We are always interested to hear about projects that are happening in our local communities. We’ve recently been pointed to the fascinating Slave Voyages Database, and links to Dorset. In this guest blog we take a look at the voyage of the Molly, charted in a fascinating new storymap… — More than thirty thousand slaving… Read more Poole and enslavement: The Voyage of Molly 1758-59
Sometimes, when working in the archives you accidently stumble upon a document that ends up being so interesting, that it distracts you from what you are supposed to be doing and you have to read it there and then! That’s what happened when we found the document D-FFO/18/132 within the Ffooks and Darlington of Sherborne,… Read more Murder in a small village?
Sometimes forums such as the Dorset History Centre blog can uncover further stories in your family history or information on a village or house history to add to your research. The recent two part blog by Valerie Brenton (here and here) following a family in Sturminster Newton Workhouse, some of whom emigrated to Newfoundland, chimed… Read more The Rowlands of Hinton St Mary
If you asked someone for a food associated with Dorset, you might get the following responses Dorset Knobs, Dorset Blue Vinney, Portland Pudding, Dorset Horn, the Dorset Naga… Chances are though that the most popular response would be Dorset Apple Cake. The Dorset poet William Barnes mentions an apple cake of sorts in his poem… Read more Cooking the Books – Dorset Apple Cake
The collection of Hardy-related material acquired in late 2020 offers some fascinating insights into Hardy’s world and the eclectic range of contacts and correspondents he maintained links with and the wider perspective on Hardy’s life that this important purchase provides. Below, we look at a few of the stories to have emerged. Hardy the son… Read more Thomas Hardy – exploring a new collection (part 3)
When researching your family history, you may discover one or two ‘Skeletons’, one possibly being that an ancestor was illegitimate. This is normally discovered when looking at their baptism record where, not only is the mother the only named parent, but the child is recorded as a ‘bastard’ in the register. In the example below,… Read more Bastardy records – what are they and what do they tell us?
In the local studies library at the Dorset History Centre you can find a large collection of journals. These journals are packed with fascinating articles and are often an underused resource. In this series of blogs we will be highlighting some of the interesting articles within them! This is the seventh in our series of… Read more The Journals of DHC: 1960s
On July 17th we will be celebrating World Emoji Day 😀👍. It was surprising 😲 to learn that there’s a special day dedicated to these yellow smiley expressions, that have become common place online, in phone messaging and social media. Emojis have been around for a while as a way of communicating succinctly, in picture… Read more World Emoji Day
This is part two of a guest blog written for Dorset History Centre by Valerie Brenton. You can read part one here! — Incomplete Stories Sometimes the records do not exist or there is not enough detail in the records to confirm beyond doubt that they belong to the person being researched. In some cases… Read more From Workhouse Records: Sturminster Newton Workhouse to Newfoundland (part 2)
Why the Workhouse? We all know that the sons and daughters of Dorset have spread around the world – even a casual wander through the Dorset History Centre online catalogue will reveal the names of countries and territories from all around the globe. Often the records refer to business interests in foreign or empire countries… Read more From Workhouse Records: Sturminster Newton Workhouse to Newfoundland (part 1)
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