Image courtesy of Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives.

This month’s picture shows the bombed-out shell of Christ Church Watney Street in 1943.

Built to serve the rapidly expanding population of the district, the foundation stone was laid on March 11th 1840 and the church was consecrated just over a year later. The first vicar was William Quekett who had been a curate at the nearby church of St George in the East since 1829.

The building of grey bricks with stone dressings was in the Romanesque style with two towers with slated pyramidal spires which can be clearly seen.

The church was wrecked by a landmine in April 1941 but the ruins survived for around a further ten years before being cleared.

In the Tax, Criminal, Land & Wills Records section:

About London, England, Selected Poor Law Removal and Settlement Records, 1828-1930

This database contains Poor Law records relating to settlement and removals for the unions of Bethnal Green, Hackney, Poplar, Shoreditch, and Stepney.

Historical Background

For centuries, the task of caring for the poor in England and Wales was assigned to the local parish. Each parish was given an Overseer of the Poor to help with this cause in 1572. In 1601, the Poor Law Act empowered these overseers to collect a poor rate, or tax, from wealthier members of the parish and distribute the funds among residents in need.

The 1601 law, and other supplemental acts, remained in effect until 1834, when the Poor Law Amendment Act took effect. This legislation collected parishes into groups called unions. Each union elected a Board of Guardians from among its ratepayers, and members of the board were then responsible for care of the poor within the union’s parishes. This system remained in place until 1930.

Right of Settlement

Because responsibility for indigent residents fell to the parish, authorities kept close tabs on who had a right to claim the parish as a legal place of settlement. People who could not legally claim the right of settlement could be sent back, or “removed,” to their last legal parish of settlement.

Right to settlement could be established by birth, residency for a prescribed period of time, marriage, renting property for at least £10 and paying the poor rate, or completing an apprenticeship, among other ways. Proving one’s right of settlement could include an examination or inquiry. While stressful for your ancestors, these examinations often produced valuable documentation.

What You Can Find in the Records

The records in this database relate to settlement and removals in the unions of Bethnal Green, Hackney, Poplar, Shoreditch, and Stepney. They include examinations and settlement inquiries, registers of settlement, orders of removal, and other documents.

Details included in these records vary widely, depending on the document. An order of removal may contain a name, age, current parish, and parish being removed to. A settlement register may note number of children and marital status. Documents from inquiries and examinations can be even more extensive. In the end, you may be able to uncover some of the following information:

name
age
parish
date
places and dates of residence (both current and former)
spouse and marriage details
children’s names, birth dates, and birthplace
profession
other family members’ names and residences
summary of the situation and grounds for settlement or removal
Some of the cases include multiple documents, so be sure to use the arrow keys to browse surrounding pages to make sure you find all the records for your ancestor.

Help preserve historical records for generations to come. Join the Ancestry World Archives Project, a collaborative effort involving thousands of people around the world keying digital records to make them free for everyone. Anyone can join, and you decide how much time you’ll contribute - as little as 15 minutes helps. Learn more.

The following have been added to the Member Area Resources:

Borough of Havering } Romford Cemetery (Crow Lane) } Burial Index } 1871-1953

Over 20,000 burials. Detailing surname, forename, marital status, occupation, age, place body was removed from, date of burial, grave number & volume.

Borough of Tower Hamlets } Poplar } All Saints } Burial Dues } 1824-1838

Over 2,500 burials. These burials were not recorded in any register.

Link to Member Area Online Resources

The following have been added to the Member Area Resources on the Message Board:

Hackney Census Index 1811

Hackney Census Indexes by Name & by Street 1831

Tower Hamlets, Poplar Census Index 1821

Tower Hamlets, Poplar Census Index 1831

Link to Member Area Online Resources

The London Family History Centre is based at the National Archives in Kew for the rest of this year.

They are actively looking for property around the City of London and East of it. No decision has yet been made, but it is probable that they will share the building with one of the church congregations so they can use the same facilities.

They will have the place in the week and Saturdays and the congregation on Sundays.

When they leave the National Archives a small satellite centre will remain but all film resources will move to their new City Centre.

Good news for all those in the East End.

