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By email:
info@one-place-studies.org
By post:
Society for One-Place Studies,
28 St Ronan’s Avenue,
Southsea, Hampshire, PO4 0QE
United Kingdom
The penultimate item on our menu of prompts is one you can really get your teeth into: food, glorious food! What did the people of your Place eat, and how did this vary from rich to poor, or from everyday meals to feast day fare or treats on special occasions? Are there any particular foods or recipes linked with your Place or its locality? What foods were grown, foraged or hunted locally? What jobs were associated with the production, processing and sale of food in your Place, and what were the stories of those involved? I hope these questions are enough to whet your appetite! Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceFood
As you can see from this themed edition of Destinations, gravestones, monuments and memorials to the dead provide rich sources of information, and the basis for many one-place study stories. Why not share some of that information, or a selection of those stories, from your Place? Any advice for photographing memorials, or tips for transcribing their inscriptions? What about the history of the cemeteries, monuments or memorials themselves? Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceMemorials
People have always been moving from one place to another, driven by ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors relating to love, employment, religious beliefs, war, availability of transport, and more besides. Sometimes migration is local, sometimes it takes people to the other side of the world; some movements spur friends or family members to follow; some people move just once, others move many times, and occasionally people end up back where they started. What movements (and movement patterns) into and out of your Place have you found, and what were the factors affecting them? Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceMigrants
September is the month for you to stun us with stats from your study. What figures have you found or extracted for population (in total and broken down by age / sex), longevity, employment, kinship and other aspects of the lives of your Place’s people? How have you analysed them, and what ways have you found to present them? Have you been able to go beyond the numbers and find the stories behind the statistics? Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceStatistics
Take a walk on the wild side in August by focussing on the flora and fauna of your Place, past or present, or both! Trees, wildflowers, and all (wild) creatures great and small – which species live or lived in your Place? How has the biodiversity of your Place changed over time, and what has driven that change? How were different species regarded by the people of your Place – which were viewed as resources, as pests, as objects of fascination or beauty? Feel free to share answers to these questions or to simply celebrate the wild wonders of your one-place study, in words, pictures, or both. Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceWildlife
What are the origins of your Place’s name, or of the streets and other features of your Place? Which surnames were particularly prevalent in your Place, and what changes have occurred over time? Who in your Place had a particularly memorable or unusual name? Have you struggled – or had success – when trying to find the maiden surnames of women in your Place? And do any of the surnames from your one-place study link in with a one-name or surname study? These are just some of the questions raised by this month’s prompt!Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceNames
These could be of any type. Were there hiring fairs in your Place? Was there a tradition of agricultural shows? Did any of your one-place residents win prizes at garden festivals? Was there a travelling fair which visited your Place regularly? Is your Place famous for a particular type of fair or show? Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceShows
Are there any patterns to fertility or infant mortality in our places? Did the first child tend to arrive ‘prematurely’? How were children educated in our places? What were the modes of entertainment for children? What were the patterns of child employment? Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceChildren
What is the most unusual source you have used in your studies? How have you combined sources in a different or creative way to uncover details of your places? Which sources should have been helpful but actually weren’t? Are there any common sources missing for your place and how have you tried to work around this? Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceSources
How did the people of our places maintain their health? To whom did they look in order to do so? Were there any doctors, nurses, midwives, abortionists, wise women etc in our places? Is your Place famous for it’s healing properties – and if so, how? Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceHealers
Love is in the air in February and with it the chance to blog about romance in our places. Are there any patterns to marriage through the years? What are the average ages at marriage and does that change over time? Is there a degree of intermarriage? Are there any heartwarming, or sad, stories of individual romances? Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceRomance
Surely there were some scurrilous goings-on in our places which make good stories or illustrate points about how communities rub along together. Did your Place’s black sheep turn out good in the end? Or did they serve time or get Transported to another country? Social media hashtag: #OnePlaceBlackSheep
By email:
info@one-place-studies.org
By post:
Society for One-Place Studies,
28 St Ronan’s Avenue,
Southsea, Hampshire, PO4 0QE
United Kingdom
© The Society for One-Place Studies