FURTHER LONDON FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH

To enquire about research in any of the sources listed below or on the main London & Middlesex page, please contact me for a free initial assessment.

Where they survive I can search London, Surrey and Middlesex hospital, infirmary and asylum records (100 year closure applies except for baptisms in hospital chapels), children's home & district school records, London, Surrey & Middlesex poor relief records, workhouse records, settlement examinations, removal orders, workhouse admission and discharge registers  - if you have a certificate indicating birth or death in a workhouse, an infirmary or an asylum, I can advise whether related records may survive:  please contact me for a free initial assessment; don't ignore this crucial lead.  Some workhouse records can be extremely informative and can include details of other family members, sometimes revealing repeated admissions over several years. 

If you're researching a London family who had children between 1865 and 1914, try a search on the Historic Hospital Admission Registers Project (a work in progress, with more databases added periodically).  if you find nothing, but know where your family were living, I can search school records, baptisms and banns registers. 

Training Ships were administered by Poor Law Unions and charities (e.g. the Training Ships "Arethusa" and "Chichester" were administered by the Shaftesbury Society).  Boys were sent to Training Ships to receive training to prepare them for the Royal or Merchant Navy.  I can search Training Ship records held at London Metropolitan Archives:  please enquire .  

I can search London school records including admission registers (which usually record a pupil's date of birth, address and name of parent) many of which are accessible from the last quarter of the 19thC to c.1920s, as well as log books;  photographic archives - buildings and daily life, some dating to the 1950s.  Also records of Christ's Hospital; the Royal Mathematical School; the Foundling Hospital and London schools associated with London livery companies, e.g. Merchant Taylors' School.  Also records held at London Metropolitan Archives relating to schools administered by the Shaftesbury Society.  For London children evacuated during WW2 - contact the Evacuees Reunion Association .

I can search records relating to 19thC London (including ex-Surrey and Middlesex) convicts and prisoners; criminal registers; calendars of prisoners; prison registers; trial records; prison and prison hulk records; criminal petitions; 19th & 20thC newspaper reports of trials.

A London family can be traced through London (including ex-Surrey and Middlesex) poll books, electoral registers, Absent Voters' Lists (some include Service Nos. or units, useful for tracing those serving in WW1 and WW2), rate books, trade directories, residential directories.  18th century lists of householders and/or early pre-1841 censuses survive for some London, Middlesex and metropolitan Surrey districts, e.g. Southwark.  For a search of these sources, please enquire .

I can search sources relating to:

London, Middlesex & Surrey Licensed Victuallers' registers; Innholders' Company records; public houses, inns and taverns (some photos and building plans), dining rooms and restaurants, publicans, coffee house keepers;

London merchants, dealers, licensed London brokers, sworn brokers, tradesmen, shop keepers, manufacturers;

London, Middlesex and Surrey watch/clockmakers, jewellers, gilders, goldsmiths and silversmiths;

London architects, surveyors and builders 19th-20thC;

London postmen and letter carriers and postmasters;

London house history, shop history, street history.  London, Middlesex and Surrey local history research and house history research.

I can search sources relating to:

London WW2 air raid and bomb damage reports; 

Metropolitan Police force records; City of London police force records;

London insurance records - I can search records of the following companies:

Sun Fire Insurance, Hand-in-Hand Insurance and Royal Exchange Insurance policies and follow-up.  Please enquire .

Would you like to discover the history of the property in which you live or of a London property you own?  Using sources available in the London archives I can research your property and provide a house history report outlining how the property has been used in the past, how the street and immediate district changed, who lived in your property over the decades and whether any archive photos of your property are available.  Your report can be accompanied by copies and photos of documentary evidence of interest. 

London houses, shops, streets, neighbourhoods:  do you want to know exactly where family members lived?  And to discover what the neighbourhood was like when they lived there?  It may be possible to pinpoint a property on an old map and find archive photos of streets in London in which they lived and surrounding streets in which they would have shopped.  

I can prepare a reminiscence project to share with elderly relatives who were born or grew up in London - please enquire.  I have also assisted with research in preparation for 80th and 90th birthday celebrations and family reunions.

Example of an excellent local community reminiscence project:

Charlton Parks Reminiscence Project

(please note I was not involved with this project)