#OnePlaceWednesday – five years old!

On the morning of Wednesday 18 November 2019, on Twitter, I sent out a tweet saying:

“We’re declaring this Wednesday & every Wednesday thereafter #OnePlaceWednesday! Use the day—and the hashtag—to tweet something about your #OnePlaceStudy or #OnePlaceStudies in general.”

So it was that #OnePlaceWednesday, a weekly social media chat about anything and everything relating to one-place studies, began. It has taken place mainly on Twitter (now X) but also on Threads, Mastodon, Bluesky Social, and elsewhere.

If you’re not familiar with how #OnePlaceWednesday works, participants tweet or post news, views, questions, suggestions, useful links, pictures and general chat relating to one-place studies, with the hashtag. Others can then see those posts when they appear on their social media platform’s feed or timeline, or by searching for posts with the hashtag. Participants can dip in and out at whatever time(s) during the day suits them.

With the fifth anniversary of the launch of #OnePlaceWednesday approaching, I thought it would be good to celebrate that day. Twitter/X was obviously going to be social media platform where that celebration would take place – until recent events changed things dramatically! Over the last week or so, there has been a huge exodus of users – including the vast majority of those interested in one-place studies, family history, local history, and the wider world of historical research – from Twitter/X. As a result it is no longer one of our primary social media channels and we are winding down our activities there.

Since almost all of our extended community on social media has migrated to Bluesky Social, that is where the fifth birthday of #OnePlaceWednesday is now taking place – on Wednesday, 20 November 2024 (the Wednesday closest to the anniversary date). To make the day extra special, and to encourage participation, we are offering the chance to win a prize to all those taking part on the day.

Those prizes are books – we have a list of ten for the lucky winners to choose from – and each genuine OPS-related post* sent on the day, up to a maximum of ten per Bluesky user, will count as an entry. From those entries we will draw five winners, who will be able to choose whichever title they want from our list. Two of the five prizes are reserved for Society members: if there isn't a member within the first three winners picked, we will draw further entries until two from our membership are drawn, and if there is only one member amongst the first four winners, the fifth winner will be the next Society member to be drawn.

Here's the list of books from which winners will be able to choose:

• Ten Steps to a One-Place Study, by Janet Few
• House Histories, by Melanie Backe-Hansen
• The Kingtons: a history of the ancient parish of Kington St Michael with Kington Langley, by Louise Ryland-Epton
• The Butcher, The Tailor, The Picture-Frame Maker: Stories of Middle Way, by Gareth Winrow
• 10 Scotland Street, by Leslie Hills
• English Local History, by Kate Tiller
• Tracing Your Ancestors Through Local History Records: A Guide for Family Historians, by Jonathan Oates
• Byrne’s Dictionary of Irish Local History, by Joseph Byrne
• Making A Home: A History of Castlemaine, by Heather Holst
• Discovering the History of Your House and Your Neighborhood, by Betsy J Green

An alternative prize of one year’s free membership of the Society is available to any winner who is not a member and does not wish to claim one of the above books.

Enjoy taking part in #OnePlaceWednesday, and good luck in the prize draw. (And if you are a member who is not on social media, stay tuned – we are working on something to get you involved too!)

Steve Jackson
Social Media Coordinator

* OPS-related: posts relating to a specific one-place study, one-place studies in general, local history, or place-based family history research. Our decision on which posts qualify for the draw is final.