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The name Portland is used for one of the British Sea Areas for marine weather reporting, and has been used as the name of towns in both North America and Australia. [edit] Underhill and TophillUnderhill is the name given to the area of very steep land, at the northern end of the Isle of Portland. It contains the villages of Chiswell, Castletown and Fortuneswell (formerly written "Fortune's Well"). Tophill is a gently sloping area rising from sea level at Portland Bill to 151 metres (495 ft) at its northern end. It contains the villages of Easton, Weston, Southwell, the Grove and Wakeham. All seven villages are redirected to Portland. The website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portsmouth Department of Geography) has an old map of the Isle of Portland. Enter "Portland" on the website homepage, click on the map on the page that appears, then click on the choice "Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Scotland First Series" on the list at the left. You may need to expand the map to a larger size. All the village are shown as well as other significant places. [edit] HistoryFor more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Isle of Portland#History. The last paragraph on Portland Prisons may be of interest to some family researchers. [edit] GovernancePortland was originally the single parish in the Isle of Portland Liberty, one of the early subdivisions of the county of Dorset. From 1894 until 1974 it was an urban district. In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, all urban and rural districts across England were abolished and counties were reorganized into metropolitan and non-metropolitan districts. Portland joined the non-metropolitan Weymouth and Portland District. Under another set of local government reforms adopted on 1 April 2019, Weymouth and Portland District was abolished, and the County of Dorset (excluding Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole) became a single unitary authority. The area is now administered by Dorset Council. [edit] Dorset Research TipsOne of the many maps available on the website A Vision of Britain through Time is one from the Ordnance Survey Series of 1900 illustrating the parish boundaries of Dorset at the turn of the 20th century. This map blows up to show all parishes and many of the small villages and hamlets. The internal boundaries on this map are the rural districts which are indicated in WeRelate's "See Also" box for the place concerned (unless it is an urban parish). The following websites have pages explaining their provisions in WeRelate's Repository Section. Some provide free online databases. Some are linked to Ancestry.
[edit] CensusesUK censuses are taken every ten years in the years ending in "1". There was no census in 1941. Details are not made available for 100 years after a census. A number of online databases (both paid and free) provide transcriptions of censuses up to 1911. Most of these provide information for an individual or a family. Many also provide images of the originals and thus allow browsing of a page or perhaps a whole enumeration district. The 1921 census was published in January 2022. It is available at FindMyPast with a charge additional to the usual subscrition to view the manuscript entries (there is no extra charge to view the index). The Dorset Online Parish Clerks provides a good number of 19th century census transcriptions as well as lists of baptisms, marriages and burials as recorded in the parish. The formal Home Office Numbers (those starting with HO used in 1841 and 1851), the Registrar General Numbers (starting with RG in later decades, and the Enumeration District Numbers are included. There is an illustrated article to introduce each parish. The 1841 census differed from the later ones in two different ways.
From 1851 onwards people were asked for the county and civil parish in which they were born whether in or out of the county, and ages were expressed exactly (in months for infants).
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