Genealogy Chat

Hope you win it soon then Grace. Lynda

Such a day out would be great Lynda, but living in Oz now I'll have to wait until I win Gold Lotto Grace

Thanks for that tip Nell. Next time I am up "my" way I'll make an appointment and have a look. I'm the same as you Grace, lived near it for 21 years, (Caledonaian Road), never interested, but it's probably a good job I don't live there now I'd never be at home! Perhaps we should all have an Islington day out! Lynda

The Library can be contacted by phone 02 7527 7988 for information or if like me you are unable to go along an search electoral rolls etc. they advised me that they will check them for you at a cost of 12 pounds sterling (cheque) payable to London Borough of Islington, send with a covering letter to Islington Borough Council, Local History Centre, 245 St John Street, London EC1V 4NB. Just to think I lived within walking distance of all these facilities for many years but at that time was not interested in genealogy. Grace R

For those of you who cannot find a listing in GRO pages for your relative, have you tried contacting the register office that they would have been registered at especially if you know the date or year. I recently downloaded 10 years of GRO pages to find a relative who was supposedly born in 1910. As a last resort I contacted the register office by phone [I am in Oz] and they provided me with the index number so now my certificate is on its way. Christina

How frustrating! But I do know the feeling. I am trying to find an elusive marriage which (if it took place) should be between May 1879 when my gt grandmother Emma was widowed, and April 1881 when she appears with husband no. 2 on the census. In the summer that year she gives birth to a child. I can't find the marriage in the GRO indexes, and I don't know whether they would have married in Islington (where she was widowed) or Greenwich (where they were at the time of the census, though when their child was born they were in E. Molesey). I've checked the marriage registers of both the relevant parish churches, but of course there are more churches than that and they may have married in another district altogether, or in a non-conformist church. Or not married at all... I was explaining this problem to my 12-year-old son, and he said "I expect they just did it to annoy their descendants!" nell

I think one of them goes back to 1850-ish, but the issues I was looking at (1879) didn't have any bmd info. If she was Catholic I think the records would still be with the church. Of course if she was born in the 1860s you should be able to get a birth cert. nell

You may like to know that there is a Centre for Local Studies sited in the Library on St John Street. The good news is that it is a few minutes' walk from the FRC - turn left out of the FRC and walk to the end of the road. Turn right into St John Street and it is just beyond the bus stop on the righthand pavement. The bad news is that it is closed all day Wednesday and you have to make an appointment to use it. However, it does hold electoral registers and also local newspapers on microfilm. It has a very efficient microfilm reader that produces photocopies at the press of a button. More info from the website: www.islington.gov.uk/Education/LocalHistory/634.asp nell p.S. London info it doesn't hold is at the London Metropolitan Archives, also a few minutes walk away - turn right outside the FRC and then left at the junction down Rosomon St - keep going down the pavement between the two parks and then right into Northampton Rd. The LMA is the building with the glass window.

For anyone interested in Islington read below