Royal Asylum for Poor,Aged,Decayed and Maimed Freemen of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen of the River Thames and their Wives or Widows.Penge,Surrey 1899.
This 34 page booklet lists the Patrons,Inmates,Candidates and unsuccessful candidates of the Royal Asylum at Penge. It contains approx. 600 names, many with addresses and also lists the amount of their donations. Queen Victoria for example is noted as having donated £100. My great grandfather by contrast donated 13 shillings.
Many of the names listed are undoubtedly watermen and lightermen, others are the names of lighterage companies.
Also included is an illustration, an appeal to the public, form of bequest and the rules of the charity.
The charity was founded as the Royal Watermen's and Lightermen's Asylum by Mr John Dudin Brown by deed dated 9 March 1839. Built as 48 dwellings in 1840,designed by George Porter, the first stone was laid by Alderman Lucus on 16th May 1840.
They were converted to private homes in 1973 and the residents moved to new bungalows in Hastings.
Scanned book on CD-ROM in Adobe Acrobat format (supplied). Published by Docklands Ancestors Ltd.

To buy this fascinating CD please click here: Penge

Romford Photographic Memories

Lavishly illustrated with fine quality photographs from the world-famous Francis Frith Collection. Rich in detail this is a fascinating portrait of life and times long since changed.

Series: Photographic Memories
Number of Pages: 96
Cover type: Paperback
Condition: New
Availability: In Stock

Price: £12.99

The City Of London by Brian Girling

Nearly 200 black and white old photographs showing life in London from 1860 to 1960.
This book paints the fascinating pictures of the events and people shaped the city, including the building and wartime destruction wrought by the Blitz. Most of the images date from Edwardian period and slightly after. The images included great printing houses of Fleet Street to humble shops, such as the Temple wig maker's along with the people who worked in them. Contents: Around Fleet Street, The River Thames, St Paul Cathedral and the Churches, City Transport.....

Publication Date:21/01/2009
Pages:128
Conditions: New
Publisher: The History Press

Price: £12.99 

Canning Town Voices(Chalford Oral History) by Howard Bloch

Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: Tempus Publishing Ltd (30 Nov 1997)
Condition: New
Price: £12.99

Around Lewisham and Deptford in Old Photographs(In Old Photographs) by John Coulter

Lewisham and Deptford have been a single borough since 1965, but they have very different histories. Deptford became an important shipbuilding centre after Henry VIII established a royal dockyard there; this attracted other heavy industry. Lewisham and its surrounding villages were primarily rural, until 19th century improvements in transport encouraged so many new residents that by the 1920s only a small agricultural area remained, to the south of the borough.
Renowned local historian John Coulter's new book describes and illustrates the changing scene in these two contrasting areas. Most of the more than two hundred photographs have never been published in book form before, and will surprise and fascinate anyone who knows this part of south-east London.

Paperback, 144 pages
Publisher: Sutton Publishing (29 Nov 2005)
Condition: New
Availability: In stock

Price: £12.99 

Bermondsey & Rotherhithe Remembered
by Stephen Humphrey.

There are a few areas of London that have changed in recent decades as much as the dockside areas of Bermondsey and Rotherhithe. As the importance of London as a shipping port declined in the post-war years many of the city’s docklands began to see changes. In Bermondsey and Rotherhithe almost the whole of the riverside was once devoted to the uploading and loading of goods of all kinds from ships that arrived from all over the world. To service and maintain the port industries a multitude of workers and their families lived and worked in the often cramped and narrow streets that ran around and between the port buildings.

This book recalls the days when these communities were at the heart of British commerce and industry, and covers particularly the years from between the wars to a decade or two after the Second World War. Drawing on the excellent collection of photographs and memorabilia held in Southwark Local Studies Library, Stephen Humphery reveals the sights and sounds of an industrial heritage is now all but gone and an area that is now the scene of major redevelopment.

This is a must buy book for anyone with a connection with the area.


Publisher: Tempus Publishing, 2004
Format: paperback, 125 pages, lavishly illustrated
Condition: New
Availability: In stock
Price: £12.99

One-Off Books (used, all good condition)

Step By-Step Guide to Tracing Your Ancestors by D.M.Field (£3.50 plus p & p)

The City London's Square Mile by Alan Jenkins (£4 plus p & p)

The chapels in the Tower of London (The chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula and the Chapel of St.John The Evangelist by The Reverend John F.M.Llewellyn (£3 plus p & p)

These second-hand titles are not on the site so if you would like to buy one please e-mail Yvonne at jameslegon@gmail.com (first come first served!) and payment is by cheque only.

Just a quick reminder about our research services, which is Esme's department. If you'd like more details on research then click here: research

Here's a really interesting article on origins of names contributed by Bob Carswell, cheers Bob!

