29 February 2012

Ancestry adds London, England, School Admissions and Discharges, 1840-1911

Yet another nice London database from Ancestry, one that few would venture to explore without name indexing. It contains over 1.7 million records of school admission and discharges from 843 schools in the boroughs of Camden, City of London, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwick, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth, and Westminster.

I quickly found my grandfather's record at Wilton Road School in Hackney which added a few extra details to my picture of him. 

While the records vary by school and some are more detailed than others because they were completed by the school they are likely reasonably reliable. The records include:Admission Date, Name, Parents’ names, Parents’ occupation, Address, Birth date, Age. This amount of detail minimizes the chance of mistakes. 

I checked a page of the Westminster Jew´s Free School and noticed a column from the 1870s asking for Christian name duly completed. Remarks like "Gone to Work" and "Required at Home" were common, less then half the children completed the 6th year of schooling.
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2 comments:

  1. Janet Iles29 February, 2012 14:05

    This is good news for researchers interested in London.

    I haven't been able to find it in the Ancestry catalogue.

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  2. Anonymous03 March, 2012 07:51

    I couldn't find it when you did a search in the card catalogue but on ancestry uk at the bottom of the featured records box you click on view all new records, you will see it at the top of the list.

    Has anyone else noticed that the birth dates frequently do not match from say the parish records. I found many were out a year, or a few days or a different month etc.. I wonder if the parents lied in order to get the children in school earlier. I know they are the right person because of the address given.

    A great resource. Because the records give the date and reason for leaving the school you can tell when the family moves.
    thanks again for the heads up,
    Barb

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