Biography
Amy Harris is an associate professor of history and family/history genealogy. Her research interests center on families, women, and gender in early modern Britain. She is particularly interested in the way family and social relationships inform one another. She uses both her historical and genealogical training to study family relationships of the past. Her first book, Siblinghood and Social Relations in Georgian England (University of Manchester Press, 2012, paperback 2016), examines the impact sisters and brothers had on eighteenth-century English families and society. She argues that although parents' wills often recommended their children "share and share alike," siblings had to constantly negotiate between prescribed equality and practiced inequalities.
Her most recent book, Family Life in England and America, 1690-1820, was co-edited with Rachel Cope and Jane Hinckley (Routledge, 2015). This four-volume collection of original sources (manuscript and print) brings together sources from both sides of the Atlantic and from a wide variety of regional archives. It is the first collection of its kind, allowing comparisons between the development of the family in England and America during a time of significant change.
In 2018 her article, "Early Mormonism’s Expansive Families and the Browett Women," published in Mormon Women’s History: Beyond Biography, won the Mormon History Association best article award.
She is currently working on a new book: A Single View: Family Life and the Unmarried in Georgian England, which analyzes family relations across the lifespan of never-married men and women.
Prof. Harris has completed fellowships at the Center for 17th and 18th-Century Studies at UCLA’s William Andrews Clark Library and the Newberry Library in Chicago. She teaches European history, introductory genealogical methods, English paleography, advanced British genealogical methodology courses, and women’s studies. She currently serves as the director for the Family History Program at BYU.
Research Interests
Early modern Britain, particularly families, women, gender, poverty, and genealogy.Teaching Interests
British family historical research methods, paleography, European women's history, women's studies, British history, history of European families.Education
- PhD, , University of California Berkeley (2006)
- MA, , American University (2000)
- BA, History, University Honors , Brigham Young University (1998)
Licenses and Certifications
- International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists, Accredited Genealogist (2022 - Present)
- International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists, Accredited Genealogist (2017 - 2022)
- International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists, Accredited Genealogist (2012 - 2017)
- International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists, Accredited Genealogist (2007 - 2012)
Honors and Awards
- Alumni Professorship, BYU (2018 - 2021)
- Ted J. Warner Award for Excellence in Citizenship, BYU Department of History (2020 - 2020)
- Marjorie Pay Hinckley Young Scholar Award, College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences (2017 - 2020)
- William G. Hartley Best Article , Mormon History Association (2018 - 2018)
- FHSS Innovation in Teaching Award, College of Family Home and Social Sciences (2014 - 2015)
- Teaching Initiative Grant, FHSS (2013 - 2014)
- Outstanding Teaching Award - Chair selection, History Dept (2013 - 2013)
- David O. McKay Grant, BYU (2011 - 2013)
Memberships
- Association of Genealogy Educators and Schools (2018 - Present)
- Association of Professional Genealogists (2016 - Present)
- Utah Genealogical Association (2016 - Present)
- American Historical Association (2007 - Present)
- Society for the History of Children and Youth (2007 - Present)
- National Genealogical Society (2006 - Present)
- North American Conference on British Studies (2006 - Present)
- Society of Genealogists (2006 - Present)
- Western Association of Women Historians (2006 - Present)
Professional Citizenship
- Board Member, Association of Genealogy Educators and Schools (2022 - Present)
- Committee/Council Member, FamilySearch- Family History education coordinating committee (2012 - Present)
- Reviewer, Ad Hoc Reviewer, Cultural and Social History (2023 - 2023)
- Reviewer, Ad Hoc Reviewer, Liverpool University Press (2023 - 2023)
- Reviewer, Ad Hoc Reviewer, Journal of Mormon History (2023 - 2023)
- Reviewer, Ad Hoc Reviewer, English Historical Review (2022 - 2023)
- Media Interview, Love Your Lineage (LDSLiving Podcast) (2022 - 2022)
- Reviewer, Ad Hoc Reviewer, Liverpool University Press (2022 - 2022)
- Other, Association of Genealogy Educators and Schools (2018 - 2022)
- Reviewer, Ad Hoc Reviewer, National Genealogical Society (2022 - 2022)
- Officer (specify in Other), International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (2021 - 2021)
- Editor, Associate Editor, Journal of British Studies, Book Reviews (2014 - 2019)
- Committee/Council Member, Western Conference on British Studies (2019 - 2019)
- Other, International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (2009 - 2012)