One Place Studies OPS

What is a One Place Study (OPS)?

  • A OPS combines family and local history on a community, street, graveyard etc.
  • A OPS is about collecting diverse information and statistics about a place over time or at a specific time and drawing conclusions.

I like #OnePlaceStudies because it sets everyday life in the local and national context, and interprets local/national events and factors through the lives of real, ordinary people.

A OPS can be whatever you want it to be. Don’t be put off by thinking it has to be done a certain way as I was for a while

Here is the web page for OPS world wide but there are only 4 in Australia. Check out the studies in the navigation bar one-place-studies.org

Bittermuir / Pixabay

Have you done or are you planning to do a OPS? What place would you choose or have you chosen and why?

Here are some blogs about OPS mentioned in our chat tonight

Sue – Sorell municipality, Tasmania

Jennifer – Axedale, Victoria

Alex – Wing, Buckinghamshire, England

 


I have an interest in three OPSs although they tend to suffer from lack of time or competing demands. My first is focused on Broadford, Co Clare, Ireland and more broadly on East Clare emigrants to Australia

My second OPS is a study of the 62 emigrants from Dorfprozelten, Bavaria to Australia in the mid19thC. I learn more about their lives in Bavaria, emigration and life in Oz. I have good links with the local historian

My third OPS interest is in Murphy’s Creek, Qld which was key in the construction of the Ipswich-Toowoomba railway line but is now a sleepy satellite town below the range. I have done lots of research but yet to set up a blog

I have two OPS on the go. One is Kaimkillenbun on the Darling Downs and my study covers the late 1800’s-1930. This is where my g grandparents settled first when arriving from Northern Ireland. Other family were already there

My second OPS is of Seventeen Mile Rocks in Brisbane. I feel very connected because not only did my g grandparents farm there but I moved from Kenmore to Jindalee just nearby aged 14

I haven’t and probably won’t … I really like the idea but so many possible places in my Ancestry to choose from … wouldn’t be able to make up my mind what to pick

I started mine by using posts written by students when I taught history and Technology. The most recent posts relate to the suggested topics from One Place Studies

I started looking into people from the same Cornish town as my family, or Cornish families with the same occupation/living in same suburb, but uncovered uncomfortable stories through Trove about others. Made me question ethics of what I was doing.

I suppose the question is whether it’s about recent times and people. Ethical questions can be quite the #familyhistory and OPS challenge. Further back in time is less concerning.

And a great Scottish site which traces the residents who lived in the village of Cairndow at the head of Loch Fyne Scotland. On my to-do list is to send info to them. Sigh…so much to do! #OneplaceStudy ourhousestheirstories.com

If I do another OPS,  it will be Polstead in Suffolk

I started a #OnePlaceStudy this year looking at a local ‘big house’ (now demolished). There was a family connection in that my g-grandfather worked there as a gardener, but it was also part of the local history of the area I grew up in: kinedar.wordpress.com

of course ! It doesn’t have to be a town or a village does it? A house will do. Or a church. Or a street or cemetery -whatever takes your fancy and speaks to you.

Focusing on a big house has meant (a) it’s a manageable size for an OPS, and (b) I get to use a wide range of sources because I’m looking at the ‘high society’ above stairs plus all the staff, as individuals and within their roles.

I had contemplated doing a OPS for the village where my father was born

I am not doing a OPS as such but had started a blog on just one small place, Tarlee in SA but just posting Trove articles, weddings, burials there and sending the links to the nearby local historical society justattarlee.blogspot.com

Kind of working on this for Makaretu & Ashley Clinton, two areas in Central Hawkes Bay, NZ. Approximately half of both cemeteries contain ancestors (back to Great Great Grandparents arriving in 1873). Get info from my 82 year old dad & 72 year old mother.

I have been collaborating with an historical society doing a OPS. More heads make for better results

Sue, the time line is a great way to feature events at a place and linking to blog posts an added bonus. A time line is something I would add now I have seen your blog.

Limiting the time span makes a OPS more realistic Fran. Otherwise it could be more than a lifetime of work.

