Dominy of Dorset

[Papi Jean]

Firstly, why oh why are there so many of them using the same first name in the same time-scale(s)

On a more serious note :-

We have traced the name definitively (we hope) back to Joseph - b 1809 in Cerne Abbas, d 1/1/1848 in Weymouth. He married Ann Young, 1831 in Melcombe Regis.

Now we need a "sanity check" please of information we have taken from PRs and accumulated on various spreadsheets

Joseph was the / a son of George - b 1786 in Cerne Abbas and Mary Hurlestone who married in 1808. in Cerne Abbas

George, in turn, was the youngest son of Thomas - b 1734 in Sturminster Marshall - and Dorothy Harris who married in 1762 in Buckland Newton.

The other children, found so far, from this union were : -

Mary - b 1765 in Buckland Newton
Elizabeth - b 1771 in Cerne Abbas
John - b 1771 in Cerne Abbas
Thomas - b 1773 in Cerne Abbas
Richard - b 1779 in Cerne Abbas
Rachel - b 1779 in Cerne Abbas

We believe that Thomas (b 1734) was the son of Thomas b poss 1696 and was married to Elizabeth Norris (b1710, d 1766 in Sturminster Marshall as a widow) in 1729 in Lychette Minster
Thomas had an elder sister, Elizabeth - b 1732 Sturminster Marshall


Can anyone follow our logic trail?

We hope to get to Dorchester in April in an effort to validate the information we have so far.

Any help offered would be much appreciated.

J

[Olde Crone Holden]

Papi Jean

Two sets of twins, yes?

I am concerned you say you are going to validate your information. Where have you got your information from so far?

OC

[Papi Jean]

Thank you for replying. Yes, two sets of twins.

All the information shown has been gleaned from on-line Parish Records or FMP. We have tried to meticulously go through every copy of the Dorset PRs and note every instance of the name Dominy on to a spreadsheet (only about 600 from 1600 - 1800). From there it a relatively easy to carry out a "sort" function in order to find groupings of the name into parishes and time-scales. Thence we have tried to logically follow name/location/date links back through time.

J

[Papi Jean]

Just to add that there have been a number of twins in the generations until, thankfully, my father's generation. None since.

J

[Anne in Carlisle]

It sounds as though you have gone about this in the same way I do. Collecting all the examples of a rare name is an excellent way of working out which familt is which. If you have seen the actual PR images on FMP then these are the same as you will see in the Dorset archives. You will also be able to see things like the Bishops Transcripts, wills, inventories, bastardy bonds etc, which you cannot see on-line.
Anne

[Papi Jean]

Thanks, Anne.

It is nice to read that we are, perhaps, going about our research in a logical manner. However, we have just about come to a halt at Thomas b 1729 because we cannot be as certain as we can be, at this stage, of a further link backwards. Any thoughts anyone, please?J

[Anne in Carlisle]

Its at this stage that the trail is often obscure! Hopefully your visit to the Dorset Archives might help. It would probably be helpful to consult their on-line catalogue (assuming they have one .... I know nothing about Dorset!) Might be worth emailing them to see what they suggest from their local holdings. Certainly keep 'collecting' all examples of the name, and don't forget spelling variations too, they weren't much bothered by spelling in those days!

An experience of my own in Bedfordshire shows how wonderful Archives and archivists are. It was my first visit.... Asked what I was researching it turned out they had knowledge of the family and I was almost overwhelmed with help, tithe maps, wills etc!

Good luck
Anne

[Janet in Yorkshire]

My advice would be:-
Keep a list of EVERY parish you have searched (and for which events & the dates) regardless of whether or not you had any hits. Also have a list of all the parishes within the archdeaconry/county, so that you can compare the two lists and see which ones you haven't searched, as not everything is online yet.
This should help you with future blanket searching, by highlighting ground you've already covered and indicating where else you should look for elimination purposes.

Jay

[Papi Jean]

Thank you both for your ongoing advice. We are, progressively, working our way through the parishes of Dorset, of which there seem to be 70 - 90. It will, therefore, be aa slow slog, but we are trying to do it methodically, starting with those parishes within a short(ish) radius of a previously known link and then starting to expand the circle.

J