The framework for a one-place study is based on the outcomes you would like to see – this may well change as the study progresses! There is no prescriptive way of assembling a one-place study as every place is different and your interests will be equally varied.

Your place also needs to be viewed in a wider context as no community exists in isolation. For example, the parliamentary enclosure acts changed the rural landscape from open fields and common pastures to consolidated fields which were individually owned or rented.

A good place to start is by asking yourself questions about your place:

• People – Who lived in your community? Who were the principal residents? How did they shape village life? Who owned land and who rented? Who were the gentry? Were they armigerous?
• Topography – What are the unique features of your place? Did topography affect, limit or attract developing industry? Chalk hills, river, coal seams.
• Population – What caused an increase and/or a decrease in population? Who emigrated and immigrated and why?
• Occupations – What were typical trades and occupations for the inhabitants? Linen, brick-making, agriculture? Did this change over time and why?
• Poor relief – What provision was made for the poor? Was there a workhouse? Were there any Friendly Societies – Foresters, Shepherds, Druids, Gardeners, Sons of Temperance, Rechabites?
• Housing – What were the houses like? Are there any old photographs, drawings, sketches or postcards available?
• Nonconformity– Was your place a hotbed of nonconformity? Methodists, Quakers, Jews, Baptists, Huguenots? What did these groups bring to your place? Temperance? Sunday schools?
• Governance – How was your place managed? Who were the members of the vestry or manorial court and what was their influence? Who were the incumbents?
• Education – Was there a dame school or village school? Was there regular attendance? Were there any famous scholars?
• Transport – Were there roads or canals? How did the coming of the railways affect your place? How has transport changed?
• Crime – Who were the perpetrators and how were they punished? Did anyone get transported? How were crimes recorded?
• Militia – Was there a local militia? If so what happened after the Militia Act in 1757?
• Death – Were there any significant diseases? Infant mortality? Felo de se? What was life expectancy through time?

Once you decide on your preferred outcomes, then the appropriate records and maps can be researched and recorded. What questions will you ask yourself about your one-place study? Where will your journey take you?

The definition of a boundary is important as it sets the compass for the way forward. To know the edges of your chosen place will help you locate the county records office, local archives, diocesan or specialist archives where all the lovely records are deposited. Also it helps resist the temptation to move beyond the set boundary and prevent the study getting out of hand. Straying beyond a defined boundary is another study.

A street, hamlet, village or small town may be a choice. In parish registers of marriage, it is common to see ‘o.t.p.’ which stands for ‘of this parish’. In some cases, studies are formed from the parish boundary. By way of example, the parish of Rillington (St. Andrew) is within the union of Malton and the wapentake of Buckrose in the East Riding of Yorkshire and the parish contains the township of Rillington and the chapelry of Scampston. Following reorganisation of Local Authority boundaries in 1974, Rillington is now in North Yorkshire. Historical records for a chosen place may be lodged in different local archives over time due to boundary changes, sometimes in a different county.

There are many websites to help you define your boundary such as genuki.org and familysearch.org.

There are no rules regarding setting up and managing a One-Place Study, as every study is as individual as its topography and inhabitants.

Walk the boundary of your chosen area and the lanes just like ancestors did in the ancient custom of ‘beating the bounds’. Notice the buildings, fields, rivers and public footpaths which make a study unique and creates a distinction and enhancement to the traditional records of family history.

Get your boots on and define your boundary.

The parish map for the East Riding of Yorkshire is reproduced with permission of the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies in Canterbury. The original map may be found in the Phillimore Atlas & Index of Parish Registers 3rd Edition, by Cecil R. Humphrey-Smith.