Daniel_Nebreda / Pixabay

In what ways might a OPS complement your family history research? ie context, FANS, others?

An OPS helps you understand and appreciate what your ancestors’ lives were like, what their “normal” was. It’s also a great way to see just how large their extended family was, and how interconnected with their neighbours they were.

Does anyone else feel they have no “right” to be researching a place where they don’t live or which is far away? It sometimes feels quite impertinent to me.

I think if done with ethics in mind, e.g. always questioning own assumptions, making active efforts to engage with local #archives, local societies/orgs and local culture, it’s a brilliant & respectful way of expanding our own worldview…

…and where possible, involving local researchers & residents from modern day to ensure the community can also interact with it – definitely a force for good & potentially forging national/int’l goodwill connections too

I live about a thousand miles from where I was born- and about four thousand from where my grandfather was! If I didn’t research far off places, I wouldn’t be able to do any of my #genealogy

I’m sorry. I just don’t understand this query. We’re all from somewhere. And isn’t it the point to learn things, not only of the person, but of their place and their time. I don’t do this just to collect names but to expand my knowledge of everything

If I was doing an OPS I would want it to be supportive of my #familyhistory research. To lead to a better understanding of my ancestor’s lives.

Context is important but you can research around your ancestors – people associated with them (FANS), environment etc. – without necessarily taking on a full scale OPS

Just getting a more rounded feeling for the area & the close-knit connections. Eg – 3 local ‘boys’ went to WWII, and being a very small rural area, most residents had photos of all 3, in a frame on their walls. (And now I have them on my wall)

An OPS will give you lots of interesting background tidbits to add colour if you are writing up your family history too

I think the OPS helps me describe how my ancestors lived. Eg, Haughley in the 1920s was known for its lack of sewerage & the vicar’s crusade to get it for the village. Got to put that in the book !

My OPS started out as FAN research when I was writing about my g-grandfather for a local history project. It was only later that I realised it was ripe for development into a project in its own right.

Because mine is more about a district in Tasmania, I try to involve the community through their Facebook page. Lots of comments are from community members who have read the post.

Using a Facebook page to share info, or make connections with current residents can be very helpful can’t it?

I find I get very little interaction on my OPS FB page but I’ll keep plugging away. This is despite having many followers to the page

Also get ideas from the local Sorell Historical Society Facebook page where I will often mention what I am about to write about and get information from the locals

Researching your #familyhistory gives you an in-depth knowledge of your family and their lives, and we usually look at their place and activities within their community. This can add to the depth of a #OnePlaceStudy.

A OPS could help to give a bigger picture of the life your ancestors lived in a place. Collating info on all people in a place could lead to finding unknown people who are connected to your family

In both #familyhistory and an OPS it will be a goal to research as widely as possible, looking at a diverse range of data and information. We would look at consolidated data for the place a well as individual experiences and their typicality.

An OPS can give you a better understanding of where your family fits within the context of the place. The #OnePlaceStudy and #familyhistory offer complementarity and benefits to both.

A OPS can help you understand your ancestors lives in context by understanding a community or street they lived at the time they lived there or in over time. getting to know their friends and neighbours can lead to clues to follow


What kind of information would you want to research for a OPS and what outcome would you want for a OPS?

I like to study the entire census records for places and make a list of who lived where and did what compared to the next census and so on.

You can find out a lot about a place through newspaper advertisements from the time ie who lived there, sale notices, occupations, what happened in a place

And when using Trove, remember to add tags and create a relevant list so others can find it as well. Your work isn’t lost then.

Newspapers advertising of when the water, sewer and transport came to an place tells a lot about the progress and improvements

I love walking around my OPS It gives me ideas for research every time I’m lucky that my place is quite close to where I live

Just to chip in here about sources. Many researchers forget town/borough records. Your OPS may not have these, however it might be within the ‘sphere of influence’ of a larger town. E.g. the borough records of King’s Lynn mentions other towns/villages in area.

They can be hard to track down at times. Internet Archive is a good source, but some are browse only at FamilySearch and FindMyPast etc.

