Dorset Family History – including Bournemouth and Poole

This Dorset family history section has been created to assist family historians investigating Dorset genealogy and tracing ancestors and relatives who were born and/or lived in the region of Dorset, England, UK. We hope that you will find these Dorset family history resources useful in your research.

Dorset Family History Society

This large and very active family history society runs a family history research centre called the Treetops Centre, based in Poole, Dorset. It is accessible to both members and the general public. For a very small fee anyone can visit and use the internet facilities and microfiche records.

You’ll be able to search out the major family history sites and newspaper archives and also view microfiche copies of local Dorset parish records. There is a library you can visit for a small charge.  Check on the website link for opening times. The society also offers research assistance for a very modest fee to members and non members.  (Members receive a discount on the research fee.)

Dorset History Centre

This holds local family history archives for Dorset, including the regions of Bournemouth and Poole. It also has a local studies library and holds council records.

The Corfe Castle & District 1790 Census

If you are lucky enough to have ancestors who lived in Corfe Castle, then William Morton Pitt’s private census for this parish dated 1790 will make for fascinating reading. This 1790 census was transcribed by Reverend Hutchins in his ‘History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset’. It records many details of the 1,237 residents of Corfe Castle, including (in most cases) their name, address, date of birth, occupation, wages and marital status. Even perhaps more interesting are the little comments such as a labourer named Richard Davy being described as ‘foolish’!

William Morton Pitt was an MP for Poole (1780 – 1790) and then Dorset (1790 – 1826). Although a cousin of the Prime Minister, William Pitt, he once confessed that ‘I never found Pitt much disposed to favour me’. He was also a philanthropist who, as a landlord, actually reduced his tenants’ rent.

Dorset births, marriages and deaths

Here are some useful Dorset county search pages from the subscription based FindMyPast website.

Births

Dorset Baptisms

Marriages

Dorset Marriages

Burials – including memorial inscriptions

Dorset Burials
Dorset Memorial Inscriptions

Dorset Newspaper Archives

Local newspaper archives and other historical newsletters can provide invaluable information for family historians. The announcement of a birth, marriage or death can often provide that missing piece of information, or confirm what we already suspected. Because the newspapers are local, they can help us confirm an ancestor’s location. If you are lucky, newspaper reports can also provide a tantalising glimpse of our ancestors’ lives, not often supplied simply by a birth, marriage or death certificate, or census return.

The British Newspaper Archives has digitised newspaper archives for Dorset, including Sherborne, Bridport and Dorchester. It is constantly adding to its archives, some of which date back to the 1600s, so it is worth visiting on a regular basis.