Hi,
My 4xgreat-grandparents James Sansom & Mary Rodd married in Portland in 1805. James was a stonemason and the family moved around a bit. They baptized children in Wyke Regis and in Portsea, Hampshire. The family seemed to all end up in Brighton, Sussex with the widowed Mary dying there in 1837. I haven't found a death/burial for James yet.
Mary was from a long-term Portland family (daughter of John Rodd & Lucy Stone, baptized 1782), but James' origins are a bit of a mystery. There are Sansoms in Portland, but none of them baptize a James at about the right time. The two possibles I've found and not yet eliminated are the son of William & Hannah, baptized Symondsbury 1769 and the son of James and Susannah, baptized Lydlinch 1775. (Lydlinch is a bit far from Portland, but James Snr was from Buckland Newton and moved the family back there.)
I own a copy of the "Manor of Portland" CD, I have a copy of the Dorset names index on order (though it's taking a frustratingly long time to arrive) and I do know about the wonderful Dorset OPC page.
Would be happy to swap information with anybody else researching these families.
Sue in Australia