Don’t forget historical maps on each state land registry website. You can see places in the past. Also historical imagery on Google Earth.

At the moment my OPS focuses on stories and documents rather that statistics. That could change with more time

I worried to start with that mine didn’t have lots of statistics. But I think getting the community involved with their stories and memories is just as good

Some people will want to be very statistical in their approach, others will be focused more on the people and their stories. “Horses for courses”.

I was pondering this question over dinner, & was thinking that soon I’ll be able to do the 1911 vs 1921 comparison for Haughley.

Land records will be more important for Irish research as you work out who lived in your OPS over time. as always, maps are critical.

Doing an Irish (or Northern Irish) OPS is a challenge, but once you know your way round the local resources there is a lot of information out there (and quite a bit of it is free!)

Get to know your place! Really study a map, the topography, the local walking routes, markets,geographic obstacles and adjacent townlands or parishes. Put your message out there, you’ll be surprised who might find your interest in the OPS.

speaking of #OnePlaceMaps check out this fabulous map done by a postman in Cardigan Wales in 1945 digitised here library.wales/discover/digit… by the National Library of Wales 🙂

I’ve been using censuses, maps, street directories and the usual BMD resources to construct the basic framework of the study, but it is newspapers that are largely filling in the details and giving it colour.

My goal is to bring back to life a place which disappeared 80 years ago. So I’m gathering little stories, which provide a snapshot view, alongside all the info I can find about the residents, to reconstruct what it looked like and what life was like there

I use the National Libraries ‘Papers Past’ a lot. Really helps to identify people from the area, what they were involved in, and their connection to the community. Especially enjoy seeing school results. Also use births, deaths, marriages a lot as well

Great tip! I forgot to add school admission registers, and anniversary celebration books, especially for schools that were opened for/by pioneers.

Both mine begin with pioneers Pauleen and land records, title deeds are wonderful. and maps!

The maps + land selections are what led me to discover the connection of neighbours at Murphys Creek as former neighbours of Dorfprozelten.

ALL the information (because I have difficulty restricting myself even though restriction by timeframe or topic is eminently sensible). Outcome: a comprehensive understanding of one or more aspects of life in that place that you can share with others.

A non-English speaking OPS will offer different challenges and may offer an opportunity or necessity for collaboration with a local historian. Where there is already a #localhistory expert we will like to collaborate without “treading on toes”

An Australia OPS will need to also source diverse records including electoral rolls, land selection, naturalisations, FANs etc etc. A pioneer place OPS will likely be quite different from an established UK village OPS.

I like to understand how a place was settled ( easier in Australia and NZ ) and who lived there overtime, what their occupations were and to get a feel for how a place changed over time.

The available records and sources will vary depending on where your OPS is situated. So in Ireland you will not (mostly) find census nominal data until 1901 but you can still look at statistical data for education, occupation, gender distribution etc.

For an OPS I’d look at maps, census, naturalisation, internal-external migration, occupation, parish chest and registers, cemeteries, newspapers, land records including land selection. All you would use for #familyhistory and more.

I’m thinking census records, parish records, maps, business directories, local histories, cemetery records, newspapers. This is a good place to start one-place-studies.org/articles/10-st…

I use Trove a lot in my posts but also documents from Tasmanian archives as well as info from locals.

Pexels / Pixabay

A OPS can be an excellent family history resource. Suggest informative websites, books, blogs etc about OPS. Where can we find the One Place Studies done by others?

On twitter follow @OnePlaceStudies and use tag #OnePlaceStudy when sharing posts

Also if you share your OPS post on Wednesday use tag #oneplacewednesday It’s a thing.

The Society for One-Place Studies, of course, at @OnePlaceStudies and one-place-studies.org. Lots of freely available material (incl YouTube videos), plus extra goodies behind the membership curtain, and truly awesome and enthusiastic members.

