London Roots Research

Have you found Dickens connections in your family tree?

2012-02-07T19:48:00.000Z

As we celebrate the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens' birthday today, 7th February 2012, I am reminded of the period of his lifetime, 1812-1870, when my own ancestors were living in London and have been pondering how their own lives must have been during this period. Did any of them brush up against this famous author, I wonder, or even provide inspiration for some of his characters?

I certainly have ancestors who had links to St George the Martyr, Southwark (shown opposite), often referred to as Little Dorrit's church because Dickens set several scenes from the novel Little Dorrit in the area around the church. (see my earlier post about the church and parish of St George the Martyr)

My own gg grandfather Edward Clifford, whom I wrote about in an earlier post, was baptised at St George the Martyr in 1799, along with his sister Charlotte. Charlotte also went on to marry her husband John Rafter in 1824 in the same church. These baptism and marriage records can be found either at the London Metropolitan Archives or online on Ancestry's specialist LMA parish register collection.

According to newspaper reports, I also have various ancestors who seem to have been in and out of the debtors' prisons of south and east London, including the Marshalsea, where Charles' father, John and the rest of the family found themselves living for a period in 1824. So did they met there I wonder?

In 1828 / 29, Dickens worked as a reporter for Doctors' Commons, in Knightrider Street. Doctors Commons, also called the College of Civilians, was a group of lawyers practising civil law in London. It was also the home of the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts which had jurisdiction over marriage licences, divorces and registration of wills, until it was replaced by the Court of Probate Act in 1857. The building was then demolished in 1867, and these days its original location is marked by a blue plaque, which can be found on the Faraday Building, on the north side of Queen Victoria Street.

My own ancestors, Charlotte and John Rafter, registered the death of her late father, Charles Clifford, for death duty purposes, in 1841, giving her address as 21 1/2 Lambeth Hill, Doctors Commons, London. So this is another link between Dickens and my Clifford family.

I am still researching my own and my husband's London ancestors, looking for links to Charles Dickens, either in his writing or to places where he lived. I'm pretty sure I have ancestors who lived not far from Dickens, and have been checking him out on the censuses as follows:

Photograph of the author, c. 1850

In 1841 Charles Dickens is found living at Devonshire Terrace, St Marylebone, Middlesex with his wife Catherine and their four eldest children: Charles, Mary, Catherine and Walter;
In 1851, Charles is found living at 34, Keppel Street, Saint George Bloomsbury, Finsbury, Middlesex, with his widowed mother and siblings Alfred and Augustus;
In 1861 Charles is found living at 3 Hanover Terrace, St Marylebone, Middlesex, with three of his children and his wife's sister, Georgina Hogarth who was his housekeeper.

I am now off to see how close my Londoners lived to these addresses - I must admit they all sound very familiar!

Have you found any connections to Charles Dickens in your family tree?

Rosemary Morgan
London Roots Research

Review of 2011 and my Genealogy Goals for 2012

2012-01-12T23:15:00.001Z

I've been a bit slow sorting out my New Year goals this year. I don't really have an excuse, except that I've been busy catching up on various genealogy bits and pieces, which I'd put to one side during November and December, while I worked on a non-genealogy work project (good for the bank balance!).

I also checked back to my Top 10 Genealogy Resolutions for 2011, and although not all of them have been achieved, I was pleased to see how many of them I did indeed achieve. The biggest one, for me, was definitely obtaining my PG Diploma in Genealogical Studies at the University of Strathclyde. Although it was a huge amount of work, I found it a most satisfying experience. The PG Dip took up much of my energy in 2011 until August, but it is now serving me well in my genealogy client work.

Interestingly, I note that this time last year, I did not even mention "developing client work" as one of my resolutions, and I indeed I have not directly sought out these clients. But "word of mouth" is a wonderful thing, and since completing my PG Dip, I've been lucky enough to have a continual source of client work on the go. This has lead me to rethink my goals for 2012, as I am really enjoying the research I am doing for others, either building their family trees from scratch, or helping them to break down their brick walls, especially in and around London.

So.......for 2012, my Genealogy goals are as follows:

Join at least one professional genealogy association such as APG and / or AGRA (since I started writing this list I've actually now joined APG so I've already achieved this one).
Blog more regularly. I have a long list of possible topics to write about, but don't seem to get around to completing them. I am very aware that my latest blog post dates back to last September, which I am rather ashamed about. My only excuse is my late summer holiday combined with taking on that non-genealogy work.
Attend all three days at WDYTYA Live - actually this is something that is already well on the way to being organised. I am helping out on the SoG Ask an Expert Stand as well as the main SoG stand. I have also offered to help my local family history society, the West Surrey Family History stand, so I may spend some time there as well. This brings me to my next goal, which is to:
Get more involved with my local family history society (WSFHS) and my local archives (Surrey History Centre). Sometimes genealogy work can be a lonely business and getting out of the house and sharing experiences with others, is good for the soul.
Make more regular visits to the London archives. The archives which I am aiming to visit more regularly include London Metropolitan Archives, Society of Genealogists, Lambeth Archives, Southwark Archives, Westminster Archives, and of course The National Archives in Kew.
Write up my own and my husband's family histories - obviously the feasibility of achieving this will depend upon having some spare time to do this! But as I write up my own family history I am sure I will learn more aspects that will help me with future client work.
Explore the possibility of writing a family history related book. I already have an idea for a book, about a particularly interesting character in my family, but I need to progress this by writing a plan, gaining approval from the rest of the family and exploring publication options.
Develop a London Roots Research website. This was one of the goals from 2011 that I didn't achieve last year, but that I would very much like tackle this year.
Continue to develop my client work in and around London, building family trees, finding new ways of presenting them, and helping others to break down their brick walls in and around London. I find I learn so much from each new client that I take on, and gain tremendous satisfaction from helping them.

