AROUND BRITAIN
Jonathan Scott visits the great port city to see what’s in store for researchers with Scouse roots
Find your family in LIverpool
It was a major port of departure for migrants to the US
Liverpool’s rapid growth from the 17th century was fuelled by trade with the Americas and the Industrial Revolution. The first cargo of tobacco arrived here in 1648, merchants imported sugar from the West Indies and many influential Liverpool figures were heavily involved in the Atlantic slave trade, including merchant, MP and ‘Father of Liverpool’ Sir Thomas Johnson. Indeed, more than 5,000 recorded slaving voyages started from Liverpool and in 1999 Liverpool City Council unanimously passed a formal motion apologising for the city’s part in the slave trade.
In 1710, work began on what became known as the Old Dock, but was at the time the first artificial wet dock in Britain and the first in what would become a seven-mile stretch of docks. By the 1830s, with the Industrial Revolution in full swing, approximately 85 per cent of all cotton grown worldwide was processed in Lancashire. And much of the cotton cloth produced in Lancashire’s mill towns was exported through Liverpool. At the end of the 19th century it is estimated that Liverpool’s dock labour force numbered nearly 30,000 and it was a major port of departure for migrants to the US.
By the Mersey
Historically the city, which is on the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary, was within the ancient hundred of West Derby, in south west Lancashire. It became a city and an independent county borough in the 1880s, before the 1974 boundary reforms saw Liverpool and Manchester become separate metropolitan counties.
If you’re just starting your Liverpool research, the most important repository is the city record office, which reopened its doors following a £50m redevelopment of Liverpool Central Library in 2013. Archivist Helena Smart says: “We now have state-of-the-art facilities for the preservation of our collections and a search room which is open six days a week.”
Documents are preserved in a special repository, which has temperature and humidity control and a centrally controlled fire detection and suppression system.
As the record office looks after more than 15km of archives, it would be impossible to list all holdings here. But, as Helena says, some of the most significant records for genealogical research include parish records for Church of England, Roman Catholic and nonconformist denominations, cemetery, workhouse, hospital and school records, electoral registers, street directories and records from numerous charitable and religious institutions, including information on child migrants who were sent to Canada.
Helena says: “Our earliest record dates from 1207 with King John’s Letters Patent. And we are the ‘memory’ for Liverpool Council with town books from the 16th century right through to records from the 21st century.”
While some archives are only viewable by appointment, researchers can freely access microfilm collections, which include parish records, newspapers dating back to 1785, census records, the Everton Collection and workhouse records, at any time.
Similarly microfiche records, including birth, marriage and death indexes and census returns, are available.
Online collections
There’s already Liverpool material online via both ancestry.co.uk and findmypast.co.uk and both websites can be accessed free of charge from Liverpool libraries. Ancestry, for example, has had significant collections of the city record office’s parish registers on its books since 2011, alongside Catholic registers, plus it has recently completed digitisation of Liverpool electoral rolls (which stretch back to 1830).
Naturally, there are collections here that reflect Liverpool’s importance as a port. It was home to both Cunard and the White Star Line, and was the port of registry for the Titanic, Lusitania, Queen Mary and
The Everton Collection includes more than 18,000 items relating to the history of Everton Football Club
the Olympic. The record office holds some crew lists (already digitised and available via Ancestry), customs bills of entry, records of some merchant families and shipping lines, and a photographic archive for the Liverpool docks.
“We have a wonderful collection of maps and plans that show the development of the dock,” says Helena. “We have photographs and watercolours that give a visual timeline of developments in the city. We also have the archive of the Merseyside Development Corporation that led projects relating to the docks. There are oral histories related to working on the docks, and although these are not currently available it is hoped to make them so soon.”
Archive collections
The Mersey Docks and Harbour Board archive, and many other key port records, are housed at the Maritime Archive and Library at the Merseyside Maritime Museum, Albert Dock ( liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/
maritime), which specialises in preserving the maritime heritage of Liverpool. The site has research guides to the likes of customs and excise, emigration, shipping companies and slavery. The archive also looks after material relating to the 8th King’s Regiment, which became known as The King’s (Liverpool Regiment) in 1881, and online there’s a searchable database of soldiers serving during the First World War.
Back at the record office, visitors will find a dedicated exhibition space to showcase archive collections and curated exhibitions. There is a cabinet of facsimile maps of the area dating from 1300s to the 1950s, and visitors can view a collection of archive films of Liverpool dating from 1907 to 1987, which have been digitised and presented with support from the North West Film Archive ( nwfa.mmu.ac.uk). Helena says: “School registers and log books are a fascinating resource for genealogy as they can give you details of where families were living and siblings present at the school. The log books also give details of what school life was like for children and are significant during the Second World War when children were evacuated.”
The previously mentioned Everton Collection includes more than 18,000 items relating to the history of Everton Football Club, founded in 1878. A page on the Liverpool Record Office (LRO) website describes the collection in detail, also listing the club’s impressive list of firsts: it was the first club to go on an overseas tour, first to use football nets and first to build a purpose-built football stadium. There are match programmes dating from 1886 onwards, and this run includes the earliest known Manchester United programme dating from 15 April 1889.
Currently, alongside the ongoing digitisation of records by Ancestry and Findmypast, the team is working to create a legacy facility for Liverpool’s Communities of Black Origin.
“This is to address the historical exclusion of the valuable social, economic, political and cultural contribution made by the communities. The first event will be an exhibition at Liverpool Central Library in October 2017 to showcase archives relating to the various music scenes in Liverpool.”
Another important collection is the archives of the Merseyside Jewish Community, which date back to the 18th century. This was the first organised Jewish community in the north of England and for many years the largest provincial Jewish community. Helena says: “The collection details the many Jewish organisations in the city and how they arranged welfare provisions and their contribution to the wider community.”
The collection includes the register book of the Jews in Liverpool, which records births, deaths and marriages from 1804 to 1816, plus retrospective information on individuals from as early as 1722.
There are many other institutions in the city, which hold archival collections that may prove useful. These include universities, National Museums Liverpool, the Athenaeum, the Metropolitan and Anglican cathedrals and the Medical Institute.