West Country Genealogy

News & Updates

07 Apr 2012
Todays update may appear small, yet this short period has 2000 plus baptisms and covers an update of those already online plus an additional 18 years. This is for Gwinear in Cornwall. Transcriptions of baptisms now go from 1800 through to 1825.

25 Mar 2012
This update is to the Blackmore section where I have uploaded a transcription of the 1851 census for Oborne. Among future updates that I am presently working on are the marriages for both Aller and Charlton Mackrell that I have mentioned previously and more Marriages for Stalbridge up to about 1870. My attention from Stalbridge will move to the Somerset Parish next store, Henstridge, which will be quite substantial as the main page still needs to be finished and I have quite alot of records to add too. Among other records are more transcriptions of Census records as well as many more of the 1904 East Somerset Electroal Roll and am also looking at a Dorset Poll Book although this would need alot of sorting. An interesting one, although a rather large project is an index of Somerset Wills that is starting to take shape at present. When I get to the point of uploading, it will be added to the directories section of the website which will probably be renamed at the time.

15 Mar 2012
So far I am not having much success with modifying the search function. My intention is to add an advance search so that results can be narrowed done far better than what the general search results give. To date it refuses to work, why I haven't been able to figure out. Anyway once it is sorted I will update the website. Today I have added another of the Marriage Transcripts for a Somerset Parish, this time being Northover.

08 Mar 2012
Since completing the work below I have been browsing through all the Dorset records I have and have come across transcripts from the Parish Registers for Stalbridge that I must have done long ago. Therefore I have updated the marriages on the site again. Most of the changes and additions are for the period from 1813 through to 1849. This now means that the combined BT's and PR's are now from 1694 to 1849. I still have another 20 plus years to convert to html format and will do these soon.

03 Mar 2012
A rather substantial update to the marriage transcriptions for Stalbridge in Dorset. Up till today the website had the transcriptions of the Bishops Transcripts which covered the years from 1738 to 1847. I have now combined these with the Phillmore's transcripts of the Parish Registers. This means I have added the period from 1694 to 1737 and have gone through and added all the missing marriages between 1738 and 1812 as well as amending any errors. There were many marriage entries in the PR's that were not recorded in the BT's, but only one entry in the BT's that were missing from the PR's, a bit unusual. Anyway we now have a complete series of transcripts from 1694 to 1812 with only the time period from 1813 onwards being solely BT's with the possibility of marriage entries missing.

24 Feb 2012
Todays update is the first of the marriage transcripts I mentioned last time, being those of Muchelney, Somerset.

16 Feb 2012
This update is actually a transcript I started 3 years ago and at the time there were no transcriptions online for Cannington. A search a few days ago reveals that West Somerset Parish Transcriptions has since done all Baptisms and Burials and Marriages from 1711 onwards. So I am only going to put online the marriage transcripts from 1559 to 1710 and there is a link at the bottom of the page that will take one to the rest of the transcripts. This is the last of the West Somerset Parishes I had started on and will from now on leave these as I have plenty of other records on hand without duplicating what has already been done for now. Therefore future marriage transcripts will include the parishes of Aller, Charlton Mackrell, Muchelney, Northover and others.

I am also looking at improving the search capabilities of the website although this may take a while to sort out as it requiries a fair amount of work and alterations to many pages where I want to add the search function.

10 Feb 2012
Todays update is to one of the Cornwall OPC parishes that I look after. Another 35years have been added to the marriage transcripts. This update covers the years 1741 to 1775

30 Jan 2012
It may appear that not much is happening to the website, yet I have been slowly going through all the 200 plus pages gradually standardising the teaxt fonts and adding things here and there. This progress is most obviously seen in the Somerset section of the site. Have also updated or deleted some of the external links and removed the link to the blog as I can no longer access it. Today I have also added a transcript of the 1841 census for Poyntington Parish

20 Jan 2012
Have added to the Somerset Section a transcript of the 1841 census for Penselwood

31 Aug 2011
Long last the Abbas & Templecombe section is to benefit from the latest update. First the main page has been redone and have also added transcripts of the 1904 Electoral Roll.

11 Aug 2011
Today's update is to the pages that I host on behalf of the Somerset Record Society. Their address has been changed and the publications list has been updated. Volumes 68 (Hylle Cartlary) and 69 (Hastings Letters) are both now available for £10.00 each in addition to those previously available.. Have also listed the latest, Volume, no: 94 being Somerset Wills (from the Moger Collection) for £33.00. Please remember that membership to the Society which costs £10.00 per annum includes one copy of each new volume without any further payment. Details on how to join can be found on their page.

