Janet is an anaesthetist by profession. She has been studying her family history for 20 years and her one-place studies place for around 10 years. She has an MA in Biblical Interpretation and is interested in how texts are constructed and interpreted within specific contexts.
She also enjoys primary sources, whether these are documents, artefacts or recordings. Her One-Place Study website can be found at www.springhillhistory.org.uk or on Twitter @Springhill_OPS
A historian and veteran of the United States Air Force, Anna is also a member of the Society of One-Place Studies’ Committee, dedicated to exploring local and family history.
In addition to these endeavours, she enjoys working in medical and surgical education as a researcher and Associate Director of Education at the University of Utah.
Her One-Place Study website can be found at annadarelli.com/one-place-studies or on Twitter @AnnaDarelli)
Liz became interested in family history as a child, having grown up with a family tree of fascinating Welsh names on her bedroom wall. Her One-Place Study is the Somerset village of Dunster. It was the first place she stayed on her first family history holiday – and she instantly fell in love! It’s very picturesque and has a rich history going back several centuries. On a smaller scale, she is also doing a Street Study of St Ronan’s Avenue in Southsea, Hampshire, which is a Victorian terraced cul-de-sac of 28 houses, built in 1900. She is also researching The Temple Lodge Home for Inebriate Women in Torquay (operational 1891-1929) having found an ancestor there in 1901. She was intrigued… What was this institution like? What treatments did they use? Unable to find much information, she decided to research Temple Lodge and its patients herself, to add context to her family history by finding out about the lives of the women who spent time as patients and staff in Temple Lodge.
Having started researching her family surname of Sarson in 2016, she expanded her research to include a One-Place Study of a street, The Crescent, in Taunton, Somerset, England, local to where she now lives with her partner and their pet snake, George. You can see her interview with the Society here to learn more about her and her study.
When she is not doing family or local history research, you are likely to find her visiting a theatre (it was her dream growing up to be a musical theatre performer!) or during the autumn months, watching Strictly Come Dancing! She describes herself as a woman with disabilities although this does not stop her living her life to the full!
Steve’s interest in family history began in the early 1980’s after seeing a friend’s mother sorting through her own family history. He quickly established that his family’s roots were primarily in East & West Sussex, Worcestershire & Devon. He took the Community & Family History course as part of his OU degree and developed a particular interest in parish clerks/sextons/church wardens (roles filled by some of his ancestors); he now maintains an online register of these together with an index of people involved in fatal railway accidents. His One-Place Study is New Fishbourne, West Sussex as it is somewhere where he has family connections, he had already done some research about it (for the OU course), and it was about the right size (population approx. 300). He started the study around 2005, as an interest he could pursue with his young daughter. She has now outgrown it but he continues to dabble.
He already looked after three other websites (a family history society, a local history society and his own website), so volunteered to take on the One Place Studies webmaster role to fill in his spare time.
After he had been intrigued by his Mum’s maiden surname – Atcherley – for many years, an episode of “Who Do You Think You Are?” in 2007 finally prompted Steve to look into his maternal family history. He was soon hooked; an interest gradually turned into a passion, and years later he is still researching and chronicling the lives of the Atcherleys. As part of his research he visited Waters Upton churchyard in Shropshire to find the last resting place of his 3x great grandmother (Mary Titley, née Atcherley) and her husband. While there he photographed all the gravestones and other monuments with legible inscriptions so he could upload the information and images to Find A Grave. Of course, as a genealogist he was curious about all the people whose inscriptions he had photographed and so began to research them, little knowing that he was starting a One-Place Study in addition to his one-name / surname study!
Jane never set out to do a One-Place Study but the 1861 Census population of North Walls and Brims, Orkney, would not let her abandon them after they were the focus of a project for her postgraduate diploma in Genealogical Studies. The area was her father’s birthplace and home to several generations of his family on both sides, and setting them in context was her original motivation. Things have rolled along, somewhat fitfully, from there. She has been researching her own family history for about 20 years and is a professional genealogist. Previously, she has worked in a church, taught French, was a librarian/information manager and held a few posts in university student services.
Helen’s family has a long association with Sticklepath, and so has an interest in its heritage. This village in Devon, South West England, still feels like home to her even though she has lived in many other places since. Since retiring from general practice she has enjoyed learning about how to investigate her family tree and the village history. This came together into a One-Place Study, brought to her attention by Janet Few after a Pharos course on writing your family history. She wants to encourage all One-Placers to share an ‘In-depth Report’ – which can be a ‘work in progress’ not a final report because you can always update it in the future. She loves reading about other Studies and getting ideas about similarities and differences as well as new things to investigate.
Janet Few was a founder member of the Society for One-Place studies and served on the committee for several years, including a short spell as Chairman.
She is the author of guides to one-place studies and runs courses on the subject for Pharos Teaching and Tutoring. Being a glutton for punishment, Janet has four places, three in North Devon and one in Northumberland. As well as organising the society’s webinars, Janet is the serving President for the Family History Federation.
Note: Janet is a Postholder but not on the Committee.
Eric works in digital communications, but has a passion for history. He studied art history in college, found his way to family history, and then a one-place study. His one-place study focuses on the shipbuilding community of Richmond, Maine.
Growing up, Eric thought that he had a relatively small family. His family history research has shown him how wrong he was and given him an engrossing project that will never be completed.
The Society for One-Place Studies is a leading organisation dedicated to supporting One-Placers worldwide.
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