We have just added 8,368 new Dorset marriage records to findmypast.co.uk which cover the years 1560 to 1839.

We’ve done some digging around and have found some unusual names in our Dorset parish records collection.

We found a marriage between Martha Loaring and Samuel Single on 14 October 1750 in Bettiscombe, making Martha a married Single:

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The Dorset baptisms also offered some amusing names: here you can see a record for ‘Love Dear Bedloe’ who was baptised on 27 August 1745 in Dorchester:

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We also found a ‘Fruit Carter’ in the Dorset baptisms, who was baptised on 17 May 1807 in Chickerell:

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The Dorset burial records contain a slightly more sinister discovery: an ‘unknown’ person buried on 8 April 1815 in Abbotsbury. The notes state that the unknown person was ‘found on shore’:

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Search for your ancestors in our parish records - and maybe you’ll even make some weird and wonderful discoveries of your own.

Almost 70,000 new Dorset and Wiltshire parish records now on findmypast.co.uk

We have just published 69,545 new parish records for Dorset and Wiltshire on findmypast.co.uk

These records were provided by the Dorset Family History Society and the Wiltshire Family History Society.

The table below provides more information on these new records:

Search our parish records now for your Dorset and Wiltshire ancestors.

Over 22,000 new Thames-side and Medway parish baptism records now on the site

We have also just added 22,236 more parish baptism records to our Thames-side and Medway parish records collection. This brings the total amount of Thames-side and Medway baptism records you can search on findmypast.co.uk to 300,070 for the period 1721-1970.

Read more about our Thames-side and Medway records collection.

The value of parish records

Parish records are invaluable when tracing your ancestry as they go back much further than birth, marriage and death records. You can search parish records for baptisms, marriages and burials that date back as far as 1538 on findmypast.co.uk

The Federation of Family History Societies distributes its members’ records in partnership with findmypast.co.uk. Many family history societies contribute their records to make our parish records collection as comprehensive as it is. You can read more about the societies that contribute on our FFHS data providers page.

When you’ve found your ancestors in our parish records you’ll realise just how useful they are.

Read more about the value of parish records in our knowledge base.

We have added a total of 204,501 new baptism and burial records for Wiltshire, Manchester and Dorset to findmypast.co.uk.

These records were provided by the Wiltshire Family History Society, the Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society and the Dorset Family History Society.

See the table below for a breakdown of the records:

Visit our parish baptisms and parish burials pages to search these records.

In last month’s newsletter we asked you to send us your experiences of researching your family tree. Thanks to all of you who wrote in - we really enjoyed reading your stories. Read on for how Ann is getting on with the search for her ancestors:

Ann Barker’s story:

One branch of my tree is the Scadding/Scadden family from Cornwall, Devon and Dorset. I found information about my 5 x great grandfather John Scadding who was hanged, but nobody could find any newspaper reports.

Quite by chance I was reading The Western Gazette while visiting my daughter who now lives in Dorset. There was a section of news from 100 years ago, 50 years ago etc. I wrote to the editor to ask if there were any archives of newspapers in 1795 and if so where were they kept. He informed me that they were in the Somerset Studies Library in Taunton. So I persuaded my husband that we needed a day out!

There I discovered reports of his arrest, trial and subsequent hanging. He was arrested on 9th March 1795, his trial was on 11th March, he was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. He was hanged on 28th March 1795 in Dorchester Prison.

One of his accomplices Samuel Foster, who was also due to hang, was reprieved and sent to Australia the other one, Samuel’s brother Thomas Foster, gave King’s Evidence and was acquitted. Justice was swift in those days.

Our expert Stephen Rigden answers your questions:

‘Help! I have an elusive great-great-great-grandfather who appears out of no-where. His name was Absalom Boucher/Bowcher who married on 17 Aug 1825 in Bridport, Dorset to Priscilla Coombs.
Absalom died in 1848 but not before fathering 7 children. He was buried in St Mary’s churchyard in Burton Bradstock.

What I cannot find, is his Birth or Christening, which from the age given on his Death Certificate would’ve been circa 1790/91. His occupation has variously been described as: M. S., Gentleman’s Servant, Butler & Inn Keeper on his children’s records.

To work as a gentleman’s servant or butler, you would think it was for a well-healed land owner.
A thorough check of the Ilchester estate records (Fox & Strangeways families) did not reveal a butler or servant by the name of Absalom Boucher.

Another rich land owner was the Pitt-Rivers family and yet another was the Roberts family who owned the local mill. No further in-depth research has been done as I live in Australia.

Absalom may have had 2 sisters: Sarah b: c. 1798 & Abigail b: c. 1901, both around the Bridport area, but can only find a 1861 census showing these 2 ladies (Sarah married a chap named Edward Macey from Symondsbury & they were all living in Dorchester in 1861).

Absalom is shown on the 1841 Census living in Symondsbury, Dorset. He was NOT of that Parish.
He is listed as a land owner in Burton Bradstock & Shipton Gorge, shown on the Tithe Apportionments around 1843.

Also listed as Land Owners was Sophia Roberts, Lord Rivers & Elizabeth Roberts.

