The Sources in Local History series was created by Professor Alexander Fenton, former head of the School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh, and founding director of the European Ethnological Research Centre. His aim was to publish and promote research into the diaries, account books, letters, journals and other ‘ego-documents’ of individuals from all walks of life, but in particular ‘those holding lowlier positions in the world – in other words, the great majority’. Six volumes were published between 1994 and 1997 making available a range of original documents from the diary of an Orkney farmer, 1766-76, to that of a Dundee millwright, 1864-65.

Such documents are a rich source of information for local historians and ethnologists – they not only allow the voice of the private individual to be heard, but also offer information about everyday life not often found in other historical records.
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A clip from an interview of Irene Brown, who worked as a milk tester for the Scottish Milk Records Association in the 1950s, has been added to the Study website.

Irene Brown

Our new Study website has now been published. We will be regularly adding further material drawn from fieldwork to the site.

www.dumfriesandgalloway.hss.ed.ac.uk

We will be regularly adding further material drawn from fieldwork to the site.  Currently we have examples drawn from that fieldwork which give an insight into our activities and which show what we are uncovering about life and society across Dumfries and Galloway.

We would encourage you to have a look at the site and to get in touch with any comments you may have on its structure or content.

Follow @dandgstudy

Our Study website will be published in the next few weeks.  This ‘taster’ site will let people know who we are and what we are doing.  It  will enable people to get in touch and will hopefully encourage participation.
 
The site will initially carry clips from some of the interviews which have been conducted and which give a flavour of the themes being covered.  The Study website will also be the place where we publish the results of aspects of our documentary research, such as transcribed manuscripts and primary sources.  The site also carries a comprehensive guide to resources available for the study of life and society in Dumfries and Galloway.
 
Over time, as material is added to these strands of the website, a comprehensive account of life and society in Dumfires and Galloway will be given.
 
As soon as the site is published we will let you all know.

On Saturday 9 March 2013 members of the Study Team met with some of those who have undertaken fieldwork to reflect on their work.

So far, 58 people (28 men and 30 women) have been interviewed by 16 fieldworkers. The ages of interviewees range form 21 years to 95 years old.

Extracts from interviews already conducted were introduced by each fieldworker.  This was followed by reflections from the group on what had been heard.  Listening in a group proved to be an interesting exercise in its own right as the subsequent discussion drew-out aspects of the recordings not otherwise obviously apparent.  Continue reading →

On Saturday 21 April we held the second training day for those interested in carrying out oral history interviews.  On arrival at the venue we were quite surprised to see how we were billed.  No matter how ambitious our project is, we had never previously imagined it as a tribute to Swedish pop music!

The day went very well, with those in attendance full of ideas and questions.  Alison Burgess of Dumfries and Galloway Libraries, Information and Archives gave an excellent presentation on her experience of recording in the region.  As part of this presentation, Alison played some sound clips which really brought to life what the interviewees were talking about.

Fieldwork by those involved in the training days has now begun and we will keep you posted on developments, including on the development of the Study website.

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