Early surnames originated by a connection to something. Initially, they were only verbalized because records were seldom kept as few could write. In a small village, a person became known as John the Baker or John the Smith, Mary the Fair One, or William, Stephen's son. These were to distinguish them from other people of the same first name in the same village. Often, a name had no duplicate so many did not have a further reference as simply John might be enough. Larger cities were also often defined by their communities and some people never went beyond a four block radius where they lived, worked and socialized. Here again, a person became known locally as Thomas the cartwright, Jennie the maiden or William the thief and so on. They had little need for further names as they had their own circles and seldom overlapped with other circles. Records were shoddy and for the most part only existed around the church records until early formalized census records began. My Leonards that came from County Cork to the London Docks already had an established name, identifying the male line as descended from a man whose first name was Leonard. His son became known initially as John Leonards meaning the son of Leonard, and verbalized as John Leonards (actually meaning Leonard's John or John, son of Leonard) Somewhere along the way the 's' was dropped during a formal spelling recording a birth marriage or death. Since no one but the minister could write, and even then, some were better and more educated than others, Leonard became established as such and even with variations like Lennard, another written verbalization. My great grandmother could not read or write but knew to register the birth of her child in 1884. In doing so, she signed the form with an X. However, in doing so she agreed to the spelling officially recorded at that moment as Lennard whereas her husband and father-in-law had always been known as Leonard rather than by the Lennard spelling. Forced to officially correct his birth certificate in 1939 for official reasons, it took a lawyer, acceptable documentation and other support information from family members to verify that indeed, the spelling of Lennard was incorrect. When he wrote it out in 1884, the minister did the best he could without knowing the correct spelling so simply picked one. He chose Lennard, probably reasoning that it was a surname and not a first name like Leonard since he did not know about name origins.
 
My Carswell surname has much deeper origins. There have been a lot of different references to it over time, but always identifying it as a place-name. Since it remained in the area of the Borders from long before the beginning of written surnames, it had to have a special reference to the local area. Some think it is connected to a rock formation in the area while others connect it to the Cresswell name of England because it sounds similar. The fact that watercress grew by the well (the place in the brook or lake where the villagers got their water) seemed to identify the name as having a fixed description. However, searching the early names of the Border Reivers, it became apparent to me that one of the largest and most fearless families or clans in the area were in fact the Kerr families. Since the head of the family owned a lot of the land, it is only natural that the name Kerr is attached to a lot of the area but to link the name Carswell to it was difficult until I learned that the name Kerr, which appeared often in early formal proclamations was written as both Kerr, Ker, Carr and Car....hence the 'well' or local water source became known as Kerr's Well or as the surname evolved, Car's Well....hence Carswell. The name would also appear in time as Kerswell, Carswal, Corsewal, Caswell, Kraswell and numerous other names as it evolved. My Y-DNA brothers prove the point as they turn out to be lots of variations established over time as McCartey, Carson, McReynolds, Gentle, and others. You can see the reference to CAR in the first two and the MC connection which is a local Scottish term meaning "son of." The third name identifies the son of Reynold and the last, a personal characteristic or a reference to a status of being a gentleman. All share the same Y-DNA. Other genealogists in the extended family will still disagree with me as they have their own idea of origins but none of us can be absolutely sure as none of us were around back then so one guess based on reliable research is a good as another. Both are still subject to being questioned.
 
My London roots contain names like Friend (the son of someone's Friend) , Skinner (one who skins animals or works with animal skins), and my English, previous Finnish Swedish name of Degerlund identifies a location name. Family records back to the 1600s in Finland indicate an origin from the area of Norr Degergard so those that moved to Bromarv in Finland lost the continuing changing name from being the son of someone to a fixed name as being from a fixed place outside of Bromarv which identified them as Gustaf from Deger land or Degerlund as in the spoken Swedish tongue of the area.
 
Catholic families have constant reference to the Saints or other religious items, people or places. This is particularly common in countries that are totally dominated by a connection to the Catholic Church. They usually are the early Catholic countries of the poor countries where the catholic missionaries set up as the local church and administer of all things Catholic, beliefs, rites, fear and so on. Only time and education has brought many Catholics around to think more internationally about the world and feel less controlled by their religion, even though they continue to maintain deep connections to it. Regardless, a name is a name and it identifies each of us as being different from each other of us. Although some names are more common than others like Smith (a common profession at the time of surname establishment) or Jones (an evolution from John as in John's meaning son of John), each goes to identify a person. When common names became a problem the method of further identification occurred by the addition of middle names to identify family lineage. For example, Spanish people will often have a great many middle names especially since their family surname follows the maternal line rather than the paternal line like in most other countries. Scottish naming patterns began as a sign of respect for the parents. The first son was named after the father's father and the first daughter after the mother's mother. The second son was named after the mother's father and the second daughter after the father's mother. Other children were named in fixed patterns and often a dead child's name was repeated out of a sign of respect for that lost child. In large families as usually occurred in the days before wide use of contraception, it was easy to use fixed naming patterns and not leave anyone out. Today, that is more difficult.