22,989 new Dorset parish records have been published on findmypast.co.uk consisting of 1,533 baptisms, 8,084 marriages and 13,372 burials:

Baptisms
Number of Records: 1,533
Years covered: 1538-1839
Parishes covered:
Okeford Fitzpaine
Portesham

Marriages
Number of Records: 8,084
Years covered: 1546-1839
Parishes covered:
Gillingham
Melcombe Regis
Portland
Gussage All Saints
Glanvilles Wootton
Lytchet Matravers
Fordington
Longbredy
Frampton
Okeford Fitzpaine
Fontmell Magna
Holnest
Halstock
Shipton Gorge
Bishops Caundle
Lydlinch
Licence
Hooke
Frome St Quintin

Burials
Number of Records: 13,372
Years covered: 1573-1749
Parishes covered:
Chettle
Cranborne
Dorchester All Saints
Dorchester Holy Trinity
Dorchester St Peter
Gussage All Saints
Melbury Abbas
Okeford Fitzpaine
Portesham
Wyke Regis

Resources > Reports Section

• I've updated all the family tree reports at:
  http://www.hibbitt.org.uk/treereports.html

Family Tree Section

• Added facts and detailed footnotes for my 5 x great-grandfather, William Horn (abt. 1792-1870) of Black Torrington, Devon:
  http://www.hibbitt.org.uk/familytree/fam61315.html
• Also, added the children of William Horn and his wife, Ann (nee Bayley or Bailey) to the above page.
• Added the names of William Horn's parents, Lewis Burdon Horn and Ann Rigsby, together with their children:
  http://www.hibbitt.org.uk/familytree/fam70144.html
• Added the names of Ann Bayley's parents, Joseph Bailey and Mary:
  http://www.hibbitt.org.uk/familytree/fam70511.html
• Added the following new fact for John Gale Hellier and also placed it into his biography - John won the Soudan Medal during the 1884 Sudan Campaign.

In 1998, the Friends of Devon's Archives undertook a project to make the information from the county's tithe apportionments more accessible. Most date from the 1840's, and they cover 97.4% of the total area of the county. However, coverage does not exist for the urban parishes of Exeter, nor for Kingsbridge, Dartmouth St Saviours, East Stonehouse in Plymouth, the town of Tiverton, etc. - therefore, many highly-populated areas are not included.

The names of owners, lessees and occupiers, together with the names of the holdings and their acreages, have been extracted and a database of this information has been created. Several border parishes in Cornwall and Dorset have also been included.

This database is available to search for free on the Friends of Devon's Archives website.

The data can be accessed in two different ways, - by searching on a parish to obtain a complete listing of the parish, or searching on a name to obtain all occurrences of that name.

The main limitation with the database is that it does not contain field names or numbers and, except for named holdings whose location is known, the searcher will have to resort to the original Tithe Apportionment and map to obtain a geographical location of property.

I put in the surname, Horn, to try and find my 5 x great-grandfather, William Horn of Black Torrington, and the database rendered the following results:

Parish, Owner, Occupier, Holding, Acreage,
Black Torrington, Burden, John, Horn, William, Hole, 92.0.30
Black Torrington, Burden, John, Horn, William, Uptcott, 34.3.06
Black Torrington, Horn, William, Collacott, William, unnamed cottage etc, 0.0.03
Black Torrington, Horn, William, Dart, John, unnamed cottage etc, 0.0.04
Black Torrington, Horn, William, Horn, William, unnamed cottage etc, 0.0.20
Black Torrington, Horn, William, Horn, William, unnamed land, 1.3.34
Black Torrington, Paige, George, Horn, William, unnamed land, 1.0.00
Bradworthy, Oke, Hugh, Horn, William, unnamed house etc, 0.0.19
Holsworthy, Stanhope, Earl, Horn, William, unnamed house etc, 0.2.16

Area given in acres, rods (or roods), and perches (40 perches = 1 rod, 4 rods = 1 acre)



Used in conjunction with the 1841 census, I found the Tithe Apportionments database to be a useful tool. For instance, the census showed George Paige, the owner of an acre of unnamed land occupied by William Horn, lived at Bridge, Black Torrington. Using the Ordnance Survey maps at Bing, I discovered Hole Farm, Upcott Farm and Bridge Farm are all still in existence today.

[Why Tuesday's Tip? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

There's no one particular way to keep your digital genealogical research organized but I thought I'd mention how I do it. If you have an alternative method please share it in the comments section.

My research is organized within a series of folders on my computer, two of which are named Family Members (Maternal) and Family Members (Paternal) respectively.

Inside these folders, I have a sub-folder for each person in my tree for whom I have documents, photographs, or both. I name them using the surname first, in capitals, then the Christian names and lastly, in brackets, a married name for women. In the case of several individuals bearing the same name, I add the birth year or other fact in brackets to differentiate. Here are some examples...

FRYER Richard (b abt. 1663)
PARKER Sarah Albinia (Dando)
TOYSOM Alexander (the elder)
WALKER Sarah (Dando, Hamilton)
!UNKNOWN Hannah (Pitcher) (b abt. 1808)

I use the exclamation mark before those with unknown surnames so these individuals will be placed at the beginning of the folder when alphabetically sorted.

