller than the Gardtman Family Archives. It was of a more recent date. It contained also contained records from a more con- densed period of time; most of the records were from the 20th century. A large part of the material consisted of photographs from the early 20th century. The different nature of the two archives made different organising and cataloguing principles suitable. I organised the Gardtman Family Archives more or less chronologically. My judgement was that other organising principles would destroy the provenance too much. I organised the Hamnström Family Archives according to the Martin Grass scheme for personal archives. Though it contained records from more than one person, it had many of the characteristics of a personal archive, since the persons lived during a relatively brief period of time. In a final, theoretical part of this essay, I discuss some theoretical issues surrounding family archives, with special focus on provenance and appraisal.