DORSET-L Archives

From: "p williams" <>
Subject: Re: Early Methodists at Bridport.
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1998 22:50:49 -0600

Hi, to everyone,

I posted the attached a few weeks ago and had some really good results that
led to a breakthoughs both in Bridport and elsewhere across the Southwest.

However, before I describe all that I would like to thank everyone that
helped and in particular David and Graham put a lot of work into finding
results for me. David looked up records and Graham put pictures of the
building on his website. So not only did I find out about my relatives and
confirmed that one was a Rev., but also I was able to see the photo's of the
chapel that the families attended in the 18C. This result is quite
remarkable and was only possible through the net and the generosity of
subscribers.

Regarding the other breakthrough, I used David's search results and the IGI
and found no futher relatives in Dorset. However, I then searched the IGI on
the basis of last name, county and place of christenings. I chose only
Independent Chapels and so forth from the the IGI and simply saved all the
listings as they came up on the screen. There was no check for family
affiliations. When this was done the listed names and details were checked
and out popped many of the relatives that I had supposed had lived in
Staffordshire.

Thus, it was possible to understand that the ROOKER family from
Staffordshire (and the related SMALL, family) had migrated to Bridport,
Axminster, Chard and Bideford in the 18C and were likely central players
within the chapel communities in those places. It must be considered likely
that the head of family in each place was a Rev. This has only been proven
out at Bridport however.

So thats it. It was possible to track down a large section of the 18C ROOKER
family and to understand the role they played in a number of unexpected
places. Manually extending the the IGI search filters for Independent
chapels was very successfull in this case although it was lucky that the
names are uncommon. Perhaps its possible to filter the IGI automatically
beyond surname spelling and location by county but no one I spoke to knows
if this is possible.

Perhaps this finding may be helpfull to others searching for non-conformists
in the period before civil registration. I hope so.

Now, for the bad news. I have a home based business, just me and a
briefcase. This week my major contact and principal source of income was
caught up in a downsizing and will not be renewed until mid 1999. So with 9
days of billing time left I have to unsubscribe and urgently put time into
finding other contracts.

While I'll keep my e-mail open for personal ROOKER and SMALLenquiries I must
thank you all for being so helpfull and get on.

Bye for now,

Peter

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

I

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Williams <>
To: <>
Date: Sunday, July 19, 1998 10:59 PM
Subject: Early Methodists at Bridport.

>Hi, I'm from Edmonton, Albera, Canada and have family history interests
>in Dorset, Surrey, Staffordshire and Norfolk. The centre of my interest
>at the moment is in tracking relatives who were connected with the early
>Methodist church in Staffordshire, Dorset and the Bengal Presidency in
>what was then India.
>
>The names I am searching are ROOKER, GRIMES, SMALL, CHAMP and HILL. In
>Dorset the connection is with the Methodists of Bridport which my map
>shows as being in the County. If anyone has access to or knows where the
>records of this group are held I would appreciate hearing from them. I
>would also like to know if the early Methodist Meeting Place in Bridport
>still exists and any info that is available on those that preached
>there.
>
>Should anyone have a family history that involved this group of people
>but dont know where they came from before Bridport I may be able to
>help. My ggrandmother had the family history researched from the other
>end so to speak but it brickwalls at Bridport.
>
>Thank you in advance,
>
>Peter Williams
>
>in hot, humid, and thundery Edmonton.
>
>______________________________

This thread:

• Re: Early Methodists at Bridport. by "p williams" <>