Well that should keep me busy! I doubt I will achieve all of them but I do find it useful to set them out as a start to the year ahead.

I wish all of my readers a very happy and healthy New Year and hope you enjoy sharing my progress along the way in 2012.

Rosemary Morgan

London Roots Research

My theatrical grandmother Dulcie Dalmar

2011-09-28T16:01:00.000+01:00

Having watched Emilia Fox discover her fantastic theatrical heritage in the latest UK series of Who Do You Think You Are? and inspired by Debra's A Pocketful of Family Memories blog, I decided it was time to blog about my own maternal grandmother's theatrical background.

My grandmother has inspired me throughout my life and I remember her very fondly. In my teenage years she lived around the corner from my family and would visit frequently. In the years before I was “always out” on a Saturday night, we would stay in and watch Saturday night at the London Palladium, or similar shows, together. I share her love of dancing and have recently taken up singing (with Rock Choir), although both activities are, for me, very definitely "amateur".

The rest of this blog is taken from a promotional leaflet about her work, published c. 1916, created with the help of my grandfather (her second “husband”), which has been in my possession for some years. While some of the commentary is possibly “exaggerated” (by my grandfather), I do believe that that the basic facts are true:

Miss Dulcie Dalmar, the brilliant "star" artiste, who was awarded the third prize in the Best Girl Competition promoted by "The Man in the Moon" is a young lady of exceptional merit and outstanding gifts, who would be bound to succeed in anything she had the inclination to undertake.

Born in Upper Norwood, she was educated at St Joseph's Convent, where she spent some very happy years, eventually leaving at the age of eighteen. Being very fond of singing and dancing, she was advised to take up the stage as a profession, and made her debut with Mr. George Dance's Company in "The Merveilleuse."

Miss Dalmar was next engaged by Mr. George Edwardes to take the part of "Frou-frou" in "The Merry Widow", which was touring the principal towns in the Provinces, and her success was so complete that at the end of the tour she was engaged at the Gaiety Theatre, London.

About that time revues were first introduced into the theatrical world. Miss Dalmar had already been regarded as an exceptional exponent of the art of Terpsichore, attracting everyone concerned by her grace, charm, and animation, so that there was no surprise occasioned when she was selected by the management to understudy Miss Shirley Kellogg, at the London Hippodrome.

At the end of the revue she went on tour, taking a leading part in "Arms and the Girl," "What Ho! Ragtime," "I've seen the Arem," "Get Away you Boys," etc. Recently she has been engaged to take the leading part in the "Follow the Frill" Revue at the Poplar Hippodrome.

Miss Dalmar has a highly cultivated mezzo-soprano voice, which she knows how to use to advantage. She has had many successes on the Continent as well as throughout the British Isles, and is looking forward to a tour in India.

Extract from The "Era," Wednesday September 1st, 1915

"FOLLOW THE FRILL," at POPLAR.

We have seen revues of all kinds at this popular East End house, some good and some bad, but “Follow the Frill,” which was produced for the first time on Monday evening, was well worthy of the generous patronage accorded it. It was heartily appreciated, and evoked abundant applause that testified to the thorough enjoyment of the audience. As is usual, there is just a flimsy plot. It concerns a Billie Hargreaves, who falls in love with a beautiful dancer, and determines to “follow the frill.” Mr. Herbert Grover has indeed been very fortunate with his selection of the female principals. In Miss Violet Denzil, of the Russian and classical school, he has secured a dancer of first-rate quality. She has an admirable stage presence, and greatly enhanced her reputation as a classical dancer, and her two excellent dances were recognized with generous applause.

Miss Dulcie Dalmar is delightfully pleasing as Babs; her charms and manner receive ready and well-merited recognition. She has three excellent songs, “Sailor’s roll,” “I might let you get bolder,” and “Riverside at night-time,” which she renders excellently, and altogether contributes no small part in the success of the revue.

Miss Adrienne Sordini got home well as Cissie, and enters into the spirit of the part in a manner that makes for success. She has a very pleasing voice, which was heard to great advantage in her song, “My boy’s got his best clothes on,” and also in her duet with Tommy, “Let me take you once more on the river.” All those ladies were the recipients of beautiful bouquets.

