Category Archives: family history
Your family history!
Tired of reading books about kings and queens, the rich and famous? Fed up with Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn? The lives of ordinary people are just as tragic, difficult, triumphant and revelationary. How your ancestors survived the traumas and … Continue reading
Dorchester Gaol
In the Dorset History Centre and available on Ancestry is the Criminal process register. 1782-1808, Catalogue Reference NG-PR/1/D/1/1. This gives much information, such as the prisoner’s name, the magistrate who committed them, their place of residence, their description, age, date … Continue reading
HMS Victory and the Battle of Trafalgar
We have just found some exciting news – John Welstead, aged 38, from Milton Abbas was on-board the Victory at Trafalgar on 21 Oct 1805. He was bosun’s mate. We now need to carry out more research on this man … Continue reading
Richard Ham, clock maker of Milton Abbas
This is the dial of an eight day clock showing that Richard Ham was a clock maker of Milton Abbas. This image was kindly given to us by Tim Marshall author, and he has dated the clock to around 1720. … Continue reading
Scutt Family
This photo was given to us by Sybil Brown. She is compiling a biography of her aunt, Margaret Alice Scutt, whose third novel has recently been published posthumously. She was born in October 1905 and baptised that December in Weymouth, … Continue reading
Victorian Paper Cutter
This paper cutter has a handle of part of of a deer’s leg and is inscribed”Shot at Milton Abbas 1884″. We have never seen anything like it before. Rather a long blade for a practical letter opener, so probably a … Continue reading
Lord Milton’s Ad quod Damnum 1763
This is a small part of this document which is the first in Quarter Sessions Order Book in the Dorset History Centre to show Lord Milton closing some of the roads. Some of the places named are well known to … Continue reading
Stopford Sackville Family
This is a real long-shot: in an article by Alan J Miller in Dorset Life, Apr 2003 “Heartless Landlord and Devoted Husband”, there is an image of a young Joseph Damer, by permission of LG Stopford Sackville. I understand that … Continue reading
Milton Abbas Local History Group Meeting
Our first meeting of the new season was well attended and 34 of us enjoyed a talk by Chris Fookes on the old roads and tracks of Milton Abbas, illustrated with maps from 1652 to today. We had two visitors … Continue reading
Overseers of the Poor Book 1782
Carol Sastradipradja has just transcribed page 104 and come across this interesting piece of information. It reads: “Memorandum. Sunday Jan 13 Several Labouring People having complained to the Officers of the Parish that They Wanted Houses. In consequence of their … Continue reading