Thanks for the welcome – and yes, it is Edinburgh, Scotland. Are you British, do you know it?

No I've never been, but plan to go next year.  I'm part English...and very British at heart lately.  ;D  Here's a thread about some geneology research I've been doing.

You'll love it.  I grew up in a small town on the east coast of Scotland (Arbroath - where the Scottish Declaration of Independence was signed) but always loved Edinburgh; I live just outside the city now.  You'll know what I mean when you walk down the royal mile, it's just layer upon layer of history all around you.  Good genealogy.  I've always wanted to properly study my family history but I am so busy with other people's history that I never get the time.  That said I did do a DNA test and compiled my "deep ancestry" for my paternal line over the last 250,000 years.  I made a map I could post here - is the General History forum the place for miscellany like that?

Thanks Scout!

Of course, I get asked this all the time - especially by my family! In broad terms: I did my undergraduate degree at the University of Dundee and I have to give credit to some of my mentors from there for getting me interested in it, particularly Matthew C. Ward (he wrote a great book called Breaking the Backcountry).  Matthew's mentor-ship really got me thinking about early America but in general terms the whole idea early America just fired my imagination.  I'm not sure how to describe it, but the idea of taking a small number of Europeans, dropping them into an alien land surrounded by an alien people and observing how they responded just seemed to be history in its purest form.  In more specific terms, I began serious research (Master's Degree, PhD, career, etc) because of the sources I discovered for the Ohio Valley.  There was such a variety of oral history that gave an insight into non-elite frontier inhabitants that I had to study it.  I think I finally found the sources that would allow me to study how a group of (illiterate) Euro-Americans reacted in (another) alien world.  Does that make sense? I don't think I've ever tried to describe it that precisely before so I hope it's not too rambling or confusing!

So which specific parts (geographic) of Kentucky does your research focus on?  One of our forum members here is a resident of that state.

I work on the whole state, in the years 1775-1795, so the settlement of the region, its transformation into a state, and then ending with the Treaty of Greenville (which ended the Indian war and, essentially, the war with the British in the west.  I have used Kentucky as a type of micro-study, a proxy for the wider region.  That said I've also worked on Ohio during the same period but it is largely an extension of my work on Kentucky.  I have also done some work on Illinois and Indiana in the early 19th century, particularly the build up to the Black Hawk war.  I also do a bit of Native American history and, occasionally, modern issues affecting this group.Actually, I can qualify Kentucky slightly - I work on central and western Kentucky.  As a rule - and this was said by another Kentucky historian I know, and I found someone in the early 20th century saying the same thing - historical studies of Kentucky tend not to cover the eastern (mountainous) part of the state.

Hi DonaldOf course, I would be delighted if you posted the videos.  I would be happy to post an essay at some point but I am just finishing a manuscript at the moment that is taking up all of my time.  As soon as it is done though I'd be happy to contribute; I can chat about history any time, though 🙂

Thanks Daniel – it's been a while since I've had a chance to pop in here (busy getting my PhD!) but I will try and get back more often.  If you are interested in frontier history I'd love to hear your feedback on my work – I've posted a sneak preview of my upcoming book on my blog if you're interested: http://www.darrenreidhistory.co.uk/read-a-sneak-preview-of-my-new-book-american-indian/