I make sure my folder is sorted on 'name' so I'll be able to find my chosen individual quickly. To do this in Windows, you need to open up either the Family Members (Maternal) or Family Members (Paternal) folder and in the menu, choose View > Arrange Icons By > Name. If they are sorted Z-A perform this action once more and you should have them arranged A-Z.


Inside the person's folder, I create another folder named 'Documents'. This is where I store all the downloaded documents and scanned images of documents in my possession. Wherever possible, I date them so these documents will appear in order inside the folder. For example...

1869 - England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837-1915 - Alfred Charles Hibbitt.jpg
1869 - England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837-1915 - Alfred Charles Hibbitt.mht
1871 - England Census - Alfred C Hibbitt.jpg
1871 - England Census - Alfred C Hibbitt.mht
1928 - Alfred Charles Hibbitt - Death Certificate.jpg

1882 - 17 Feb - London Gazette - Bankruptcy of William Elbert Dando.pdf
1915 - Post Office London Directory (Part 5 - Law, Court & Parlaiment Directories) - William Elbert Dando.jpg

There is inevitably, a certain amount of duplication for instance, a census document might contain a family of 6 people so the same document will eventually be stored in 6 different folders. I feel this is the best way to ensure I'll always find the document I'm looking for but it does, however, take up more disk space.

Besides the 'Documents' folder, I sometimes create a folder called 'Photos' within the individual person's named folder. As the name suggests it's where I place photographs relevant to the person if I have them. These might include scanned pictures of the person or photographs of places where they lived or worked or churches where they were baptized, married or buried, either taken recently or from old photos. I might also include pictures of memorabilia such as medals or other personal possessions.

Whatever your method, remember to always back up your important data either onto an external hard drive or to CD or DVD or memory stick or to an online backup service, anywhere just so long as you keep an additional copy. Your data represents many hours of hard work which you'd be heartbroken to lose.

Biographies

A private in the 2/1 Bucks Battalion, Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry, during the Great War, my great-grandfather, Henry (Harry) James Weaver appears to have written home regularly and three of his letters to his wife, sent in August and September 1916, still survive.

The following excerpts are a taster, the complete letters are available at:
Henry James Weaver's Biography Page

"...I have been issued out with some bandages if I should get wounded, what they call first aid field dressing, but I hope I shall never want to use it..."

"...I hope Lovie Dear we shall have a pleasant voyage across the Channel, I do hope I shant be Sea-sick..."

"...Oh Dearie what a meeting it will be if I am spared to come home safe to you after the war is over, My Dear Baby will be quite big by that time, I hope you will get on alright when Baby is born..."

"...it is very hot here in France & the roads are so dusty, we see plenty of Soldiers here & they call the Germans Frits, a new name for them..."

"...we are going through a weeks training here at the base, so I am sure we shall soon be going up in the trenches which is many miles from here, they say it is a 2 days journey..."

"...I may say the money here is strange to me, for an English shilling is worth 1/2, I dare say I shall get used to it if I am here long enough..."

"...a lot of my Chums have gone up in the firing line, & I dare say by the time you get this letter I shall be up there too..."

"...My Dear, when you write to me again, would you kindly send me on an addressed envelope in ink, as I have only pencil..."

"...Now My Dear I must tell you I have been in the Trenches, but of course I must not tell you where I am, but as long as you know I am quite well that is really good news for you..."

"...I have come across a lot of my Chums who were with me on Salisbury Plain, & it did seem good to see them, I may tell you My Dear we are out of the Trenches for 8 days rest, then we shall have to go back again..."

"...we shall all be very glad when this terrible war is over, it looks brighter for us now Roumania has joined in on our side & now I think Greece will soon come in..."

"...I have you in my thoughts night & day, for I know this is a very anxious time for you, & you know too well how much I Love and care for you..."

Find out what happened to Henry - read his story here.

[Why Amanuensis Monday? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

Gallery Section

I've added new images to the gallery pertaining to my great-grandfather, Henry James Weaver:

• Photographs of Henry James Weaver


• Photograph of Henry Weaver with his wife, Florence (nee Smale)


• Merville Communal Cemetery Extension where Henry Weaver is buried


• Photos of the Tavistock War Memorial where Henry James Weaver is commemorated


• Henry Weaver's WWI Memorial Plaque and Scroll, Identity Disc and Medals


• Rifle Club Silver Spoon awarded to Henry Weaver

Ancestry has improved its tree viewer to let you more easily see and move around between the generations of your family tree:

• Expandable generations in the Pedigree View so you can see more than five generations in any one line.


• Updated Family View displays more generations as well as the extended family.


• Zoom in to an area of your tree or panaround.


• View your tree in the full width of your browser window.


• Printer-friendly feature.

With Christmas fast approaching, you may be looking for some gift ideas for your family history enthusiast so I've put together a few links to give you inspiration........Read more »

To help you decipher those old documents, the link below shows some examples of letters of the alphabet from the 17th century which have been found in parish registers:
17th Century Handwriting