Handschrift betreffende de stamboom van de familie De Hooghe after 1870

This handwritten family tree of the De Hooghe lineage offers an intimate glimpse into the construction of identity. In societies where social status was often inherited, lineage was everything. Family trees weren't just about names and dates, they were tools for asserting privilege and social standing. This document performs a very specific cultural function. It seeks to legitimize and reinforce the family's position within a hierarchical social order. But what stories are left unwritten in this careful accounting? Whose voices are missing? The women who married into the family? What about those who, for various reasons, found themselves on the margins of this carefully constructed narrative? Consider how historical documents like these, while seemingly objective, are always shaped by the perspectives and biases of those who create them. It’s a reminder that history is never a complete or neutral account. It is always a selective narrative constructed by those in power.