Dorset OPC Updates 2010

OPC NEWS

Lost OPCs - Unfortunately a small number of OPCs can no longer be contacted using the contact email addresses I inherited. If these volunteers could contact me (see Contacts Page) I would like to know if they wish to continue with theirparishes, if not then I can offer these parishes as vacancies for others to take up. If anyone else has contact details for them please let me know: (Sandy Pearson Powerstock, Sally Wills Ashmore, Mari Viertel Batcombe, Julia Chaplin Bloxworth, John Hardy Maiden Newton, Jim Gardiner Melbury Osmond, Deborah Carmichael Wambrook and Stephen Plowman Winterbourne Steepleton)

Record Visitors: August activity on the Dorset OPC smashed all records, with 24309 recorded "unique visitors" during the month, compared with 20981 during July (which was the previous highest recorded. Visitor stats are up approximately 50% in the last year. I trust this means the site is proving even more benefical to family historians worldwide with free access to many Dorset records. Thanks to all of the volunteers to continue to provide a wealth of information that ensure the site does not stagnate. I hope to upload a lot more information soon.

Coming Soon:

In the next few days I plan to add some extra parishes to the Dorset OPC. I have been asked a couple of times in the past about information for Bournemouth or Christchurch, but have been reluctant to add as these towns are not "traditionally" considered part of the County of Dorset. If, like me, you have strong connections with the New Forest, then it is very difficult to think of Christchurch in particular as being in Dorset. But now I have a volunteer OPC for Bournemouth, and with little or no information about these parishes on the Hampshire transcription site it sems like a good time to expand. If anyone has any transcriptions or information they could donate for Bournemouth (including Boscombe, Moordown & Pokesdown), Christchurch, Highcliffe or Holdenhurst, please feel free to forward to me.

New Parish Pages are being prepared by Kim Parker, upcoming parishes include Belchalwell, Burstock, Chedington, Chilfrome, Frome St. Quintin, Ibberton, Monkton Wyld, Seaborough, Spetisbury, Stoke Wake, Stourpaine, Sutton Waldron & Woolland

Census Transcriptions - the Project is very grateful to John Ridout for his census transcriptions, there are many more in the pipeline

1861 - RG9/1361-1369 inclusive, 1851 - HO107/280, 281, 282, 292, 293, 295, 1859-1861

Further transcriptions have been donated to the project by Ann Atkinson covering 6 parishes in the Frome Valley, these transcriptions formed part of Ann's MSc and will be uploaded soon, many thanks to Ann for this donation (Cattistock, Chilfrome, Frome Vauchurch, Maiden Newton, Toller Fratrum and Wynford Eagle )

Do you have Non-Conformist ancestors? NC records hard to find? The OPC Project would like to expand the Non-Conformist records available on this site, but often it is difficult to know where these records are loacted, sometimes out of County. If you have NC records that you could donate to the Project we will provide a dediacted area for those that are not parish specific. Also we would be pleased to learn where these records are maintained