Here’s a good article on how to choose a place? one-place-studies.org/articles/choos… and here’s the Directory of OPS. oneplacestudy.org And here’s a blog I found using the hashtag for OPS blogging prompts this month springhillhistory.org.uk/index.html

How to books I have found useful for One Place Study include “Putting Your Ancestors in Their Place: A Guide to One Place Studies” Janet Few & “Ten Steps to a One Place Study” Janet Few

I saw this One Place Study data management and mapping software in the Expo Hall at Rootstech youtu.be/K3UyjLEAuSAsof…

Great blogs with lots of things to look for in your OPS https://www.cousindetective.com/2016/01/how-to-do-one-place-study.html   https://www.treehousegenealogy.co.uk/post/one-place-study

Your first port of call should be the society for One Place Studies. one-place-studies.org This shows the registered OPSs around the world BUT there may be others eg the work done by Merron Riddiford on Victoria’s Western District.

CuriousFox is a gazetteer and message system that connects family historians & local historians. I’ve had great success with it for places in the UK & Ireland, as explained on bit.ly/2WB9ir1.

Great post by Sophie about looking at negative gaps in our research – could relate to both family and OPS

Readers: If you were to start a One Place Study, where would it be and why?

Griffiths Valuations Ireland

This week’s chat was run by those very knowledgeable about Irish land records particularly the Griffith Valuations. I have not used them yet, but now I am finding more Irish on my father’s line maybe the following will come in useful for future research.

MemoryCatcher / Pixabay

What are the Griffith’s Primary Valuations (GV)? How and why have you used them to find your Irish families?

For those looking for some background to Griffith’s Valuation – this and the related articles are useful: askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/h…

Why is GV important? Read this article by Ask About Ireland. askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/h…

For those who have not used GV or need some free tutorials, there are some excellent ones on YouTube and some specific to several Counties too

Griffith’s Valuations are/were a multilayered response to determine the rateable value of land and property to share the cost of the poor law support. It involved calculating the size, productivity and estimated rates on any property.

Critically, GV offers us an alternate insight into possible ancestral families during the mid 19th century especially given the absence of census records for that period. We will have to work a bit harder than we would with census data.

the key thing about GV from a #familyhistory POV is that it lists most land-occupying residents of the island of Ireland between 1847 to 1864…tenants and owners. It does not include whole families.

What I most want to know about Griffiths Valuations is whether the owner or renter of the property is named?

The occupier (renter) is named, and the person who rents the property to him/her is named, not always the owner

The immediate lessor is mentioned and then the person they rent to. The lessor may not be the absolute owner because they in turn may lease from higher up the chain. If you follow the overall links, and other sites, you can usually work it out.

For me Griffiths has been invaluable, it’s basically a mid-19th-century, head of household census, covering 70% of the population.

I found my 2xgreat grandfather on them and have used them to try and work out my rather unknown Ulster family, the one where I started with one person born in Castleblayney.

Griffith’s Primary Valuation of Ireland is the major part of a comprehensive land and property survey, for the purpose of levying taxes. I’ve found it indispensable in tracing my Irish families.

When I worked out my Riordan townland I used the mapping feature with Griffiths. I could go from the property number on an old map, to slide and work out where it fitted on a new map.

Exactly! Although it also works in reverse if you’re not too familiar with the geography.

It took quite a while with enlarging the map etc but eventually I could find it quickly with the curve on the roads.

There’s so much more to GV than a list of names: there’s revision lists (the amended valuations over time), maps, field and quarto books, tenure and house books (how I wish for these!). census.nationalarchives.ie/search/vob/hom…

a crucial thing for me is that they are limited for urban ancestors. I have found none of mine in it.

But you should still check it out, some of my Dublin city ancestors are listed, just not the ones who live it tenement houses.

Possibly because if they lived in tenements they were sub-tenants not the primary renter? I have had more luck with villages

I agree with @Rosiemonstre about GV’s limited used for urban areas, although occasionally this has been useful as it can demonstrate somewhere that has been urban for years wasn’t when the records started!