The revue is admirably staged and charmingly dressed. The music is bright and crisp, and such as will doubtless be enthusiastically received anywhere. The songs are all original, and the lyrics are commendable. The chorus generally is efficient. On the whole the production is excellent, and Mr. Herbert Grover and his assistants are to be heartily congratulated on the successful debut of “Follow the Frill.” A word of commendation is due to the efficient work of the orchestra, whilst a word of thanks is due to the genial new manager of the house, Mr. Kessich, for his courtesy.

Rosemary Morgan
London Roots Research

London Probate Records on Ancestry - coming soon?

2011-06-29T00:04:00.002+01:00

In a recent article in Your Family Tree (July 2011) about Probate Records on Ancestry, the main content of the article was all about the special offer of Free Access to the National Probate Calendar (and Andrews Newspaper Cards), which will be running from 30 June to 8 July 2011.

However, they slipped in a little gem:

".....Ancestry.co.uk has a number of pre-1861 probate collections taken at both a national and a local level. It's recently added a brand new set of records for Dorset, plus on 30 June, the team will be adding a similar collection of wills and other probate records for London...."

As it happens, although I specialise in London and the Home Counties research, I also have Dorset ancestors. So when the Dorset wills were launched recently on Ancestry, I had a field day. It really does help enormously to be able to read a Will and put all the different members of family into place. In my case, with Dorset, theWills simply confirmed what I had already found out, because the online Dorset parish records are pretty good anyway.

But for London, I reckon that the new online Wills collection could provide a bit of a breakthrough in certain family histories. I will be blogging again once this dataset is online, but I just thought I'd let you know.

Rosemary Morgan
London Roots Research

Spotlight On: The Parish of St George The Martyr, Southwark

2011-06-09T16:34:00.000+01:00

I recently wrote a piece on this parish for my PG Diploma, so I thought I'd summarise it here on the anniversary of Charles Dickens’ death, and also start a new "Spotlight On" feature, which I hope to add to in the future. Of course I won't be covering all of the London Parishes, as that would be too great a task. But I may invite others to write a Guest Post on a parish they know well.

St George the Martyr parish lies just south of the Thames, quite close to London Bridge. It is adjacent to the other large Southwark parish, St Saviour's, and has a rather strange "boomerang" shape to it. Until 1900 the parish was technically part of Surrey, although there have always been very close links to the City of London. Indeed the parish grew substantially in the 18th century when the population of the City "overflowed" south of the river, encouraged by the arrival of new bridges over the river Thames.

The map below shows the very unusual shape of the St George the Martyr parish, as well as the names and locations of neighbouring parishes, all of which form part of what was previously Metropolitan Surrey.

(Original map sourced from http://maps.familysearch.org)

The church of St George the Martyr (pictured below) is often referred to as "Little Dorritt's church", on account of the reference in Charles Dickens' Little Dorritt to her being baptised there. This parish is in fact full of Dickens references. In Victorian times, there were two famous prisons, the King's Bench and the Marshalsea, both located in the parish. Dickens' own father was imprisoned for debt in the Marshalsea, when Charles was just twelve year's old, an experience he retold in his book, Little Dorritt.

The history of the parish goes back to early medieval times, with one of the earliest mentions being when the church was given to the Bermondsey Priory in 1122. The location of the church of St George the Martyr has not changed - it was originally near the start of the pilgrimage route to Canterbury and was used by pilgrims for prayers before setting off. The church has been rebuilt a few times, most recently in 1734, although subsequent repairs were carried out following damage in both the world wars.

By the first half of the 19th century the population of the St George the Martyr parish more or less doubled and the parish became one of the most densely populated areas of the country. According to a report in 1855-1889 by the Metropolitan Board of Works, in the second half of the same century, the population growth was noticeably slower and the type of resident was not necessarily the most desirable, either:

“St George’s maintained a flourishing population of thieves, cheap swindlers and prostitutes.”

Today the parish of St George the Martyr is merely an ecclesiastical parish; the civil parish was abandoned in 1930, having already become part of the Metropolitan Borough of Southwark in 1899.

For those with ancestors who originate in this Parish, family history records are held primarily at the London Metropolitan Archives, with just a few local records held in the Southwark Local History Library.

Rosemary Morgan
London Roots Research

A Place in the Sun - using Fire Insurance Records for London Genealogy Research

2011-04-22T14:51:00.000+01:00

If you have managed to trace your London ancestors back to the 1841 census and / or the start of civil registration in 1837, you have done well. But what can you do next?

You can of course search the London Parish Records - but there are rather a large number of London Parishes and you may not find your ancestors where you expect them to be, as mobility was high around that time. The addition of many (but not all) London Baptism, Marriage and Burial records to Ancestry UK's Premium subscription in the last few years has made this task much easier. But the problem with using just the Parish Registers in London is that an address was not always given and if you are looking for a common name, this can sometimes lead to the wrong conclusions. Also, if you can' find someone it doesn't mean they weren't there, as not all the London Parish Registers are on Ancestry! (See my earlier posts on London Parish Records - Part 1 and London Parish Records Part 2 ).

