LMA records

[A Lee]

If I ask the LMA to check admission records for a particular school, does anyone have any idea what information this would provide?

I know my relative was a pupil at a certain school and I want to know his exact address at the time he joined. Would this have been recorded?

[Pam Downes]

I don't want to put you off asking LMA, but do you realise that if you want them to look at any actual records it will cost you a minimum of £35?
http://tinyurl.com/g5edd
third paragraph of first section, then 'what does it cost?'
http://tinyurl.com/4md73
Might as well get a cheap day return and do a load of other research at FRC, SoG, Guildhall Library etc at the same time.
http://www.sog.org.uk/images/camden_and_islington.pdf
Pam

[Colin Moretti]

If I ask the LMA to check admission records for a particular school, does anyone have any idea what information this would provide?

I know my relative was a pupil at a certain school and I want to know his exact address at the time he joined. Would this have been recorded?
Have you checked that the school records survive? SoG have published a very useful, if slighly depressing, An Index of London Schools and their Records, edited by Cliff Webb. Depressing because the proportion of records that have survived seems to be very small, at least for the schools and periods that I'm interested in (1910 - 1930).

Colin

[A Lee]

Pam, thanks for the advice and the map.:)
I am aware of the cost - in fact I've only just asked them to check something else - which is why I want to be sure that it will be useful.

A trip to London at the moment is impossible. I'm doing this research with my mum - I'm doing most of it, she's paying for anything necessary - but my parents are busy and mum doesn't travel too well so would want to take a longer trip, which would then involve accomodation costs. I have a 6-week old baby and a 3-year old....!

Therefore I'm really stuck with getting other people to check tangible records.

Unless you've any other suggestions!

[A Lee]

Colin, there are admission records for the school I'm looking at available from LMA. I have no idea how extensive this would be though. Thanks.:)

[Pam Downes]

Unless you've any other suggestions!Have you got another line you can research for a year or so? :D
The only really helpful thing I can come up with is that unless the address is a really major stumbling block in getting further back, wait until you've got several bits that need research at the LMA, and then lump them all together. e.g. I would have thought that the school record search should take half an hour max (including licking the envelope!) in which case there's half an hour left for them to check something else. Baptisms? Burials?
Handy hint for searching for church records in big cities - check out the ecclesiastical parish at the top of the census page. Might not be the right one (especially if they were non-conformists) but it's as good a starting point as any.
I have a fiche of a school admission register - not sure of the years - will have a look later to see if any addresses are given.
Pam

[Pam Downes]

Have you checked that the school records survive? SoG have published a very useful, if slighly depressing, An Index of London Schools and their Records, edited by Cliff Webb. Depressing because the proportion of records that have survived seems to be very small, at least for the schools and periods that I'm interested in (1910 - 1930).

ColinHi Colin,
Does the book tell you what sort of info you might find in the registers, e.g. addresses, parents' names?
Pam

[A Lee]

Thanks for that Pam.

My problem is I'm trying to solve a bit of a family mystery in the 1920's. Therefore some records aren't even available as yet.
My grandfather died 2 years ago and since then we seem to be unearthing a bit of a scandal - although we're not exactly sure what yet. (See my other postings). Aside from the fact he was illegitimate and are trying to find the father, there are other things that don't quite add up with what we were always led to believe. The only distant relative we know of who is still around who knows something won't talk unless we know the information first - great help!!! I'm therefore trying to build up as big a picture as possible of the social circumstances of the time, any lost family members etc etc etc and hopeful I might unravel something.

I will follow your advice about asking the LMA for more than one thing, thanks.:)

[Colin Moretti]

Hi Colin,
Does the book tell you what sort of info you might find in the registers, e.g. addresses, parents' names?
Pam
Hello Pam

I think that it depends on the period.

There are two main sorts of document, Admission and Discharge Registers and School Log Books plus "miscellaneous". To quote the introduction to the book:

... the Elementary School Code, 1903 laid down that all schools should have (a) registers of admissions, progress and withdrawal (b) attendance registers and (c) a register of summaries....
... Each entry had to contain an individual reference number, date of admission, full name, name and address of parent or guardian, whether exemption from religious education was claimed, date of birth, last school attended prior to this one, date of leaving school....
Log books

... Considerable details are given of the comings and goings, shortcomings and illnesses of staff. Rather less appears on individual pupils , though very informative items do occur...

cont...

[Colin Moretti]

... cont

Individual entries in the book give the name of the school and its address, date of opening and closing, changes of name and, where relevant, the LMA call number for the school. Records that have survived and their dates are given. Here's a fairly typical entry:

Approach Road School, Bethnal Green, E2 (Wesleyan) Opened 1869 (LMA: EO/DIV 5/APP)
A&D 1890-1927 (infants); 1906-27 (mixed)
LB 1869-1927 (mixed); 1869-1927 (infants)
Some schools seem to have no records surviving at all, others have much more extensive material than the example above. Under misc, for example, there are things like punishment books, staff, visitors, schoolkeepers diaries and minute books.

Some records are not at LMA but at the relevant local studies library.

Colin

[Pam Downes]

Several days later than planned........
Firstly, Colin, many thanks for the info regarding the details which should/might be found in the various school books.

My fiche of a school admission register might not be too helpful because the dates are a lot earlier than I'd thought - 1815 -1855, i.e. not anywhere near 1900.
Details are usually admission date, name, son/daughter of, father's name, address, occupation of father. Occasionally there are other snippets such as leaving date, or 'removed from school because his mother said he never learnt anything'. :)

(What's almost spooky is that a lot of the names in the admissions registers are the same names that I'm transcribing for Boston Stump marriages 10-20 years later.)
Pam

[Colin Moretti]

Some records are much earlier than that, Pam. Opening the book at random, I find that for St Andrew's Parochial School, Hatton Garden (for example) has records dating back to 1726, including A&D from 1799! (Not all survive since then, lots of gaps). Not all schools are as well served.

Colin