I watched a really informative webinar at ‘Ireland Reaching Out’ about Griffiths Valuations and Cancellation books … some time ago now. I think the link I posted may be a follow up article to that webinar


My top tip for researching GV for your families is to learn your locations in depth. Where the townland is on a map, what parish or barony it is in. Look it up on a current map or on John Grenham’s website johngrenham.com/places/ or on townlands.ie

Field books are like Swahili to me. I haven’t a clue what they mean in terms of agricultural productivity though the assessable value suggests they weren’t great. Why couldn’t I have had tenure books instead?

I have found GV useful seeing families living near each other, hence helping explaining the subsequent marriages

And witnesses to events, or perhaps a joint inheritance of land due to sharing an ancestor. Proving it is of course another problem!

Christian_Birkholz / Pixabay

How have you verified that you’ve found the right family on the GV? Do you compare and consult other record sources as well as the GV?

Try to accumulate as much information on your family before you turn to Ireland eg parents’ names, and maybe siblings’ names. This helps to “triangulate” your data and narrow down the options. An unusual name helps too 😉

Cities can be a pain in which to research in many ways. I never trusted the 1851 Dublin census was my bloke until I matched it up with church records.

There are revision lists for the GV currently only online for Nth Ireland through PRONI or for the whole country via Family Search. Latter is in black and white. You need to search by keyword not place. Fingers crossed the digital images are coming!

I believe there is a plan to put the revision books online eventually. They have been slowly computerising them

Always need to cross reference with other records and FAN network, and follow the land holdings through the Cancelled Land/Revision books, to verify you have the right family.

Hopefully the parish registers may overlap with the timeline for the GV – this will help you confirm the correct townland and lead you to the right person on the GV.

Beware! when I started genealogy, I knew where our ancestral home was (we lived there) but the map did not correspond with my ancestor on Griffiths. Properties were renumbered over time, and the attached map was from a later date than the published valuation

That’s a great tip Dara! I’ve been looking at FMP maps and Ask About Ireland maps today – it gets confusing and you really need to understand the geography and location, don’t you.

My understanding is that the numbers and boundaries drawn on the attached maps date to the 1880s and will correspond to the Valuation Revisions of that date, though the maps used are earlier OS ones, so mightn’t include recent buildings. Can anyone confirm?

I thought it was the maps and numbers corresponding to later revisions than the primary valuation.

My reading of the @findmypast GV maps suggests no tenancy numbers. I need to re-read my Reilly.

My understanding (may or not be correct) is that the maps on @findmypast are the originals used by the surveyors. Happy to be corrected if wrong.

Yes, I think so too. The ones on askaboutireland don’t match.

One of my first stops in Dublin is usually to the Valuation Office to follow up more info from the Revision lists…they’re gold!

The marriage record for my great grandma gave her father’s name and occupation. Also found him in Slater’s Directory. Then we found her brother, same name and occupation. Gradually got six siblings.

That’s really cool Margaret. I had the parents + siblings which helped confirm I was on the right track. #Irishfamilyhistory requires mental gymnastics and perseverance.

Mine seem to go to and from Scotland – and every generation some seem to emigrate to the USA. Thousands of DNA matches back to Ulster. Well before GV.

I think there was more seasonal migration than we anticipate as well as permanent. And international migration was a constant among those with enough cash to fund it. They then supported those at home. Fascinating!

Ulster migrants went every year to Scotland for work & then came home – up to relatively recent times.

A2: Maps for GV can be confusing and challenging. This is why you need to be familiar with the location and use the slider for modern to historical map image on Ask about Ireland. The @findmypast are supposed to be the earliest – but can be the most confusing. #ANZAncestryTime pic.twitter.com/6AeRK6xqIv

— Pauleen Cass (@cassmob) June 22, 2021


When using the Valuation prep books, be aware that they often measured in Irish acres and then converted to standard for the published results.

I had planned to visit Ireland last year and a volunteer from @IrelandXO was going to take me to where the land was

We were really lucky when the relieving parish priest took us to meet a relative as he had a different surname but the priest was right. We’d bonded over lives in a missionary country. The GV revisions, and a chat with the bloke confirmed it.

 

What websites are available to search the GV? What are their benefits or weaknesses?

