I was informed recently that Premium and Worldwide members of
Ancestry.co.uk can now access 77 million records of workhouses, wills, electoral registers and school records – 400 years of London history. Starting with workhouse records, Ancestry.co.uk this month launched online the London Historical Records, 1500s-1900s, for the first time ever, in partnership with London Metropolitan Archives and Guildhall Library Manuscripts.
Key record types include parish and workhouse records, electoral rolls, wills, land tax records and school reports. According to a recent family history survey, more than half of the current British population will have an ancestor in the London Historical Records, 1500s-1900s.
Assembled over time direct from various London institutions, the collection includes the names of millions of everyday Londoners alongside famous and infamous figures from the city’s past.
Notable examples include Oliver Cromwell’s marriage record, the baptism record for poet Samuel Pepys and the burial register listing for writer and statesman John Milton. A number of modern day celebrities can also find ancestors within the collection. JK Rowling’s 3x great-grandfather, William Richard Rowling, appears in the Mile End marriage registers for 1872, while Patsy Kensit’s ancestor, Thomas Kensit, can be found in Shoreditch Baptism records from 1815.
David Beckham’s London roots are also well documented; with his 3x great- grandparent’s marriage listed in the collection. Even international pop star Britney Spears can find her great-grandfather, George Portell, listed in the Tottenham marriage records for 1923. The workhouse or ‘Board of Guardians’ records now online contain the names of anyone who was born, baptised or died in a London workhouse in the 19th and early 20th century. During this time, men, women and children who couldn’t support themselves were forced to live in these institutions, working long hours in tedious jobs in exchange for minimal food and board. The workhouse records cover 12 key London regions.
Also included today are a variety of workhouse creed registers, ! admissions, discharges, apprenticeship papers and lists of ‘lunatics’. Workhouse records are just one of the record types which comprise the London Historical Records, 1500s-1900s. Others include:
• Parish Registers – taken from over 10,000 Greater London parishes
• School Admissions and Discharges – records from 800+ London schools dating from the early Victorian times through to 1911 providing information about millions of London students
• Non-Conformist Registers – detail the birth, baptism, death and burial of religious dissenters who did not worship at the established church in England from 1694 to 1921
• Diocesan Divorce Exhibita – one of a number of interesting records from the London diocesan courts, when applying for divorce, a husband or wife would submit evidence for their partner’s marital failings which were then kept on record
You can discover more as a Premium or Worldwide member at Ancestry.co.uk
Reprinted with the kind permission of Ancestry.co.uk
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