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London and Home Counties
About the London Group

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Did your ancestors come from the UK? Then there's a fair chance they lived in, or near London. Or perhaps they passed through that great city on the way to Australia. Many of us have roots in, or connections with London. And that's why we have a LONDON group at WAGS. Or, strictly speaking, ‘The London and Home Counties Special Interest Group'. This means we cover London, Middlesex, Surrey, and where London has spread into the adjoining counties of Kent, Essex, Herts, Bucks and Berkshire.

We meet quarterly and keep in contact by e-mail in between meetings. At each meeting, one of our members leads a discussion about a London-based topic. In the last few meetings we've had talks about: the coming of the Railroads, the Thames legacy (watermen, lightermen and pilots), the London Blitz and, of course lots of problem-solving discussions.

Our goal is to increase our understanding of London and its history, to help us with our research - where our ancestors might be found, what they did, how they lived. We also help each other with queries and problems... we may not be able to solve your problems but we can often come up with ideas to follow up. And we're very sympathetic!

Come along to one of our meetings - you'll be very welcome. 

 

Online resources for Londoners

In 2009 Ancestry.com released a large number of parish records for London, including images of original baptism and marriage entries, taken from the London Metropolitan Archives. There are four fully searchable databases:

 

  • Baptisms, marriages and burials (1538-1812)
  • Marriages and Banns (1754-1921)
  • Births and baptisms (1813-1906)
  • Deaths and burials (1813-1980)

 

For serious London researchers this is a good reason to subscribe to ancestry, but If you decide not to, book a time on the computer at WAGS and have a look! 

Recently, for a Lunchtime discussion group, we prepared a one-page guide to online resources for London researchers. It's here if you'd like a copy.

pdf london_research_online__some_useful_websites 61.00 Kb 

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 11 May 2011 )
 
Contacts and Next Meeting - LHC

WAGS LHC Forum Link << WAGS London & Home Counties Forum

We meet every three months, on the first Saturday of March, June, September and December, from 11am to 1pm, at WAGS Unit 4/48 May Street, Bayswater. At each meeting one of our members leads a discussion on a specific topic. As well, we spend time looking at successes, problems and queries. We're a self-help group, aiming to improve our general knowledge about London, as well as solving members' problems. Between 25 and 40 members attend each quarterly meeting.

All WAGS members are welcome to come along to our meetings and join our mailing list. A gold coin donation at the meeting helps to build up funds to purchase additional resources for the library. Maybe we'll see you at one of our meetings soon.

Co-convenors

Mike Murray            con_tel.png (08) 9339 8078

Lesley Silvester     con_tel.png (08) 9339 8078  

Email:                     Convenors - London and Home Counties SIG

 
Next Meeting/s - Have a look at:

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 WAGS Event Calendar

 London & Home Counties SIG Events List

 

Saturday 3 Dec 2011. 11 am to 1 pm

Brick walls. We haven't had a session looking at brick walls for a while so this will be the chance to look for some of the ancestors that stubbornly refuse to turn up when you want them to. And to celebrate the festive season (already!) we'll have a modest lunch - bring along something to share. 

Last Updated ( Saturday, 26 November 2011 )
 
Recent Meetings - LHC

 Sept 2011

We looked at a lot of London material that's appeared online in recent months, and then Marian Crew gave us a delightful talk on London sugar bakers - most of us did not realise that these were industrial workers in hot sugar houses (80 in London in the 1760s) and the tough conditions that these folk worked under.

June 2011 (meeting held 18 June)

Lesley presented a paper she prepared for the recent genealogy cruise called 'London ancestors - bringing them to life' which emphasised the use of various documents to understand the social history of our forebears.

March 2011

We checked out some London maps online, looked at Boyds inhabitants of London, and listened to a great talk by Ron Caunce on London Police. 

December 2010

As well as reviewing some great London websites, we discussed the history of Christmas customs and traditions, especially those with a London connection: cards, crackers, trees, food, etc 

September 2010

We had a look at the fascinating history of London burials and now understand a bit more about why it's so hard to find your ancestors' burial records. This copy of the presentation contains links to the websites we looked at.

 pdf London burials presentation  655.44 Kb

June 2010 (meeting held 22 May)

Another of our regular brick wall sessions. Even if you don't have a candidate for examination by the group, these meetings are a great opportunity to think of various ways to look for elusive ancestors. And we even managed to solve a couple of old problems!

March 2010

Lesley gave us some chilling insights to the fate of those caught up in the great plague in London in 1665. Luckily, our ancestors must have survived (or we wouldn't be here). Bills of Mortality and parish records show what happened to those who died.

December 2009 (meeting date 28 November)

 Marian Crew gave us a revealing glimpse of life in the  London Hospital over the centuries, ranging from its beginnings to more recent times when she worked there.

September 2009

 Lee Ann Atkinson gave us a fascinating insight into the lives and times of the Thames watermen, lightermen and pilots. 

June 2009

 We had another Brick Wall session. Six cases were looked at and some notes made of possible approaches, We've summarised them here for posterity.

pdf  London Group Minutes - Jun 09 70.13 Kb 

March 2009

Discussion on the Coming of the Railways and their impact on London and its people. Mike presented a brief overview with some nice illustrations and hints on finding your railway ancestors. Email the convenor if you want a copy of the presentation.

December 2008

Discussion on Social History, particularly the use of the Booth Maps and workhouse books. Mike and Lesley presented three case histories showing how much material can be found to flesh out the lives of some of our 19th century London ancestors.

September 2008

Presentation on London repositories.  Mike and Lesley reported on their recent visits to The National Archives and the London Metropolitan Archives.

June 2008

Meeting focused on bashing down some London Brick Walls.  Members brought along their most difficult cases and the meeting tried to help them by offering up suggestions for further research. Before that we reminded members about Batch Number searching the IGI, and some good search tips for the Census records.

March 2008

Special on the London Blitz. A panel of four members, all of whom had lived in London during the Second World War, enthralled us with stories. Thanks to Jane Innes,Terry Dean, Malcolm Ginn and Maurice Burns for allowing us to share their memories and their stories.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 November 2011 )
Read more...
 
The Counties we cover - LHC
The group concentrates on the London area (LND, MDX and SRY) but also extends to those counties that surround London and into which London has expanded over the years (the ‘Home Counties'). So the counties of interest are:

* BKM Buckinghamshire
* BRK Berkshire
* ESS Essex
* HRT Hertfordshire
* KEN Kent
* LND London
* MDX Middlesex
* SRY Surrey

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 17 March 2009 )
 

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