The most commonly used one is probably Ask About Ireland. askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valua… Downside is it can be temperamental and clunky and for the maps you need to know where you’re looking. Upside: use the books option and the slider for variations.

For Northern Ireland explore the GV and revision books through this site. nidirect.gov.uk/services/searc…

I love the AskAboutIreland website askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valua… – their map facility is the best!! Their maps date later than GV, around 1880s, so for contemporary maps go to @findmypast search.findmypast.com.au/search-world-r…

You do need to know what you’re looking for though Maggie, to narrow down to the correct townland. Best to do some homework first 😉

It can be very buggy & it is not maintained well. #ANZAncestryTime I still use it and FMP mainly.

The only complete version of Griffith’s Valuation with the ORIGINAL MAPS marked to identify the corresponding holdings, is on findmypast.com” (my capitalisation) ref. irishfamilyhistorycentre.com/article/how-to…

Worth pointing out that the maps are listed as a separate record to the valuation on findmypast. search.findmypast.ie/search-world-r…

Ancestry also has search capabilities https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1269/

Revision lists enable you to follow the inheritance pattern for a property and lead you perhaps to a cousin today, give clues to approx dates of deaths of ancestors, or who inherited the land – possibly not the eldest son as you might think.

Ah, I only use the ‘askaboutrieland’ ones as FindMyPast doesn’t include maps for the six counties in Northern Ireland, and that’s what I was referring to. So you could well be correct!

Ask about Ireland. failteromhat.com/griffiths.php


I don’t use Roots Ireland except when I need to. You need to be sure you check what they have compared to others. Grenham’s site is good for this sort of comparison.

 

Can you recommend any books/blogs/websites to learn more about the GV and associated records?


The Ireland Reaching Out (@IrelandXO ) Website is one of my ‘go to’ places for things Irish … Here is a link irelandxo.com/ireland-xo/new…

this site is useful to learn more about the landed estates in Connacht and Munster, c. 1700-1914 landedestates.ie


I highly recommend Frances McGee’s book on the Valuation Office for those who want more detail. fourcourtspress.ie/books/2018/the…

Claire Santry’s Irish Genealogy Toolkit website is a fantastic resource to understand Griffith’s Valuation and associated records: Land and property records including GV https://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/Ireland-genealogy.html

My absolute favourite book for GV research is James Reilly’s book which can be found via Googling.”Richard Griffith and his valuations of Ireland” amazon.com.au/Richard-Griffi… If you can’t beg, borrow or steal it, read this pdf file. leitrim-roscommon.com/GRIFFITH/Griff…

Another useful website which offers further links is: irish-geneaography.com/griffiths-valu…

And a shameless plug for a talk I’m doing on Griffith’s Valuation and related records with @IHGS in October: ihgs.ac.uk/course-tutoria…

Don’t forget valuation and other books @NARIreland genealogy.nationalarchives.ie

Blog posts about using GV

Maggie – also used other Irish resources to help in her search

Margaret – mention of ancestor in the GV

Margy Rose – first success with GV

Pauleen – using GV and and quarto books, Valuation office, Household returns,

Alex – evaluating GV, part 2

Alex – on Irish research

Readers: Have you used Griffiths Valuations or other Irish records?

Local and family history

I was on holiday on Flinders Island when this chat happened so I will only do a brief summary without names.

Kookay / Pixabay

How can Local History research complement your Family History?

in the absence of extensive personal records for #FamilyHistory local history is often the only way to understand the worlds in which they lived and died. Knowing can give clues and help solve genealogical dilemmas

Absolutely! Especially handy when delving into Irish ancestors.

It’s pretty much essential! Some of my best breakthroughs over the weekend were applying that local history knowledge, including of custom and practice, to detect and analyse pattern

The British Library Ethos Catalogue lists all UK theses, many can be downloaded FOC, but not every one is available & you have to contact the relevant university.

Right now, the difficulty I have is that many publications I want were small print runs and copies only survive in local history libraries which are closed due to covid.

I love bibliographies! Makes me frustrated when people don’t reference adequately. And jealous when the sources aren’t available to me!

