26 March 2009

Ancestry.co.uk posts first LMA records

The first fruits of Ancestry's digitization agreement with the London Metropolitan Archives, three records sets, are now online for subscribers. They are a valuable addition for anyone with London ancestors who found themselves in need of the help of the Poor Law system.

London, England, Poor Law Records, 1840-1938
For the boroughs of Camden, Islington, Lambeth, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth and Westminster there are records from various poor law unions. For Camden, for example, there are records for Hampstead, Holborn and Saint Pancras Unions. Drilling down one step further, for Hampstead there are registers of Admission and Discharge, Apprenticeship Papers and Miscellaneous Register of Children.

Dipping into the Admission and Discharge register you might find a scan of a page showing that on September 16, 1911, a Saturday, at 6 (am?) Susan Withers was admitted, she was age 62 and a charwoman. She had slept at Notting Hill the previous night, had one penny in her possession, and was discharged three days later at 7:30 (am?).

These records are not (yet?) name indexed.

London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1834-1906
These are Board of Guardian Poor Law records from the boroughs of Camden, Islington, Lambeth. Southwark. Tower Hamlets. Wandsworth and Westminster. You can read a scan of a page showing that on the 4th of August 1868 at St Giles Workhouse a daughter was born to James and Elizabeth Adams. The daughter was named Elizabeth and baptized into the Church of England at Christ Church on the 30th of August. The father was a porter.

These records are name indexed.

London, England, Deaths and Burials, 1834-1934
These are also Board of Guardian records from the boroughs of Camden, Islington, Lambeth, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth and Westminster; fully name indexed with good quality images. You might read that on 22 January 1901 (the same day Queen Victoria died) James Sullivan, age 61, died at St Pancras workhouse and was buried at Finchley Cemetery.




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