The people of London’s East End remembered their dead yesterday, on the 70th anniversary of Britain’s worst wartime civilian disaster.

In 1943 at 8.17pm the air-raid sirens sounded and an estimated 1,500 people started to descend the dimly staircase at Bethnal Green Tube station to take shelter as usual. Approximately 500 people were already in the shelter before the air-raid alert sounded.

At 8.27 pm a woman carrying a small child entered the shelter and tripped and fell three steps from the bottom. Those following fell on her, resulting in a mass of struggling people which grew to nearly 300. In total 173 victims, comprising 27 men, 84 women and 62 children either suffocated or were crushed to death. It is estimated hundreds of people fell within15 seconds.

The government ordered that both the location and precise number of deaths should be kept secret. The details of an inquiry at the time were kept secret due to the supposed security considerations. Minutes from a War Cabinet meeting discussion at the time concluded that publication of the disaster 'would give the incident a disproportionate importance, and might encourage the enemy to make further nuisance raids.'

Yesterday was the first year that survivors, relatives and descendants of those who died could read their names and lay wreaths at the new but unfinished memorial at Bethnal Green Tube Station.

Those who died are also commemorated on the 'Stairway to Heaven' web site:

The Cornwall Family History Society have started a project to coincide with the anniversary of the First World War.

The project aims to record all the graves and monuments to the war dead in Cornwall.

They are looking for people who had a connection to Cornwall or who may have relatives or ancestors listed on a memorial in Cornwall as well as elsewhere.

They want to build up a picture of the person's life, not just names on a list, so they are looking for relatives to help supply background information.

Eventually all the information will be on a free website open to all.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Do you know any personal stories about what happened in the parishes and villages of Cornwall during the two World Wars?

Do you have any diaries, old photographs of either relatives or headstones you would be willing to have copied for inclusion on their new web site?

Do you have some snippet of information that might link up with another to help paint a fuller picture of someone's life?

If you would like to know more or even if you would like advice on the suitability of material,

The Victoria Park Cemetery Burial Indexes 1853-1859 are available for down loading in the Member Area On-Line Resources of the Message Board.

It's been while since I visited this excellent site. Lots of information (over 3.5 million names) and access to source material such as:

Parish Archives: St Botolph Aldgate, St Clement Danes, St Dionis Backchurch

Criminal Records Bridewell Royal Hospital, Home Office, Old Bailey Proceedings, Old Bailey Sessions

Apprenticeship records, Pauper Admissions and lots more.

Well worth a visit.

An interesting web site with a database of London photographers' names and studio addresses.

Useful for identifying when and where those old family photographs were taken.

The 'Millwall and The Island' Horse Omnibus outside West India Dock Station c.1910.

During the 1850s, the first one-horse omnibus began to operate between the Greenwich Ferry and Limehouse, helping to ease heavy traffic congestion on the Isle of Dogs, primarily caused by frequent queues at the Dock bridges. By the 1870s, a number of private horse omnibuses were in operation throughout the island. The bus driver would collect fares through a hatch in the roof of the vehicle. The 'Millwall and The Island' horse omnibus, pictured, served West Ferry Road and Millwall Docks and operated until 16th October 1913, the year during which the London General Omnibus Company introduced motor-bus services.

Image courtesy of Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives.

Manor Park Cemetery & Crematorium, Sebert Rd, Forest Gate, London E7 0NP

http://www.mpark.co.uk/

With nearly 380,000 interments in its 43 acres, Manor Park Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in East London. The Cemetery and Crematorium are located near Forest Gate in the London Borough of Newham (records for which are also on Deceased Online) and is near to the site of the 2012 Olympic Park.

Manor Park Cemetery and Crematorium is privately owned and has been managed by the same family since its foundation in 1875. Indeed, the grave of Mr. William Nesbitt, the very first interment that took place on 25th March 1875, can still be found on the right hand side of Remembrance Road.

Other historic graves and memorials include:

Currently there are records for 103,000 interments available for the period 1st January 1931 to January 2010.

These comprise:

Digital scans of burial registers until 26th February 1996*
Computerised data from 27th February 1997
Details of each grave with grave occupants
Cemetery maps providing the sections where each grave is located (available on most but not all interments).

