Some changes
have recently been made to this section of the website. I will
still be concentrating on the parishes in the South East corner
of Somerset that share there boundaries with the Blackmore
Vale parishes in Dorset. These include Cucklington,
Penselwood and Wincanton which are in the Navigation panel to
the left. In addition this section will cover all the parishes
that were at one time part of the Horethorne Hundred except for
Holwell which was a detached parish in Dorset, up till 1895, and
Rimpton
which ceased to be part of Horethorne Hundred in 1735. A map of
the hundred can be found here.
Have a look
at a modern map and find the A357, which starts just South West
of Wincanton (off A303), then runs south through North Cheriton,
Horsington, Templecombe, Henstridge, then into Dorset through
Stalbridge, Sturminster Newton and onwards south. Keep this road
in mind when researching your ancestors as many families moved
north & south along this road. Many years of research has
indicated that if I cannot find someone in a particular parish
then I have had some success checking parishes along this route.
If you are researching families in Horsington or Templecombe,
also look at Kington Magna and Milborne Port as there was quite
a lot of movement around these parishes too as well as between
Stalbridge
and Henstridge. Similarily if your research is concentrated on
North Cheriton, then also look at Holton
just to the north. Generally speaking if families did not move
to far then they can be found by checking popular roads of the
time.
Over the last
10 years the amount of parish records transcribed and offered
online has increased dramatically. Other main sources of records
for you to check out include those offered by the Somerset
OPC Project and FreeReg.
Both sites have a huge resource of transcriptions. For general
information on research in Somerset have a look at Genuki
Somerset and Somerset
GenWeb. If you want to obtain copies of the parish
registers themselves and other records then visit the Somerset
Archives. Two other sources of transcriptions are
Family
Search and a subscription service, Ancestry
UK which also has additional resources such as family
trees. For those who are interested in joining a Family
History Society, Somerset has a very well established
Society which also covers Dorset. (For information on Dorset resources,
please visit the Blackmore
section of this website.
As always
I am happy to accept contributions of records for online use or
for offline use only. I am happy to help with any queries if I
can, please keep in mind it could take some time before I reply.