Two clues:
1). Absalom had a daughter named Ann Roberts Boucher chr: 31 Jan 1835 in Burton Bradstock.
2). He and a woman named Mary Roberts were Witnesses to the marriage of one Ann Roberts in 1835 to a Robert Slader.

And that’s as much as I know about Absalom. There are of course records of other Boucher’s in the general Dorset area, but none that can be linked to Absalom.

I wonder if you could give me some tips as there is nothing more publicly available on the Internet or on the BVRI Disks. ‘ Cheryl

Steve says:“One of the least auspicious scenarios in which a genealogist can find themselves is the one where an ancestor is recorded with a No against Whether Born In Same County on their 1841 census return and then inconveniently dies before the 1851 census can shed any light upon place of birth. It is not possible to solve such a problem quickly or painlessly.

In your case, we know only that Absalom was not born in Dorset. You also say that you have searched all the usual online sources, although these are of course far from complete in the required period before the start of civil registration in 1837. I am assuming the Whether Born In Scotland, Ireland Or Foreign Parts field in the 1841 census is silent for Absalom, in which case the usual inference is that he was born in England, for which you also have some circumstantial evidence (his sisters were apparently born in Dorset, although I believe you have found no evidence of this).

Two things occur to me in light of this. Firstly, as you will no doubt have considered, the surname may be French and quite possibly Huguenot and you may wish to consider a speculative browse through the publications of the Huguenot Society – for details of what is available, see http://www.huguenotsociety.org.uk.

Secondly, an alternative scenario (not necessarily contradicting the first), is an origin in the Channel Islands, both because of the surname and of a possible family seafaring connection given his marriage in Bridport (I am assuming that the marriage register says “of this parish”).

Of course, neither of these may be true: he may simply have hailed from, say, neighbouring Devon or Somerset, or from London or elsewhere, but you have nowhere to go without some leads.

This may be one of the problems which you have to put by a for a year or so and periodically review, for instance in light of newly available online resources as and when they are published. However, if you have not done so already, you may wish to search for probate records just in case Absalom died testate and mentioned siblings, or nephews and nieces (given the large family of his own, this may be improbable but you will not know unless you check). Pre-1858 probate papers are decentralised but there are some searches you can make online, for instance on Documents Online (for the Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills only) http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/wills.asp and, indeed, on Find My Past’s indexes to death duty registers http://www.findmypast.co.uk/DeathDutyStartSearchServlet. Note that the last, which cover the period from 1796 to 1903, are indexes and that, if you find a reference to the deceased, you need to take your search to The National Archives to view the registers on microfilm.”

We hope this is useful to your research. If you would like to pose a question for Steve, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account.

We’ve added over 30,000 new parish records for Dorset and some of them date from as early as 1538.

Combined with our existing records, these new baptism, marriage and burial records mean there’s more chance than ever of tracing your Dorset forebears from the early nineteenth century and beyond.

Over 23 million parish records in one place

The findmypast.com Parish Records Collection is one of the largest repositories of pre-1837 records online. It exists thanks to the efforts family history society volunteers (and similar contributors) nationwide. These dedicated individuals have scoured churchyards and record offices up and down the country – deciphering the faded inscriptions of old headstones, leafing through fragile 400-year-old books, and recording their findings in full – so that you don’t have to. You can search over 23 million of these rare records from the comfort of your own home using findmypast.com.

We have millions of parish records from counties all across England and Wales. If you’ve hit a brick wall with the 1837 cut-off for BMDs, you could well find the result you need within our vast collection.

Search over 23 million parish records today

We’ve just added over 59,000 new parish records for the period 1633 to 1930, which include baptisms, marriages, and burials.

The new additions are:

• Montgomeryshire baptisms, marriages, and burials (various parishes)
• Dorset burials (various parishes)
• Brayton, St Wilfred burials
• Wrightington baptisms, marriages, and burials
• Wrightington confirmations and Wrightington first communicants (found under FFHS other records)

With over 23.4 million baptisms, marriages and burials dating from 1538, our Parish Records Collection is one of the largest and most comprehensive online repositories of parish records.

Search for your ancestors in our Parish Records Collection now

Findmypast.com, in partnership with the Federation of Family History Societies (FFHS), has added nearly a million new memorial inscriptions to its Parish Records Collection. These records are the fruits of decades of transcription work by family historians nationwide.

Volunteers from different societies have visited graveyards and cemeteries in England and Wales, pulling back weeds, uncovering buried headstones and patiently deciphering weathered inscriptions.

In some cases the transcription is the only record that is left, as the headstone has completely weathered away or been destroyed.

The newly added records cover the following counties:

• Dorset
• Essex
• Glamorgan
• Lincolnshire
• Cheshire
• Northumberland
• Somerset
• Warwickshire
• Wiltshire

It is an ongoing project and there is still lots more work to do. If you would like to get involved, then contact your local family history society.

The records contain inscriptions from the 1600s to the twentieth century and will appear as part of the results when you search for a burial within the Parish Records Collection.

Some contain basic information such as parish and date of death, whereas others may contain much more information, depending on what was written on the headstone, and how much has survived the ravages of time.

Pricing for inscriptions for those with PayAsYouGo credits is either six, eight or 12 credits, depending on the amount of detail they contain.