There are other record sources which can be helpful at this stage - and one of those which is often overlooked is Fire Insurance records. These typically give the date, the name of the insured, the address and often an occupation. The Place in the Sun project, which started in 2003, has now indexed the Sun Fire Insurance registers from 1792 to 1839 (a useful period for searching pre-civil registration). These can be searched online via The TNA's Access to Archives website (I have already entered the terms Sun and Guildhall Library ihn this link to make things a bit easier) along with a name or an address.

This is how I found my great great grandfather, who is listed as follows:

Charles Clifford 26 Parkers Place Dock Head saddler and harness maker (17 May 1820)

I was then able to trace the exact place he was either living or working at around the time of the record, and to map this location using old London maps, such as Greenwood's Map of London 1827.

An update on how the Place in the Sun project is progressing can be viewed here.
These Sun Fire Insurance records are just one collection among the many original Fire Insurance records which were previously held at the Guildhall library, but have recently moved to the London Metropolitan Archives. Some of these records will actually cover properties outside London as well London itself. A leaflet which describes the background and the variety of Fire Insurance records and where they are located can be downloaded here.

Rosemary Morgan
London Roots Research

Ancestor Approved Award

2011-02-23T11:31:00.001Z

Ancestor Approved Award

I was recently nominated for an Ancestor Approved Award by three of my fellow genealogists, Annie Barnes at Hibbitt Family History Blog, Kerry Farmer at Family History Research and Judy Webster at Genie Leftovers. I was very honoured to have been nominated for this award, by three separate individuals, especially as I am a relative newcomer to the world of genealogy blogging.

This award was created by Leslie Ann Ballou of the Ancestors Live Here blog. Recipients are asked to list ten surprising, humbling or enlightening aspects of their research and to then pass the award on to ten other genealogy researchers or bloggers.

I'm afraid it has taken me a little while to get around to this, but here goes!

Firstly, here is my list of surprising, humbling or enlightening aspects of my research:

A continual surprise to me is how many of my ancestors ended up living "in sin", whereas in my generation we were brought up to believe that the Victorians were all so straight laced!
I was very surprised to discover that my gg grandfather, Edward Clifford (see separate blog post) had been a Professor of Mathematics, and suspect this is where my interest in Mathematics came from.
When I talk to friends and acquaitances about my interest in genealogy, I am surprised at how many of them would like to know more about their own family history and yet have done nothing about it.
One of my earliest genealogy discoveries was that a recent family of five sisters were all illegitimate. The biggest surprise was that the girls themselves didn't appear to know they had several half-siblings!
At the start of my research, I was very humbled to meet other, more experienced researchers who were more than happy to share the fruits of their hard labour. I immediately warmed to the generosity shown by the family history community.
On the flip side of this generosity was my experience of a certain genealogy networking site (no points for guessing which), where, for some reason, many of the users seem more concerned with growing the size of their trees, rather than checking the data they add in.
I have also found it rather humbling to discover just how many of my ancestors struggled with their daily existence, losing many of their children to death and disease and often living in humble abodes.
My own family history research took a huge leap forward once I tapped into the valuable parish register indices on what was previously called the IGI. The enlightenment came when I learnt to distinguish between the user-added records and the references to transcribed records - obvious when you know!
Another enlighhtenment has been discovering the wide range of trades and professions undertaken by my ancestors, many of which no longer exist. Trades such as bookbinders, sail makers, tanners, boot makers and even cattle drovers, were, I guess, all respectable occupations in their day.
Finally, I have been pleasantly surprised to find so many of my ancestors originating in London. This is one of the reasons behind me setting up this blog, to share my experience of researching this sometimes tricky area!

In return I would like to present this award to the following genealogy and history researchers and bloggers:

Luke at Kith and Kin Research and Dorset Heritage
Chris at Scottish GENES (GEnealogy News and EventS)
Kirsty at The Professional Descendant
Emma at Diary of an Urban Genealogist
Rosamunde at Tracing Ancestors in the UK
Melanie at The House Historian
Mike at Genealogy Gazette
Audrey at The Family Recorder
Elyse at Elyse's Genealogy Blog
Paul at Out of Battle

Rosemary Morgan

London Roots Research

New FamilySearch - Some tips for UK genealogists

2011-01-16T18:04:00.002Z

This post is not especially aimed at Londoners or those researching their London ancestry, although they may well find it helpful. I am writing it instead in response to quite a bit of feedback, via Twitter and elsewhere, among Genealogists, who do not like the new FamilySearch website.

In an effort to try and understand for myself what was going on, I went along last Thursday to Sharon Hintze's talk at The National Archives called "What's happened to the FamilySearch website?" Sharon Hintze is a Director of Family History Centers worldwide and is currently based at the main London Centre in Exhibition Road. She gave a most informative talk.

I am not going to summarise the whole talk here - this will probably be done by the National Archives in due course. Instead I shall just summarise the key points that I took away from the talk, together with a few tips from having played around with the site in the last couple of days:

1) Firstly, all experienced genealogists should not be using the main search on the new Family Search website, but they should instead go straight to the Advanced Search page.