The Society has been contacted about the POLLEY family as follows:

"I live in Cambridgeshire and am a member of Cambs FHS. I have been sorting through some things belonging to a grandfather who came from the Mile End area.

I have found two World War 1 medals inscribed '143907 Gnr A A Polley R A'.

There are no Polleys in my family and I do not know how they came into my grandfather's possession.

If one of your members is researching the Polley family then I will happily send the medals to that person as that is where they belong. "

Contact Mr. Clinton Tweed

The Society has been contacted by the Lancashire Family History & Heraldry Society with regard to the grave of Major John Buckley VC (1813-1876).

There is growing concern about the condition of his grave in Tower Hamlets Cemetery and there are moves to sort out the grave.

Any information about Major Buckley's family history would be greatly appreciated.

If you are a descendant of Major Buckley or have any information you think might be useful, please contact Mike Coyle, Chairman Lancashire Family History & Heraldry Society here:

Contact Lancashire Family History & Heraldry Society

West Ham Cemetery, Cemetery Road, Forest Gate, London, E7 9DG.

Approximately 180,000 burial records are available online for West Ham Cemetery, East London.

The data available comprise computerised index records, details of graves including names of all those buried in each grave, and cemetery section maps to locate graves.

Note that only the index records are available, and not the full burial register records, as regrettably these were irrecoverably damaged due to flooding.

West Ham Cemetery (located in Forest Gate) was created in 1857 as one of London’s first publicly-owned cemeteries following the Metropolitan Burials Act of 1852.

The Act was introduced as at that time London’s small burial grounds were overcrowded, causing serious health problems, and lacked good management and accountability. All of the burials since its opening were manually catalogued and these have now been digitised and indexed for the Deceased Online website.

These records are available at deceasedonline on a pay-per-view basis.

Transcribed register entries cost £1.50, image of a grave memorial £2 and maps showing grave or memorial location £5.

St Andrew’s Hospital, Devons Road, Bromley-by-Bow, c1934

Originally known as the Poplar and Stepney Sick Asylum, this building was opened in 1871 and served the districts of Poplar, Bromley, Bow, Limehouse, Wapping, Shadwell and Ratcliff.

It was one of the first and largest workhouse infirmaries built under the Metropolitan Poor Act of 1867. It was renamed St Andrew’s Hospital in 1925.

The hospital has now been demolished and is being replaced by a large housing scheme called St Andrews.

Image courtesy of Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives.

This photograph by Poplar photographer William Whiffin shows a Truman’s brewery dray outside the building which was erected in 1927-8 but there had been a tavern here called the White Horse since 1690 or earlier.

The pub’s claim to fame was that in the mid-eighteenth century the licensee was a woman, Mary East (1715-1780), who lived as a man called James Howes and lived “as man and wife” with a woman friend.

The pub was pulled down a few years ago to make way for a housing development. However the remarkable inn sign in the form of a horse made from lead on a post thought to date from the early to mid eighteenth century survives.

Image courtesy of Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives.

The (future) King's Speech



This picture shows HRH The Duke of York (later King George VI) at the opening of York Hall (named after him) in Bethnal Green in November 1929.

The new Public Baths and Washhouses in Old Ford Road cost about £125,000 and were among the best-equipped and most up-to-date in the country.

The Duke concluded his speech by saying, “We shall always retain very happy memories of our visit here today. We hope we may on some future occasion be able to come here and see you again”.

His subsequent visits to the East End as King George VI were as morale-boosting exercises during World War II.

In the centre of the picture is the Mayor of Bethnal Green, Councillor Wesley Clark Chandler J.P., and to his left the Duchess of York, later Queen Elizabeth.




Mile End Road showing the Peoples' Palace and St. Benet's church, c 1904.

The only structure still standing from this postcard view, partially hidden by trees, is the clock tower of the People’s Palace, now Queen Mary University of London.

The rather grand middle-class housing known as St Helen’s Terrace, dating from the late 1860s was demolished in the 1930s to make way for the new People’s Palace.

On the right is St Benet’s church, built in 1871-2, to the designs of Ewan Christian in the 13th century style. The church was badly damaged by enemy action in August 1940.

