ABSTRACT
Families are not only concerned with history, the doings of their contemporaries and forbears, but with education and knowledge, both private and public. Over the centuries children have learned their first social and cultural skills, from toilet training to speech, within a family context. During the modern period, however, in England as in many other parts of the world, the concept of the educative family was complemented or replaced by the rise of the schooled society. This chapter locates family history, including its dimensions of knowledge and education, within a variety of contexts, both private and public.