2) Secondly, there is now a much clearer button that will take you back to old Family Search site. (But if you want a direct link to the old site - e.g. for your bookmarks - try using this link: http://www.familysearch.org/eng/)

3) If you are looking for Historical Records, it is important to make sure you have selected this tab. The Family Trees tab at present contains records from Ancestral files, but in the future, users will have the option of submitting or adding to their own family trees (a bit like Ancestry trees I suspect).

4) If you are looking for the old English, Scottish or Irish records, it is important to realise that these records are all now included as a subset of "Europe" rather than the "British Isles" - yes times change! So after going to Advanced Search, try selecting Europe (from the bottom of the page) and then United Kingdom. (from the list on the left). You should then find a long list of about 30 different UK Historical Collections.

5) At the top of this list is the largest UK collection, called "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975". It is within this collection that can be found the old IGI baptisms which many of us genealogists have found so useful in the past. Similarly, the old IGI marriages are found in "England Marriages, 1538-1973".

6) If you only want to search collections with actual images, you will see that quite a few of these UK collections have a small camera icon to the left-hand side. But don't deceived, if you search for a record in these collections, you will be directed towards the subscription site FindMyPast in order to view the actual images concerned. However, even with a subscription to FindMyPast, the link simply directed me to the FMP search page, so I would have to search all over again, which seems pretty pointless.

7) You will notice if you try to use them, that these Collections are not very easy to use, due to a lack of more detailed geographical breakdowns than, say, Middlesex. Londoners, in particular, will know how frustrating that is. I searched for my Edward Clifford, Mathematician, in the 1841 census (as I know he is there, in West Brompton), but could not easily find him!

8) If you do manage to find your ancestors' records in one of the three main UK Births and Baptisms, Deaths and Burials, or Marriage Collections, you will notice that there is an entry called "Source Film Number" which is the same as the source film number in the old IGI.

9) Also, if you find a christening and want to search for siblings, it is actually easier with the new site to feed in parents name, place and approximate date, and up come up with all the siblings. I have only tried this so far on my previously known ancestors, so it will interesting to see how useful this will be for new searches, but it actually looks a bit easier than the old IGI. Hurrah!

10) Finally, Sharon did stress that the new Family Search site is still under development and that the development team is keen to receive feedback. There have already been several minor improvements since I started looking at the new site, possibly because of our feedback. So I urge you all, and Sharon stressed this too, to please give feedback on the site. You can do this by clicking on feedback tab on the far right of the homepage, and following "share your ideas" or simply by clicking here. You will need to register (if you're not already registered) but I would say that, despite this, it is well worthwhile.

Please feel free to comment (below) if you have any further suggestions on this subject.

(Many thanks to Sharon Hintze of the London Family History Centre and Audrey Collins at The National Archives for providing input for this article)

Rosemary Morgan

London Roots Research

My Top 10 New Year Genealogy Resolutions

2011-01-09T19:11:00.000Z

Yes, I know this is about a week too late, but I thought it was "better late than never" so here we go, with my Top 10 Genealogy Resolutions for 2011:

First of all, I really need to properly archive my own family BMD certificates, original newspaper cuttings, letters etc., using archive material recently purchased from Family Tree Folk.
Secondly, I want to make sure I update my blog at least fortnightly, and preferably weekly. Otherwise I fear that my followers may lose interest in my blog and stop following.
I also need to keep up-to-date with my assignments on my PG Diploma in Genealogy at the University of Strathclyde. It would be a shame to have invested all this time and money and then fail to deliver. (Don't worry folks I very rarely fail to deliver, just panic sometimes that I might).
I really must keep in touch with all my own family "cousins". These include my Clifford cousins who helped me find out about my great grandfather, Edward Clifford, who died in a fatal accident in London on Christmas Eve 1848. I found these cousins through Lost Cousins, a wonderful genealogy matching service.
I would really like to make the most of my genealogy website subscriptions while I can still afford them. I have undoubtedly received huge value out of my Ancestry subscription over the years. Most of my family tree has been built with Ancestry's help. I have also used Findmypast to search for many of my ancestors in the 1911 census and have also found their passenger records useful. But unless they come up with some new datasets, I may have to let this one go, come renewal in the spring. My most recent subscription is with Family Relatives and I hope to be able to gain some value from this site in the coming year.
I think I really need to try and understand the new Family Search website. It is all too tempting to just fall back into the old way of doing searches using the old Familysearch website to search for the familiar IGI records. One day this facility will be gone and I will be lost.
OK so this one is a "biggy" - develop my own genealogy website, together with offers of genealogy research packages etc. This is important if I want to develop a serious genealogy business. I have several ideas, I just need to make the time to do it!! (Well just DO it, Rosemary).
Explore some of the lesser known London archives. This is really important for me, as I aim to continue to specialise in London genealogy. As the better known sources, such as the London Metropolitan Archives and also the Society of Genealogists, put more of their records online, I'd like to search out some of the more specialist archives, such as the Palace of Westminster Archives.
Continue to find new ways of researching my maternal great grandmother's Mullins family, who reportedly came from Ireland during the Irish famine of the 1840's. This is the only line in my own family tree where I haven't yet managed to get back to c. 1800 at least.
Finally, I would really like to end the year having written some genealogy-related articles for family history magazines or family history society newsletters. I know the Clifford Society are waiting for an article from me, and again, I just need to get on with it! Hopefully I will have an opportunity to write for some others too.

