Dig into the lives of your hor ticultural ancestors

The Library, in Westminster, London, is described as the ‘finest horticultural library in the world’ and supports thousands of researchers every year. Like all UK libraries, it has been subject to closures during the Covid-19 pandemic and so this online guide offers anyone with gardening ancestors the chance to explore what life would have been like in this profession over the years, from their

The RHS Lindley Library has produced a new guide to help family history researchers find out more about gardeners in their family tree

own home. The 1851 Census contains details of around 88,000 paid gardeners and numbers grew to a peak of just under 300,000 in 1931. You can find out about different horticultural roles, the various gardens your ancestors might have worked in, and explore what resources are available to help with your research.

Explore the guide at https://familytr.ee/lindley

A group of six gardeners standing outside the Bothy at Worsley New Hall. Black and white photograph, circa 1920. Probably taken by William Upjohn © RHS Lindley Collections Photograph of George Prior (1907), a Buckinghamshire man who spent his life as a gardener on various estates in Berkshire, Hampshire, and London. He is described on the photograph, and in the Gardeners’ Chronicle obituary, as ‘probably the oldest gardener in the kingdom’ © RHS Lindley Collections