* FH for Local History?

[AshbyC]

Obviously I use FH for my many family tree projects but has anyone used FHs wonderful software for local history projects? I'm currently studying for a Masters degree and have begun a village study on a spreadsheet, focusing on kinship. Would it be possible to input the data onto FH to a) to keep the information organised but mainly b) to display the many and varied kinship connections? I've never included unrelated individuals to my projects to date so can't imagine how it would work, if it could. Any thoughts?

Thank you.

[Mark1834]

Welcome to the FHUG user group.

A number of people use FH for exactly that purpose, so hopefully they'll chip in with their experiences.

In general, the approach would be to add unrelated individuals, and you can make or edit family links as you get more information on the relationships.

My advice would be to have a play with a new test project. Add some individuals, join them into families, and unlink them to break the relationship. Check in the user help for guidance, or ask here if you get stuck.

[tatewise]

See the recent posting How to start new project (20102) which also relates to a 'One-Place Study' and you may be interested in the Society for One-Place Studies.

[AshbyC]

Thank you both, reassuring to know others are doing the same

[E Wilcock]

You can use fh for any type of group study.
I have used it to look at an artillery brigade from Rugby and Coventry in WW1 and am about to start looking at those same families on the 1921 census. I previously listed my FWW people in MS Access, (when foot-noting a war memoir) but I prefer to use genealogy software.
I got the idea of looking at family units from a talk by a historian studying volunteers and conscripts in the First World War in Aachen, Germany.

[AshbyC]

Just wanted to say that after your encouragement, I’ve jumped into my one place study by entering the 1851 census details and using that as my starting point. It’s been surprisingly easy and by using the software in a different way I’m learning a lot! So, thank you to everyone involved in FH development - it’s a great piece of software and an MA student’s best tool!

[Mark1834]

The real thanks go to the developers at Calico Pie who do all the hard work. We're just a self-help group of users, but hopefully have influence with the designers...