I love a good footnote! But the academic style in academic Irish History (IHS) often means that footnotes are just references and not commentary.

Understanding what industry was happening in the places where your early ancestors lived can give you an idea of what occupations they may have had

Local occupations/industries are a fascinating study. Regional variation is esp why local research element so important – a Cornish tin miner has a v different local culture to a Rhondda coal miner

Understanding our ancestors within the context of their own time and place is important … I like the concept of #Genohistory promoted by @DonnaCoxBakergenohistorian.com

I think this is an essential part of the research process! “Context” is quite possibly the most important word in #genealogy – and local hist a vital part of that if we’re to interpret records properly

Funnily enough there was an aspect of this I wrote about last week – considering the need to understand occupations at a local level to appreciate terminology, and how community & job are intertwined. Local lingo essential knowledge!

I find BIG rabbit holes to explore when I start wondering about why everyone seems to do the same job in a town, or have jobs I never heard of. Got very into shoemaking near Hinckley Lancashire when researching the wife left behind of a convict ancestor.

Craft occupations can be interesting given that fundamental tools/processes often constant, yet with different names or slightly diff products for a place. How did your shoemakers turn out?

Context, context, context! You lose so much of your ancestors’ real story if you don’t know about what was happening around them. The local community is just an extended part of your family tree, with a good chance you are literally related to some of them

Our ancestors are much more than names and dates. Local history helps to build a bigger and more interesting story

12019 / Pixabay

Has visiting an ancestral place helped you understand your ancestor’s life within their community and place?

Not really as the visits were always very short. And at the time I was travelling I knew very little about my family

I haven’t had the chance to visit many ancestral places since I started researching my family history, but I regularly make use of Google Street View to get a feel for the landscape and layout, particularly for rural areas or in other countries.

I Google street view just about every location I find. Also zoom back out so you can see close towns, rivers, seaside and other features that might a context.

This is a great tip. When I checked street view for my ancestors property in England I didn’t expect much as the house had been demolished. But it was possible to see where the moat around the original house had been

I’m cautious about researching urban areas in the same way though, as they tend to have changed a lot, and it would be easy to get a false impression

I agree. This is where if available online I scour contemporary newspapers and other contemporary accounts

Visiting gives a sense of space and place, especially where the landscape remains relatively unchanged but using local history sources (including maps) provides a means to interpret what our sense perceive

Yes. Absolutely crucial to tread in their footsteps and see what they may have seen to feel closer and get a sense of their place.

not yet, fully, but I twisted my ankle in a cobbled back lane of Collingwood last year literally walking in the footsteps of my GGGrandmother, who’d done the same there in the 1880s, reported in the papers!

A holiday is not a holiday for me unless I visit a place an ancestor lived ort a cemetery!

Agree Sharn. Any future trips we may be lucky enough to manage will have a #historyconnection – LOVE cemeteries but getting the rest of my family to accompany me into them is like pulling teeth!

supposed to be #familyhistory connection – yes, both my parents loved visiting cemeteries on our hols and I inherited their love, but my siblings steadfastly did NOT

Walking past the house in Wales that my ancestors left in 1840 helped me understand what they left behind. The heaviest rain I’ve ever seen made me wonder why they were leaving and how different life in Australia would be for them

Yes there are places I have been to that I just know I have a connection to when I am there … it gives an understanding of place but not time … that is something we need to research in some way

I managed to identify a house in a photograph I had when I visited the village where my father was born

Visiting Norfolk Island showed me helped me understand the convict life of my g g g grandfather and his brother. It really was hell in paradise

Walking the main street in my ancestor’s Bavarian village it’s easy to get a sense of how people would have known each other because the geography has changed so little.

I loved visiting Cornwall and Chelmsford, Essex where ancestors lived. It is always enjoyable thinking you might be walking in there footsteps.

TheAndrasBarta / Pixabay

How do you research your ancestral places and communities? What resources, books and websites do you use?