06 Aug 2011
Have now uploaded the first part of the 1841 census for Wincanton. This is quite large so may be a little slow to load on some computers. Will try to get the 2nd part sorted out by the end of the weekend or early next week. Also included is a link to the Wincanton Museum and History Society which has a very interesting time line on the towns history.

01 Aug 2011
Okay while searching through records and files I have come across some transcriptions that I have done that are not online. First up is the completion of the section of Horsington baptisms up to 1799. the other is an update of the Mawgan in Meneage burials 1800 to 1865. I also have several transcriptions of the 1841 census for the South East Somerset parishes. I need to go through these to check for any errors before putting online.

30 July 2011
Most of you active in Family History will be aware that I have been inactive with genealogy now for the last few years. Early in 2010 I did seriously consider taking the website off line as my free time is very limited and this website is very large for one person to handle. It was pointed out to me at the time that although I no longer had the time to add to the site, what was here is helping alot of people, so I decided to leave it as it was. Now that the domain name and hosting account are soon due for renewal I have again revisited this decision.

Surprisingly I have discovered that the website is self supporting cost wise, so this has removed any pressure to take the website offline. So I am happy to announce that West Country Genealogy will be staying online and better still I have much much more records to add.

Time is still as issue, therefore transcripts will be added as and when I have the time. Their is also the question of accurancy with a few of the transcripts, these generally being the oldest of the Gwinear, Cornwall transcripts which I did over 10years ago when I was new to transcribing old records. I hope to go through all these and update them online eventually (the process of rechecking has already started).

The first thing I have done is to close all the old email accounts as they have been hopelessly bombarded with spam mails rendering them impossible to use. From now I only have the one email address (below) that being a gmail address. I am sure that I have changed all my email address links, although if you do come across one that doesn't end with gmail.com then I would appreciate a quick email alerting myself.

I did also consider re-designing the website till I realised the sheer size of it (several hundred pages) made this a huge undertaking, so have decided to leave it all as is for the time being. The other option is to reduce the size of the site to make it more managable. This would mean dropping the Meneage Area of Cornwall section and just concentrate on the South East Somerset/Somerset portions of the website. The reasoning for considering the removal of Cornwall is based on the fact that Cornwall as a whole is so well covered by the Cornwall OPC project. I will look at this at the end of the year and in the meantime welcome any suggestions on the website or feedback on reducing the size.

I have also been concentrating on my own Family having not done anything for many years which has resulted in some break throughs in discovering some missing family lines that had defied any previous attempts to discover where they had disappeared to. Most have turned up in Australia which I had long suspected was the case. Now I just have to find the connecting records to put it all together. I am though still looking for Frederick Shirley born 1855 in the Hutt Valley, Wellington, New Zealand. Like his sister Sarah Anne SHIRLEY (also known as Mabel Anne), who I found a few days ago I don't know where he went to (I suspect Australia) and whether he married or not.
I suppose with these successes, after so long without one, has rejuvenated my interest somewhat, so now I want to press on further with other projects too..................... Remember too, if you are researching the New Zealand Shirley's (almost all are related with a few exceptions) please do get in touch as I have most connections, like wise with the Somerset Shirley/Sharley family.

11 May 2009
Have added a further 20 years of transcripts from the Horsington Baptism Registers, taking them up to 1745

03 May 2009
Continuning on with the Horsington baptisms, today's updates covers the period from 1701 to 1725

26 April 2009
Another update to the Horsington, Somerset Pages. Baptism transcripts from 1676 to 1700 have now been added to this section.

19 April 2009
Just a small update today, in the Horsington Parish section. Have added transcriptions of Baptisms dovering they ears from 1650 to 1675

14 March 2009
Have started off by making a few corrections pointed out by other Researchers. The first is at the bottom of the page on the first section of the 1841 census for Milborne Port. The 3rd & 4th to last lines where the surname read HILLIAR, this is incorrect. The correct surname is WILLIAMS. With the marriage transcriptions for Milborne Port have a look at 1817 and there is a marriage for Thomas WARE to Jane MOORES. I was not sure of the correct spelling or full date, these have now been clarified and corrected. My thanks to Marianne for her help in sorting these out.
The next one is also in the first section of the 1841 census for Milborne Port and confirms the name EARS in note 3 at the bottom as being the correct spelling of the surname for Ann & Catherine. They are part of the EYRES/EYERS/AYERS Family and by following this link to the Dorset EYERS Project, one can learn more about this family. My thanks to Robert Hillier for confirmation and link to the family resources

29 November 2008
This is the first update for awhile due to my ongoing shoulder problems. I do hope to start updating on a regular basis for the next few months. Today's is for the parish of Stoke Trister in Somerset with they being a transcription of the 1841 census and offsite links to history and a map. The census does has a few notes at the foot of the page in respect to the spelling of some surnames which differ from other available records.