OK so that's it folks. I've gone public with my Genealogy Resolutions for 2011. It will be interesting (for me at least) to see how I manage in the coming 12 months to keep them up!

Rosemary Morgan
London Roots Research

A fatal accident in London on Christmas Eve 1848

2010-12-22T19:36:00.000Z

I hope my readers won't find this too sad a story for the week before Christmas, but hopefully it is a timely reminder of those who are less fortunate than ourselves at this time of year.

As I sat having dinner at the Royal Society in Carlton Terrace a few weeks ago, listening to eminent mathematicians discussing the future of science education in this country, I couldn't help but ponder the fate of my own gg grandfather, Edward Clifford, himself an eminent mathematician, who had succumbed, at the age of 48, to a fatal accident just yards from where I sat.

Approaching the Christmas festivities I am reminded that this fatal accident took place on Christmas Eve 1848, although Edward died a few days later in Charing Cross Hospital. But what a sad way to end a life.

The Era newspaper reporting on the inquest on New Years Eve, wrote the following:

Fatal Accidents: On Thursday. Mr Bedford, the Westminster coroner, held two inquests at the Charing Cross Hospital. The first was upon the body of Edward Clifford, aged forty-seven. He was a mathematical teacher, and lately resided in Chapter Street, Westminster, and was possessed of great abilities in his profession. Last Thursday the deceased was seen to alight from a cab, when opposite Drummond's Bank, and to lean against the railings for a few minutes. Whilst in this position some boys passed, and made some jeering remarks. This appeared to enrage him, and he attempted to pursue them, but unfortunately, before he had gone half a dozen paces, he fell off the pavement into the roadway. At that moment the carriage of the Mexican Ambassador was passing, and both wheels went over his body, by which several ribs were found to be broken and the collar-bone dislocated. Deceased lingered til Sunday, and then expired. The cause of death was inflammation of the lungs. Verdict: "Accidental Death".

Drummond's Bank (1877) before rebuilding

(from Survey of London Vol 16)

The accident took place outside Drummond's Bank, 49 Charing Cross (near Trafalgar Square, London - see 1877 picture left). This has since has been rebuilt and can be seen here with its Drummonds sign over the door (even though it is now owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland) on Google Street View.

Edward Clifford had, in his relatively short life, published several mathematical papers, taught two royal princes (grandchildren of King George 3rd) and fathered four boys, including my great grandfather, Edward Clifford. Edward junior was only six years old at the time of his father's death, so it was hardly surprising that I was misinformed by relatives, about the name of my gg grandfather. In fact, my gg grandmother remarried, a Thomas Newland, a few years later, and Thomas obviously became a father-figure as far as Edward junior was concerned.

I won't go into the details here of how I finally made the connection that this Edward Clifford, mathematician, was my gg grandfather, but suffice it to say that the inquest report to which the newspaper article referred provided all the proof I needed.

Rosemary Morgan London Roots Research

London Parish Records Uncovered - Part 2

2010-11-08T18:06:00.000Z

Last month I wrote about the variety of archive locations where you can find London Parish records. Of course if you live in or near London, it is not too difficult to make a visit to one or more of these London archives. But I have become increasingly aware that many of my readers would find it difficult to get to London, because they live miles away, either in the UK or more often, abroad. So for my distant readers, in this blog, I am going to concentrate on what can be done online.

I am focusing particularly on Ancestry UK here, because I am a great fan of theirs and this year they have completed the digitisation of several new and very useful datasets for Londoners, in conjunction with the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA). I do also have a subscription to FindMyPast, but the main advantage of this has been for the 1911 census. Now that Ancestry has announced that they, too, will soon have the 1911 census, I will struggle to find a compelling reason to continue with two subscriptions.

To get the most out of Ancestry for researching London ancestors, you need their Premium UK subscription, which is slightly more expensive than the basic UK one. I believe you can access this for free at various libraries around the country, including the London Family History Centre. So if you don't want to go to this expense straight away, check to see if your local library or archives provide free access.

Once you have access to Ancestry UK's premium service, you will find the five main datasets for London parish records as follows:

It is important to remember that not all London parishes are included in these records (please see my earlier post London Parish Records Uncovered - Part 1) so if you can't find your ancestors here, please don't despair, they may be in a parish not covered by these records.

One of the most compelling justifications for the additional cost of this service is in the London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921. Not only can you search for pre-1837 marriages on here, but for the post 1837 marriages, you can download the actual marriage certificates, saving a fortune in GRO fees! I have gradually gone back over all my Londoners, where I hadn’t yet purchased the marriage certificate, and downloaded them for free.

Of course, you can also do the same for baptisms and burials, but you won't find the actual birth or death certificates here. If you are resisting paying for lots of death certificates, however, the London Deaths and Burials, 1813-1980 may provide extra information such as "age at death", which can help confirm that you have the right person. It is always good genealogy practice to "kill off one's ancestors"!

