Check out the New Studies

It’s exciting to see all the new joiners and the variety of studies that they’ve decided to tackle. Keep an eye out for them on our Home Page. Here’s a flavour of what you can find:

• Hoar Oak Cottage: This is January’s featured study and quite a unique one it is. The place is one shepherd’s cottage deep in the rugged scenery of Devon's Exmoor, home to local and Scottish shepherds for several centuries. The study itself has a long history, with the community association of Friends of Hoar Oak Cottage working closely with the Exmoor National Park Authority to preserve the ruins of the cottage and even attracting National Lottery funding to gather the ‘local voices’ of the place.
• Grand Crossing: This is a new study focused on a particular ethnic group, the Czech-Americans of an area of Chicago. Starting with 1900, much has been discovered and family connections are already becoming apparent.
• Oxborough: This study of a community in Norfolk, England started with the formation of the Oxborough Historical Society. They already have a jump on our World War I Centenary Project, having published a booklet on St John’s First World War Memorial.
• Snow Hill: Here’s another quite unique place, the only Afro American town in the history of New Jersey. This one has especially caught my interest, since of all the places that could be studied in the world, Snow Hill (now called Lawnside) is only five miles from where my own Quaker ancestors settled and started the Eastlack family in the States.
• St Keverne: Here’s our first Cornish study, on the Lizard Peninsula in the southwest corner of England. Several publications have already been prepared and this one promises a history of seafaring and shipwrecks on its exposed shores. Hmm, perhaps a bit of smuggling as well?

There’s lots more to tempt you. You may discover connections with your own studies and certainly new perspectives and approaches. Our membership continues to grow and shape into the worldwide society that we had envisioned. Here are the stats on our current membership, with members and studies in eight countries, although where members live and where they study are often quite far apart.

Keep those referrals coming and don't forget that you can now subscribe to our Blog Page so that you don't miss out on the news!

Kim Baldacchino