Click on logo to follow link
Family History Societies:
the family history society devoted solely to Cornwall
the family history society devoted solely to Devon
the family history society devoted solely to Dorset
the long-established family history society that covers both counties
Record offices:
Cornwall Record Office (Kresen Kernow) - home of Cornwall's archives
devonarchives@swheritage.org.uk
Devon Record Office - home of Devon's archives
Dorset History Centre - home of Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole's archives
The Somerset Heritage Centre - home of Somerset's archives
Online Parish Clerk projects:
Cornwall OPC project
a volunteer project to make as many Cornwall records as possible available online
Devon OPC project
a volunteer project to make as many Devon records as possible available online
a volunteer project to make as many Dorset records as possible available online
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a volunteer project to make as many Somerset records as possible available online
as this is still relatively in its infancy, further sites are listed below
Ian Sage's Index to some online Somerset Transcriptions
There are also numerous other sites that give information about individual parishes or groups of parishes
Free research sites:
Sites hosted by Ancestry under their Roots Web banner
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Birth, Deaths and Marriagee |
Censuses |
Parish Registers |
and LDS site
NOTE - With FamilySearch though be wary of contributor submitted entries as these are not always transcriptions but often suppositions with no basis in fact.- hypothetical example: John Smith marries in Beaminster in 1825 so there is 'contributor' record submitted for John Smith born Beaminster ca 1800 whereas John Smith was really 35 when married and born in Broadwindsor, a genuine 1790 baptism transcription already existing. As with all transcriptions on all sites, no matter what the source, bear in mind that they are only what the transcriber believes they see and are only as good as that individual's interpretation of what can be seen on documents that are sometimes incredibly difficult to read or decipher. Another thing to watch out for is the recent efforts to get more records online by Ancestry, Findmypast, Btitisn Newspaper Archive, amongst others with the need to use Optical Character Recognition equipment whose performance is variable. Quite severely affected appear to be Ancestry's electoral roll name search indexes where, as well as 'inventive' interpretation of the characters read (not all are), the 'J' to indicate jury service is included, as are often parts of the person's address as well! Comparison of the index at the bottom of the page and the actually list shown also often reveals whole chunks of the roll have not been included in the indexes so presumably won't be picked up in searches. It is always best to check the original documents when you can. I've lost count (in transcriptions from numerous sites) of the Hams, Hains, Manns, Slanns and Flanns I've seen indexed or transcribed as Hann and the times Hann has been transcribed as Haun, Mann, Ham, Harm etc, and whilst I can see the reasoning behind getting people who have no idea what something might be to index/transcribe as 'an accurate reflection of what they see' and in no way wish to decry the valuable work they do in making that data accessible to me, I still think you can't beat a person with local knowledge who knows what a name is supposed to be. They would know it was a very localised but exceedingly common name and index/transcribe it accordingly rather than possibly cobble together an unlikely jumble of letters that is of no use to anybody trying to find the person by surname search anyway. In the end I suppose it is down to the availability of people (either voluntary or otherwise) who have time and are willing to undertake the work.
Subscription/pay-per-view research sites with south west UK content:
Support organisations:
the independent body
that supports the Devon Record Office in its work
Dorset Archives Trust (formerly Friends
of Dorset's Archives)
enquiries@dorsetarchivestrust.org the independent
charitable body
that supports the Dorset History Centre in
its work and works closely with
the Dorchester Museum (managed
by the Dorset Natural History and Archaeology Society)
membership@friendsofsomersetarchives.org.uk the independent body
that supports the Somerset History Centre in its work
BEAMINSTER MUSEUM
The Old Congregational Chapel Whitcombe Road BEAMINSTER Dorset DT8 3NB +44(0)1308 863 623
The Coach House Gundry Lane BRIDPORT Dorset DT6 3RJ +44(0)1308 458 703
High Street HONITON Devon EX14 1PG +44(0)1404 44 966 preserving the heritage of
Beaminster, Bridport, Honiton and their surrounding areas Another useful site for making connections
Or, if you want to set up your own website: 
BRIDPORT MUSEUM
HONITON MUSEUM
Allhallows
info@beaminstermuseum.co.uk
New
info@honitonmuseum.co.uk
New
New
New
HANNfamily
15.12.2019
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