Burial and Poor Law records can help in other ways. For example, they can provide details of children who died too young to appear in any censuses. The 1911 census gives numbers of children, both alive and deceased, so these datasets can help you find some of these additional children you may not have known about before.

Having sung the praises of these Ancestry records, I must now add a small word of warning. They are not as well organised and easy to use as you might expect of a major archive. For example, they have been organised according to the current London Borough in which they are located, not necessarily the most useful finding aid. However, with a bit of persistence, and some knowledge of London geography, it possible to find the parish you are looking for.

There are also some errors and anomalies. Cliff Webb at the West Surrey Family History Society has recently published a series of helpful booklets on the Ancestry coverage of Baptisms post 1813, Marriages post 1754 and Burials post 1813 for South London and Surrey. You can purchase them here for a very modest fee. I don't know of an equivalent for London north of the Thames, but if anyone does, perhaps they could let me know.

I have really only scratched the surface of these valuable datasets here, but I do hope that this helps if you are searching for London ancestors. Please feel to comment below or contact me directly if you have any queries or comments.

Rosemary Morgan
London Roots Research

London Parish Records Uncovered - Part 1

2010-10-25T14:32:00.000+01:00

If you are starting out in the search for London ancestors, you may think that they can all be found in one place, as is the case with County Record Offices for example. Well think again!

Many genealogists and family history researchers will have seen the recent announcement by Ancestry that they have completed transcribing their London Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538–1812.
Although Ancestry's statement that "This mammoth collection covers vital events in parishes all over Greater London....." is technically correct, it is also slightly misleading. Ancestry has transcribed parish records from the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) only and they have not yet all been indexed!

So if you cannot find an ancestor in the Ancestry indices, you should first look and see if the parish concerned has been transcribed but not yet indexed - you can browse the full list for 1538-1812 here. (Later records are available separately as either births and baptisms, marriages and banns or deaths and burials.) Secondly, look and see if the parish records concerned do not originate in LMA, in which case you will need to look elsewhere.

One of the major series of Parish records NOT in the LMA (London Metropolitan Archives) and therefore not on Ancestry is the City of Westminster, which can be found in the Westminster City Archives. This archive covers a much larger area than what we currently think of as Westminster, extending into parts of Paddington, Marylebone, Knightsbridge, Kensington, and as far east as Regent's Street and the Strand. So if you can't find your London ancestors on Ancestry (or in the LMA), don't forget to check this other valuable resource! Most of these records have been transcribed on the IGI although the originals are not yet online.

There are also a few London parishes whose records are kept elsewhere, for example, the Royal chapel registers are held at St James' Palace, some chapel registers are held at TNA (the National Archives) and a few are still with the incumbent parishes.

Finally if you are close to London - or planning to visit - there are other London repositories where you can find collections of London Parish records, including the Society of Genealogists in Farringdon and the London Family History Centre (formerly the Hyde Park Family History Centre) in Kensington.

I hope this starts to sort out some of the confusion surrounding London parishes. I will be continuing to post more blogs on London family history records and am also planning to start a series of occasional blogs on individual parishes - so watch this space!

Rosemary Morgan
London Roots Research

West Surrey Family History Society Open Day - Saturday 6th November

2010-10-22T13:16:00.000+01:00

As a keen London researcher living in Guildford, I shall be attending the West Surrey Family History Society Open Day and Family History Fair on Saturday 6th November, being held at the Woking Leisure Centre. Further details are available here.

London related stalls will include: Southwark Family History, East Surrey FHS, London Westminster & Middlesex FHS, West Middlesex FHS, British Records Association and London Family History Centre.

Much of what is now part of the Greater London was previously part of Surrey, and therefore covered by the East Surrey and West Surrey Family History Societies. So for people researching London ancestors who lived south of the river, for example in Lambeth or Southwark, these two societies can be useful sources of information.

Some very useful finding aids for researching Surrey ancestors, including Metropolitan Surrey, can be found on CD's produced by the West Surrey Family History Society. A full list of these indices can be found here. Copies of some of these have been deposited at the Surrey History Centre, also located in Woking and containing archives relating to both Metropolitan and Rural Surrey.

Finally, nearby is the Brookwood Cemetery, the largest cemetery in Britain, which was laid out in 1854 in order to provide burial facilities for Londoners for the next 500 years. The graves of many Londoners can be found here.

Altogether several reasons for those with London ancestors to make a trip to Woking - and I hope to see some of you there!

Rosemary Morgan
London Roots Research

East India Company - Events in East London 2nd - 10th October

2010-10-01T16:12:00.000+01:00

Do you have ancestors who were involved with the East India Company?

An East India Company Exhibition opens next week at the Mile End Arts Pavilion, Ashcroft Road, London E3 5TW. The event (free) is being organised by the Brick Lane Circle, a voluntary organisation supporting the Bangladeshi community in the UK and can be seen from Monday 4th - Sunday 10th October.

