Project: One Place Studies
Categories: One Place Studies | One Place Studies Project
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A One Place Study (OPS) is a complete study of the Genealogy and History of a specific place. It encompasses not only those who were born, married, or died there, but those who lived there for other reasons, through marriage or for work, or who were just passing through at the time of the census. It includes industry, and the impact those industries had on the surrounding area, and historical events caused by nature or by man.
"An OPS researches the residents of a particular place by gathering a full range of historical records, memorabilia, and stories that mention those individuals, and analyze them to gain insights into the social and economic workings of that place...and would generally have as its aims to identify local families and analyze issues like occupational structure, life expectancy, and geographical mobility." [Society for One Place Studies]
Our Mission is to support and guide those who choose to do these studies. To promote connections of families and their ultimate connection to our Global tree.
Our goal is to work towards our vision for the future, where every place, however small, joins with its neighbors and finally, place by place, creates a country. Whereas each OPS will be primarily under the Country Project, we will correlate each OPS and, in the future, create a genealogical map of the world.
Follow #OnePlaceStudies & #OnePlaceStudy discussions about One Place Studies on Social Media:
- #OnePlaceWednesday
- #HouseHistoryHour - Thursdays at 19:00 GMT

- Project Leaders: Katie Goodwin, Azure Robinson, and Amy Gilpin
- Answer our G2G welcome post to join the One Place Studies project and get a badge.
- Add one_place_studies to your followed tags.
- We use OPS Project Google Group for communication.
- Check out our maintenance categories for our project needs, then jump in and start helping!
- Look at one of the One Place Studies project's example profiles to see what we hope for in profiles that are part of our project. Other excellent examples from our project and others can be found in the Examples Gallery.
- One Place Studies Project Member List.
- Here is what our members are working on.
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How to Join
- Check the alphabetical list of One Place Studies to make sure somebody else isn't already studying your Place. If they are, send them a message asking how you can contribute.
- For a list of One Place Studies grouped by country, see: One Place Studies.
- For a list of One Place studies in the United States, see: United States Place Studies
- For a list of One Place Studies grouped by country, see: One Place Studies.
- If nobody is studying your Place, send us a private message with the details for the place you would like to study.
- If your One Place Study is in the United States
- Please review your proposed study location carefully, as it may not actually be a One Place Study; it may be the sort of informational page covered by the US History Project. These types of pages can be linked into the relevant State One Place Study Page as they have been carefully worked on to provide a treasury of information and research aids. If this is the type of page you are making please ask for it to be nested.
- Sign up
- Once your One Place Study is nested your badge will be awarded.
Starting Your Research
The research involved in a one-place study will vary according to the records available in that place. Here are some records you will probably want to research for your study:
- Vital records (eg. birth, marriage, and death records)
- Parish/church records (eg. baptism, marriage, and burial records)
- Censuses
- Land records
- Cemeteries (If you live near your place of interest, you may want to photograph the local cemeteries! Check out the Global Cemeteries Project to get involved.)
- Add more here!
- To find out if there are profiles in WikiTree that may be in your One Place Study, use the Search link located at the bottom of every page.
Sample One Place Studies
Here are some examples so you can take a look at what has been done:
- Flobecq, Belgique One Place Study an OPS of a town in the province of Hainaut, Belgium
- Saint-Raymond, Québec One Place Study an OPS of a Canadian town established in the 1840s
- Somerset County, Maine One Place Study an OPS of an entire county in the state of Maine, USA
- South Pool, Devon One Place Study an OPS of a small rural town in England
- Andersonia, California One Place Study
- Dawson, New Mexico One Place Study
- Raton, New Mexico One Place Study
Useful Resources
- Wikidata: Item Q1713174, en:Wikipedia
gives a nice comprehensive article on doing a One Place Study
- Choosing a Place (pdf)
- One Place Studies Directory
- Society for One-Place Studies
Videos
- Kirsty Gray of The Society of One-Place Study has a couple of YouTube videos on beginning an OPS:
This page was last modified 15:30, 4 May 2022. This page has been accessed 21,361 times.