Old maps (PRONI has a great online viewer for historic maps from Northern Ireland), street directories, aerial photographs (useful for spotting old boundaries and ruined buildings that don’t appear on maps), newspapers, court records, statistical accounts. There’s never an edit button when you need one – ‘historicAL maps’. The website is here if anyone wants to have a play with it nidirect.gov.uk/services/searc…

Since most of my Irish ancestors were rural, I’ve been using maps like those @NLIreland hold sources.nli.ie/Search/Results… and combining them with other land records and travelogues/directories My home parish was noted (c 1800) for its love of learning & feast days

contemporary newspapers, academic histories e.g. The Outcasts of Melbourne (Graeme Davison et al, eds), journal articles, archival records, contemporary photographs or artworks

I always search for local history studies in journals in places such as JSTOR or Oxford Journals

Check university and research libraries near your ancestral places to see what they offer in terms of local history. This includes theses, specialist books and news stories.

Another great tip – yes! While I love the chase myself, I do always hope that someone has already produced something really substantial on aspects I’m researching

Join a local history society as a way of getting context to your family history research.

Check your state land registry website for maps and historical imagery (in Australia)

Local history and genealogy societies, Wikipedia, FamilySearch wiki, local tourist agencies, all provide leads

I find the British Newspaper Archive can sometimes be useful for interesting details

That’s an excellent way of finding information, using the surname and/or place name. But unpublished academic theses can also reveal a multitude too

Newspapers often announced when roads, rail and services such as sewer or electricity and the construction of bridges

Check to see if anyone is doing a One Place Study near your ancestral place to get a better understanding. Research the parish registers for whole-of-parish context not just focus on your family.

I found mention of my father’s childhood suburb which was then a slum in Hansard – The Australian Parliament record. Gave a really good insight into the suburb at the time. aph.gov.au/parliamentary_…

for my childhood town I frequently refer to the local library online collection at uhcl.recollect.co.nz. Even found a picture of my brother recently. Also found Nana & Mum out socialising and myself in a town parade in 1966.

Some websites westendlhs.co.uk bitterne.net/index.html visionofbritain.org.uk genuki.org.uk

Google is my lazy way of researching my ancestral places and communities. There is so much available online and not just archives. Many organisations or places have a web page or two on the local history that leads to another interesting fact.

And maps! How can you go past maps? Love the NLS site maps.nls.uk. And the 1892 Thomas Ward map for Wellington (NZ) is incredibly detailed! archivesonline.wcc.govt.nz/nodes/view/1989

You cannot beat newspapers for understanding communities in the past. Especially through advertisements. They give you an idea of who lived in a place and what they did, sold and what trouble they got into!

You really can’t go past a good local history to provide context. Not the old-style type where the “big players” are the focus, but a down-to-earth approach and understanding. Local historians are also give superb support for helping understand your place.

Trove is a great resource of course, maps, census, websites for a particular town. Town pages on facebook often have old photos

I love the Cyclopedia of NZ when researching my family here, and then Samuel Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, and histpop.org for the census reports.

I have researched my ancestors places my visiting local libraries. Most seem to have a collection of old photographs or old books that are of interest.

jarmoluk / Pixabay

Have you found it easier to understand your ancestral community in a city, town or village?

A brilliant question. To some extent village is easier because it’s more stable so patterns/habits/customs develop and can be used. Cities often imply migration (at least in my research) and new patterns emerging but noting clusters of migrants is gold

And you get to readily recognise the names of the area.

Yes, that’s exactly it. Over the weekend I decided to focus on one surname in calendar of wills for Dublin and as a result I’ve been able to identify/locate members of the family that had “disappeared” tied by address willcalendars.nationalarchives.ie/search/cwa/hom… via @NARIreland

Great question! As a city person, I’d instinctively say the city ancestors, but I’m conscious I probably project things onto them. The rural communities have a more defined cast of characters you get to know, but I’ve no practical experience of that life.

There are occasions with smaller communities where you may hit the “cone of silence” because they don’t want you knowing their business or wonder about your motives. A local historian or colleague can give you credibility and ease the way.

Blog posts:

Joys of local history, Local history adds value, Local history and genealogy,

Readers: What aspects of local history do you find interesting to research relating to your ancestors?