There are also a couple of associated walks taking place this weekend - advance booking necessary (07574224891 or email: bricklanecircle@yahoo.co.uk):

Saturday 2 October 2010, 3-5 pm, called City of London and West End, by Nick Robins (author of The Corporation that Changed the World: How the East India Company Shaped the Modern Multinational)
Sunday 3 October 2010, 2-4 pm, called Invisible Empire and East India Company Dockside by Dr Georgie Wemyss (author of The Invisible Empire: White Discourse, Tolerance and Belonging)

For readers who would like to find out more about the East India Company, a large number of records from the East India Company (and its successor the India Office) can be found at the British Library in London (and not ias with most govenrment records). The catalogue is searchable online in the Access to Archives catalogues. Many of these records have been made available online via the Families of the British India Society (FIBIS), who also have a members' only database. A full list of FIBIS available records can be found here.

The National Archives also has several relevant records, especially for those in the military. It also has cabinet papers relating to Empire, Indian independence etc.

The subscription site FindMyPast has a useful description of British India Records and further records available to subscribers only.

Thanks to Emma Jolly for alerting me to these events and for clarifying some of the above. Emma is a genealogist at Genealogic, and a British Library approved researcher for the Asia, Pacific and African collections, who is working on a new book on the British in India. Her website has a further list of relevant record sources here.

Rosemary Morgan
London Roots Research
http://londonrootsresearch.blogspot.com

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/rosemarymorgan

Paddington Open Day at Westminster Archives - Sunday 9th October

2010-09-29T10:56:00.000+01:00

Do you have ancestors who lived in Paddington or surrounding areas of London?

On Saturday 9th October, the City of Westminster Archives are hosting a Paddington Open Day at the Archives. There will be a talk by local historian Hans Norton on the development of Paddington and an opportunty to go behind the scenes at the Westminster Archives to look at some historic prints, photographs, rare maps and many other items from the collection. There are two sesssions, morning and afternoon. Entrance is free but advance booking is essential.

This area has for many years provided affordable housing for middle class migrants to London, especially those arriving from the West Country on trains arriving into Paddington station. Several of my own ancestors, originally from Plymouth, Devon, settled in the Paddington area in the second half of the 19th century, many working in local shops.

My own g grandmother, Lavinia Ann Baker, born in Plymouth, died in Praed Street, in the heart of Paddington, in 1889, above a shop which is now a Bagel Factory just around the corner from Paddington satation! Many of her nine children lived and worked in the Paddington area before branching out into other parts of London.

This Open Day looks like a great way to explore some of the history surrounding this area.

Rosemary Morgan
London Roots Research
http://londonrootsresearch.blogspot.com

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/rosemarymorgan

70th anniversary of The Blitz in London

2010-09-24T17:29:00.015+01:00

September 2010 sees various events celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Blitz and the Battle of Britain in London.

If you're like me, you may have skipped over most of the 20th century in your Family History Research. But as we now move further into the 21st century, and with more and more 20th century records coming online, it is time to pay more attention to this important period in our own families lives. My own paternal grandfather was killed by a bomb near Croydon, South London in 1944 and my mother was a volunteer Air Raid Precaution (ARP) warden in Central London during the Blitz. So I have a personal interest here.

To mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and Blitz, the Museum of Croydon is running two 'Over Our Skies' exhibitions exploring Croydons role in the events of 1940, both free of charge and both running from 18 September - 31 December 2010.

Croydon's Battle of Britain - Local Studies Library & Archives, Level 3, Croydon Clocktower
Discover Croydon's vital strategic role in this historic battle. Using archive material and oral history, the exhibition looks at what daily life would have been like for Croydon residents, as well as the enduring legacy of the Battle for the borough.

Croydon's Blitz - Museum of Croydon, level 1, Croydon Clocktower
A collaboration between the Croydon Youth Theatre Organisation, local people who lived through the Blitz and the Museum of Croydon, this exhibition explores experiences of childhood for Croydon residents during the Blitz.

For more information, see http://www.museumofcroydon.com/ixbin/indexplus?record=ART6282

London Transport Museum
Although the Blitz experience tours of Aldwych Underground station this weekend have now sold out (maybe they will consider doing this again in the future), London Transport Museum is hosting an exhibition called "Under Attack: London, Coventry, Dresden" together with a series of related talks. For more information, see http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whatson/131.aspx#underattack

West End at War
Finally, for pitcures of some of the devastation that took place in London during the Blitz, take a look at the West End at War website: http://www.westendatwar.org.uk

New London Family History Blog

2010-09-23T17:46:00.001+01:00

This is my first blog post so I thought I should introduce myself. My name is Rosemary Morgan and I am passionate about Genealogy. I have started this London Family History blog because I have found researching my London ancestors to be both challenging and fascinating. Compared to researching in the "counties", which I have found much more straightforward, my London ancestors tended to move around between parishes, often crossing the Thames in the process and be far more difficult to track down.

So this blog is for both amateur and professional genealogists who would like to know more about researching in London. I hope to be able keep you up-to-date with London news and events relating to genealogy.

I would be happy to receive any feedback or suggestions for this site.