Researching family in Dorchester and Beaminster

     When I first started researching my family tree there was several goals on my mind and one of them was to eventually visit the locations my ancestors had lived their lives. I had eventually come across a brick wall that I wanted to break down as my research seemed to come to a dead end and I couldn’t go any further back. I had only gotten as far as the death of John Milverton of Corscombe in Dorset during 1791. I wanted to go further back and the records I had seen from the LDS (Latter Day Saints) did not give me the names of his parents or the names of his siblings, although I had a list of possible people within several years of John’s birth. What I wanted to do was to visit the family history centre located in Dorchester and I was able to when I went over in June 2010.

      While staying at a local B&B the owner gave me directions to find the research centre and I set off. I knew of several of the land marks one being the local hospital, but I ended up getting lost as I had walked in the wrong direction. After turning around and walking the way I had come, I found a postal delivery lady who gave me directions to where I should have gone.

Upon finding the building, I felt really stupid that I had walked the wrong way, but at least I had gotten there. I had to sign up for a CARN card also known as the County Archive Research Network card that can be used at other research centres in England. This card is to be used when ordering records that a person wants to view and even copy.

        Within the first 15 minutes of loading a microfilm into the film reader, the records that I had been looking for were actually found. I had found the names of John’s parents on his birth and also confirmed the others as his siblings. John ended up with five brothers and three sisters. The other records I found were the marriage Bann for john’s parents James and Elizabeth along with a new surname of Wareham, which is also the name of a town. The name of the family for John’s wife was also included amongst the records. One of the microfilms I was searching for was actually away for repairs as I was searching for a birth and I was allowed to look at the actual record although it didn’t actually answer many questions, but at least I had sighted it and confirmed what I had found on the Dorset OPC an online parish search.

    The next day the plan was to visit the Beaminster museum in the town, where John Milverton and his family lived. There were two changes as the bus went to Bridport and I had to catch another to the small town of Beaminster. The houses along the road were spectacular especially a mansion with ivy growing up the walls. The town of Beaminster wasn’t what I expected although one of the places I made my way to was the museum. Unfortunately when I arrived, the museum was actually shut for that particular day.  The opening times were the one thing that had not been checked on the website, although the trip was not a total waste of time. With a Town map and a print out of several census’s, I went wandering down some of the streets trying to imagine what the area would have been like back in the early 1800’s. One places that I assumed would not still be standing was the tavern called the Swan Inn that features as a location, John and his family lived. Fleet Street and Fore place were two locations from the census that I found since they were close to the town centre known as The Square. The houses along Fleet Street were pretty much the same type of house you see in England although at the end of Fleet, the street changed to Newtown. Further along the road were a school and an Old Catholic church down a side street. Back in town there was another church called St Marys that was being renovated. It was a nice little church on the inside. 

  

   After my journey through the town and since I could not enter the museum as it was closed I decided to make my way back to Dorchester although I caught the wrong bus on the way back and ended up at the town of Lyme Regis on a nice summers day. That is another story for another time. There are some things that I did learn from my stay in Dorchester and that was always check the opening times of museums, Catch the right bus and it is always nice walking around old towns that are off the tourist map and look at where those you have been researching actually lived. After getting home I did some searching into several of the people I had found like with the census and found the ones who I had overlooked in the past were actually from the same family.

    I do plan on another trip to Dorchester and this time I will again visit the Beaminster Museum, when it is open to see if they in fact have anything that will flesh out my ancestors who lived in the town. Since one was a publican then I would be sure they have something.