February 2016 - Somerset & Dorset Family History Society

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The Charge of the Dorset Yeomanry at Agagia on 26 February 1916 – a personal view

Posted on 26th February 2016

Exactly one hundred years ago today the charge of the Dorset Yeomanry at Agagia, in Egypt's western desert, played a major role in the WWI campaign in North Africa Barbara Elsmore shares her own family's memories of this important military event Back in the 1950s and 60s, while visiting my grandparents’ house in Nether Compton, we would have all our meals in a room dominated by what seemed to me like a huge picture of men on horses brandishing swords charging towards a lot of other men in... more

The Dirdoe family of Gillingham, Dorset, and their capture by pirates

Posted on 23rd February 2016

Thomas Dirdoe who was born in 1588 in Gillingham, Dorset, was the 11th Great Grandfather of SDFHS member, Arnaud Aurejac-Davis, who tells the fascinating story of the capture of Thomas and his son by Barbary pirates The first Thomas Dirdoe (1588-aft1643) was baptized on 22 March 1588, at Gillingham, Dorset, the fourth son and child of Charles (described as a ‘gent’) and Joane Thomas must have been a boisterous young man since in July 1613, at the age of only 25, he was granted a pardon for... more

Family Tree Maker and Ancestry

Posted on 20th February 2016

Like many family historians I wanted a computer program where I could keep all the information I was finding out about my family When a friend emailed me a report she had produced I realised I wanted to be able do the same and so I turned to Family Tree Maker, paid for the 'package' and loaded it onto my home computer I loved it from the start A lot of my information had been gleaned by my cousin and she would send me bits of paper with hand written notes on them or copies of censuses and I... more

Two men with multiple ‘marriages’

Posted on 7th February 2016

I suspect that many family historians who run into a ‘brick wall’ when trying to pin down an ancestor do the same thing as I do and try to ‘sneak up’ on them by looking at other people with the same surname in the same area at the same time, in the hope of being able to connect to the right family Doing this for one of my GGGGG Grandmothers, Jane Storrow/Starrow, meant that my research wandered off at a tangent and I started investigating the marriages of a man whose gravestone lists... more

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