BOOKS & DIGITAL PICKS
This month’s family history inspiration
by Jonathan Oates Pen & Sword, 224 pages, £14.99
Researching family and local history in London is renowned for its difficulty. The number of inhabitants, parishes and other civil and church jurisdictions is but the start of the problem. High immigration, particularly during the Victorian period, with frequent movement by individuals and families within London, is a further obstacle to research. And an understanding of what actually constituted the metropolis before the county of London was created in 1889, and the London boroughs a few years later, is essential. The ‘East End’ was essentially in the county of Middlesex until then. Any book aimed at family and local historians that will help with this complicated, and in many ways unique, area of London is more than welcome.
Jonathan Oates is the Ealing borough archivist and local history librarian, and has covered the subject well. Commencing with ‘What Is the East End?’ he deals, in this and further chapters, with the history and background to many of the unique series of records needed for research. What is not covered in any depth, and quite correctly in a book of this kind, are the basic sources, such as civil registration, censuses, newspapers and the like.
Chapters cover industries and occupations, crime (including vice), religions, schools and, importantly, the immigration of groups such as Huguenots, Jews and, more recently, Bangladeshis. There is a detailed listing of the registers of the established church in the chapter on religions. There are also comprehensive listings of other record series held at The National Archives, London Metropolitan Archives and relevant local record offices.
All in all, this is a wellconstructed, essential addition to the bookshelf for anyone with East End ancestry, or having a general interest in family or local history in the area.