18 October 2008
This is the first update for awhile and it is more transcripts of the 1904 Electoral Roll. This time the parishes covered are - Blackford, Charlton Horethorne, Horsington, Maperton, Stowell. Also added are links to the history and parish map for Blackford, Charlton Horethorne and for Horsington a link to a map of the parish.

25 August 2008
Due to an on going shoulder injury I have not been able to do much transcribing of records lately. Hopefully things will soon improve and I can get back into transcribing once again. For the moment I have added to the website transcripts of the 1904 Electoral Roll that I did a while ago. These are North Barrow in the Somerset Section and in the South East Somerset section those for North Cheriton & Milborne Port. Milborne Port also includes links to history and another parish map.

Have also added a link on the main page to ExploreGenealogy This very useful website contains all sorts of articles with guidance on where to start, what records are available and where they maybe found in England as well as overseas in places such as Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, the US etc: Have a look and remember to sign up for there monthly Newsletter which will keep you updated on new articles being added to the website.

09 July 2008
Further transcripts of the Burials Register have been added for Gwinear in the Cornwall section. This now completes the section from 1700 to 1799. Not sure what the next update will contain, most probably some more extracts of the 1904 Electroal Roll for Somerset. Am also working on baptisms for Gwinear from 1800 up to 1812 which is slow going at present.

23 June 2008
The main addition to the site today is in the Cornwall section where are transcriptions of the Marriage Register for Gwinear have been added covering the years from 1700 up to 1740.
Also have updated the Wincanton Researchers page - Adding the Pond Family

09 June 2008
Have dug something else out from among the old books and papers that I have in my collection. Today's update consists of some transcripts from the 1904 Electoral Roll for Eastern Somerset. These are just some small parishes that I have been able to do tonight while I had some free time and the first three parishes cover Alford, West Bradley and Yarlington, and can be found in the general Somerset section. The final one I did was for the Corton Denham parish and can be found in the South East Somerset section. Have also added to Corton Denham two external links to the Parish history and a parish map. Also see the blog for more information.

01 June 2008
Todays update is a bit of an unusual one mainly because I never planned to do it, even though I did have a copy of the particular records. Anyway in one of those moments when I wanted to do something different, I picked this one out as it was a small transcription and easily readable. This is why todays update is a transcription of the 1841 census for Oborne Parish in Dorset added to the Blackmore section of the website. This little parish is located just to the East of Sherborne and south of Goat Hill parish.

19 May 2008
Again todays update is in the South East Somerset Section of the Website. This time to the Cucklington pages. Have added an external link to the parish map and have also uploaded a transcript of the 1851 census.

04 May 2008
The latest update is in the South East Somerset section. Have changed and updated the main North Cheriton page including some information about the parish as well as links to the surrounding parishes. Also added some useful offsite links those being to the history of North Cheriton as well as a link to a parish map. Have also completed and added a transcription of the 1841 Census.

20 April 2008
After a few months break bought on by other committments I now have the time once again to start adding more transcriptions of records to the website. Click through to the blog to see what is happening and what is planned over the next few months.

Many researchers with interests in the Wincanton parish of Somerset are aware of a book that is a very valuable genealogical resource, and some of the records on my Wincanton pages also come from this source. The book itself is rare and when it becomes available is normally rather expensive. Well thanks to "The Internet Archive" this book is now available to everyone as a download in various formats. Visit the Wincanton page for more details. Also added to the Wincanton main page are links to "British History Online" which has a section on Wincanton and this also includes a link to a map of this parish. (These links will also be added to my other South East Parishes in the coming weeks)

Todays updates include two minor one's, for the Somerset Shirley's page and the Somerset Record Society publications page where a two more volumes have now sold out, they being volume's 44 and 59. The main update is to my Gwinear (Cornwall OPC Project) section where I have added more to the burial transcripts, this time covering the years from 1771 through to 1785.