Deemed unnecessary under post-war reorganisation, it was demolished in 1950. The college chapel occupies part of its site.

Images courtesy of Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives.

All 39,400 burial records for Romford Cemetery in Essex are now available on the Deceased Online website on a pay-per-view basis.

Digitised burial register scans for the period 27 October 1871 to 15 August 1994, and computerised records thereafter, include details such as occupation and/or marital status, age, place of death and grave number. Grave details for all interments are also available.

Romford Cemetery is managed by the London Borough of Havering, and joins Hornchurch, Rainham and Upminster cemeteries, which have all their burial records on www.deceasedonline.com.

There is a free on-line index containing over 193,000 burials of the 194,815 burials that took place in this cemetery from 1840 to 1978. There have also been a small number of burials since that time in family sites.

This information was kindly provided by Gary Barnes, member 11005.

I am looking for the English ancestors of John Britton who was born in England about 1672 or 1673 and was living in Henrico County, Virginia by June, 1684.

Since the links between Henrico and London in the 17th century are strong and well documented, I believe that he was sent to Virginia from the London area, probably in the autumn or winter of 1683/4.

DNA results of seven of his descendants indicate that the family was of Anglo-Saxon, Danish Viking, or perhaps Norman stock, with a probable origin somewhere in eastern England.

Even a low-resolution match to another Britton family in England should be proof of common ancestry, because our DNA signature is so rare that we do not match anyone else of any surname within the past 750 to 1,000 years.

Elizabeth Lindsey Britton
Administrator of the Britton DNA Project

You can email me here

Seventy years ago on 7th September 1940 (or “Black Saturday” as it came to be known) the beginning of the Blitz on London began.

Although there had been sporadic raids prior to this, it was the first time that the capital, and in particular, the East End experienced the intensity of a massed air attack.

The picture shows the damage inflicted on the church of St Matthew, Bethnal Green. The church, which was built in 1743-6, had already witnessed partial destruction in the middle of the nineteenth century following a fire in 1859.

The west end of the church was repaired in 1955 and the rest reconstructed in 1958-1961.

Image courtesy of Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives.

East India Dock Road 1904 courtesy of Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives

East India Dock Road was laid out in 1806-1812 as a “branch” of the Commercial Road (made between 1802 and 1804) to give traffic from the newly completed East India Docks a straight run to London, bypassing Poplar High Street. A forest of masts in the docks can be seen in the distance.

The picture is dominated by the United Methodist Free Church, built 1866-8 in a “modern Italian” style to accommodate 1,500 people. In 1919 it was taken over by the nearby Poplar Methodist Mission and renamed King George’s Hall and was used as a men’s club, Sunday school and concert hall. It was badly damaged in the Second World War.

In the distance can be seen Poplar Railway station (the site of the present All Saints DLR station). This was built for the North London Railway in 1865-6 to replace the former station in Poplar High Street.

Image courtesy of Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives.

Angel Lane, Stratford, 1959.

The white covered portico in the middle of the photograph is the entrance to the Theatre Royal. The poster outside the theatre advertises the Joan Littlewood production of the musical "Make Me An Offer" which opened at the Theatre Royal in October 1959.

Image courtesy of Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives.

This photograph of what is now known simply as Alie Street was taken by Poplar photographer William Whiffin (1878-1957).

It shows an intriguing mix of motorised and horse-drawn traffic.

The left half of the picture is dominated by eighteenth- century buildings with shop fronts, destroyed by enemy action in the Second World War.

Behind the lorry laden with timber, at the corner of Leman Street is the Eastern Dispensary built in 1858, now a public house.

The Dispensary had been founded in 1782 to provide free medical and surgical relief to the poor.

Beyond this building are silhouetted the chimneys of the former St George’s German Lutheran School.

Image courtesy of Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives.

Crossland Square, Bethnal Green, 1954

This picture shows some typical weavers cottages which at one time were very prevalent in Bethnal Green. They are typified by the larger-than-normal windows on the first floor to illuminate the room where the weaving took
place.

Crossland Square was just south of Derbyshire Street. The houses had just been compulsorily purchased by the London County Council as part of the process of creating the appropriately named open space – Weavers Fields.

Image courtesy of Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives.