My own interest in local history began when I started my 
MPHil on young people in three northern new towns.

I got really in to the history North East although I never 
had time to follow it up.

When I moved to Stoke I took an interest in its local 
history and then moved on to look at Warrington my home 
town.

David



On Sun, 11 Apr 1999 07:33:31 -0400 Nick Hudd 
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Beth
> 
> <<Do people who have lived in the one place all their lives [a
> small village for example] develop a stronger link to their own history
> [family and local] than those who have moved frequently? >>
> 
> Your question suggests to me the reason why you feel you are <chasing your
> tail>. Your question makes assumptions that are unestablished - assumptions
> that many (most?) people make but which are, I feel, dubious.
> 
> Why is it always presumed that the feeling of <history> must strongly
> relate to family, place of birth, place of upbringing, nation etc.? Often
> it does and for good reasons, but, after years of amateur dabbling in
> history, archaeology etc, I have become firmly convinced (and have heard
> others say) that those who take an interest in history at all tend to take
> an interest in the history of the place where they are NOW. i.e. they
> identify, among other things, with those who preceded them <in this place>
> - their current locality. Not invariably true by any means, but this is why
> many amateur historians have an interest in several localities - there is
> usually a good reason, and professional historians have also too generally
> aggregated a number of (possibly disparate) topics in their career,
> depending on where their reading took them. 
> 
> My own involvement in the story of my family, of the story of Romney Marsh,
> of the Cinque Ports, is life-long, because of my family associations and my
> familiarity from childhood with the area. Since living in Tenterden, I am
> deeply interested in this town's history BECAUSE I AM HERE - i.e. Tenterden
> has come to me. I retain a deep interest in the history of Essex, of
> London, of East Lothian in Scotland - all for various associative reasons,
> none of them related to family or forebears. I don't think I am unusual. As
> I get older I become more interested in medical history (I am a physician).
> I took no notice of it in youth, despite always being involved in history
> generally, but now I increasingly find medical history to be relevant
> today. Though I have to add that malaria has led me (via my Romney Marsh
> interest) into medical history as well, so it ties to my original Local
> History subject.
> 
> So yoyr real question is - <What motivates people to take up a particular
> historical interest?> and nobody, to my knowledge, has really dissected
> that problem, though there has been a lot written abou it (upon which the
> professionals reading thiese messages can probably help you better than I
> can). The answer to the question is of course that there are many motives -
> but the biggest motive is the one that nobody mentions - you climb Everest
> BECAUSE IT IS THERE - in front of your eyes <g>
> 
> ******************************************************************
> Nick Hudd  { Dr N P Hudd MA FRCP, Tenterden, Kent. }
> < [log in to unmask] >
> < http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/nphudd/ >




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