London was the World’s largest and richest city for centuries until the early part of the 20th century. It was therefore a magnet for those looking for work from the rest of Britain and Ireland, as well as for many immigrants escaping persecution and poverty in other countries. If you have ancestors from Britain or Ireland, there is a good chance that some of the branches on your family tree will have a connection to London. My own McGowan family left Ireland in the 1870s at first for Scotland, ending up in London in the 1920s. I have other examples on the English side of my tree of people moving to London, both permanently and temporarily. So, this post will look at useful London genealogy resources, both free and paid for.
Civil Registration
Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths began in London, along with the rest of England and Wales in 1837. You can order copies of birth, marriage and death certificates online at the General Register Office (GRO). Normally certificate copies are mailed and the cost is GBP11.00 including postage. However, you can also order PDF copies of birth records (1837-1917) and death records (1837-1957). These copies are emailed within a few days of ordering. The cost is GBP7.00 each. Marriage records as well as later birth and death records are not covered by this project and will be mailed.
To find your ancestor so that you can order the correct record, you can use the GRO indexes for births and deaths. However, you will need to use an external site like FreeBMD to search the indexes to find the correct entry for marriage records.
For more on the GRO and the indexes see: The Free BMD Index and British GRO Guide
Parish Records
For births marriages and deaths prior to 1837, you need to find Parish records. See my English Parish Register Guide on this website to see where to find Parish records for London. It shows which of the database sites have online records and where the physical archives are. You need to be aware of London boundary changes though. In 1963 London expanded to form Greater London and the whole of the county of Middlesex was swallowed up, along with parts of Essex, Kent, Surrey and Hertfordshire. You therefore need to check whether the records for your parish are still kept by the county archive or were moved to London. Details of the county archives are also on the guide.
Cemetery Records
The population of London expanded rapidly during the 19th century, from about one million in the first decade to more than five million by the end of the century. The Parish churches ran out of space in their graveyards so huge cemeteries were built on the (then) outskirts of London. So there is a good chance that if your ancestors died in London from the middle of the 19th century onwards, they were buried in a cemetery. You therefore won’t find the burial record in the Parish records and will have to look for cemetery records.
Deceased Online has records for a number of London cemeteries including Highgate and those of several boroughs.
FindMyPast has the Greater London Burial Index which is made up of four collections; Middlesex Burials & Memorial Inscriptions, South London Burials Index 1545-1905, City of London Burials 1754-1855 and Middlesex Burials 1538-1992.
Ancestry has the London, England, City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery Registers, 1841-1966 collection.
Census Records
Along with the rest of England and Wales, London census records are available online for every ten years between 1841 and 1911. Transcriptions of individual census entries are available for free on Family Search. To look at scans of the original documents, you will need a subscription to FindMyPast, The Genealogist or Ancestry.
1939 Register
On the eve of the Second World War, the British government undertook a survey of everyone living in the UK. This was so that they could issue identity cards and determine how many able bodied people would be available for service. The returns are very similar to a census, although the relationship to the head of household is not shown. However, dates of birth for every person listed and occupations are shown. The 1939 Register for London, as well as for the rest of England and Wales is available exclusively on FindMyPast. Note that for privacy reasons, any person listed who would be less than 100 years old today is blacked out unless death has been confirmed. The 1939 Register is a fantastic resource for anyone with family living in London (or England and Wales) in 1939.
Other London Records on the Database Sites
As well as the collections mentioned, FindMyPast also have a large collection of London specific and English record sets. See the complete list here.
The Genealogist has a number of useful London collections including school records available with a Diamond subscription. One of the most interesting is the 1910 “Domesday” survey of some of London, with detailed maps and property records. Details of the records included in the subscription are here.
Family Search has some useful English collections. However, the only London specific set is London Electoral Registers, 1847-1913. The full list of English record sets can be found here.
Ancestry has some useful London collections including Electoral Registers 1832-1965. A full list can be found here.
British History Online
British History Online has a large number of primary sources, secondary texts and maps relating to London and the rest of Britain. More information and a catalogue of what’s available online are here.
NLS London Maps
Free historical Ordinance Survey online maps of the whole of the UK including London can be found on the NLS Maps website here.
Locating London’s Past
This is a very interesting free website. Using John Rocque’s 1746 map of London as well as other maps and satellite images, the site allows you to map a wide range of digital resources. For example, you can map which areas of London were hit hardest by the plague. I recommend you watch the short video tutorials and then jump in and see what resources are available. Details are here.
Newspapers
The British Newspaper Archive in association with the British Library has several London newspapers within its vast collection of English titles. These are really useful for the family historian for finding birth, marriage and death notices as well as news items concerning your ancestors or the area in which they lived. This is a subscription site, but you can buy a month’s subscription to try it out. Details are here. If you have ancestors in London, in the UK or are interested in British history, then a subscription is well worth taking out to watch history unfold.
Note that a subscription to FindMyPast that includes British records comes with access to the British Newspaper Archive via its newspaper section. If you haven’t already done so, you can try a 14 day free trial. If you have British ancestors, it is well worth subscribing. Details on FindMyPast are here.
For more resources see: 10 Great Free London Genealogy Websites
Happy researching!
For some further reading, here are some interesting London history books:
For some great genealogy books, see the Resources section.
Please pin a pin to Pinterest:
Leave A Comment