Remote researchers with Dorsetshire roots have lots of material at their fingertips. Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk) launched its Dorset parish registers collection way back in 2011, and now has registers of electors and poll books, as well as crew lists, land-tax returns, militia lists, alehouse licences and jury lists, wills and probate, vagrant records, and various sets of criminal records. Findmypast (findmypast.co.uk) too can boast impressive collections from the county, mainly drawn from data produced by the two main family history societies covering Dorset.
There are exciting changes on the ground as), for example, closed at the end of 2022 and is currently being transformed into “a modern, thriving cultural space and community hub” scheduled to reopen in 2024, thanks in part to a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £2.2 million. Meanwhile via the website of the museum’s Poole History Centre, Poole History Online (), you can trawl databases like the Register of Duties Paid for Apprentices’ Indentures, 1710– 1811 – transcribed by volunteers.
