Alongside established heritage institutions, family historians are central figures in the ecosystem of digital heritage, both as contributors to and users of digitized historical sources. With that in mind, this research aims for a wide examination of family historians' engagement with the broader selection of available digital platforms, providing knowledge about how and why they choose to use one platform over another. This knowledge is important for the future development of sustainable digital platforms in the heritage sector. With a large variety of digitized source providers, many with free access platforms, Denmark and Danish family historians make an excellent case for this study. Through both a questionnaire and focus group interviews, using a grounded theory approach, this study has developed a model of engagement with digital platforms, referred to as a buffet model. This model illustrates how family historians pick and choose from a selection of digital platforms throughout their search and management of information as well as their community interaction. Moreover, through the lens of the Serious Leisure Perspective we find that family history is often a life-long leisure activity and family historians’ usage of digital platforms support this finding.

除了已建立的遗产机构，家庭历史学家是数字遗产生态系统中的核心人物，他们既是数字化历史资源的贡献者，也是数字化历史资源的使用者。考虑到这一点，本研究旨在广泛考察家族历史学家对更广泛的可用数字平台选择的参与情况，提供有关他们如何以及为何选择使用一个平台而不是另一个平台的知识。这些知识对于遗产部门可持续数字平台的未来发展非常重要。丹麦和丹麦家庭历史学家拥有各种各样的数字化资源提供者，其中许多提供免费访问平台，为这项研究提供了一个很好的案例。通过问卷调查和焦点小组访谈，使用扎根理论方法，本研究开发了一种与数字平台互动的模型，称为自助餐模型。该模型说明了家族历史学家如何在整个信息搜索和管理以及社区互动过程中从一系列数字平台中进行挑选。此外，通过严肃休闲视角的镜头，我们发现家族史通常是终生的休闲活动，家族史学家对数字平台的使用支持了这一发现。