Name of School in London, England in 1901'02

[Lois in Canada]

Hi,
I just discovered on Ancestry, the School Registration Records for my two grand aunts and one grand uncle. However the individual record for each, has been indexed twice. One index shows that the school was called Midway Place School and the other shows the school as Mina Road School. They lived at 19 Rollins Street, Southwark Borough, London. Can anyone tell me which of these two schools would have been closest to Rollins Street? An address for the school closest to Rollins Street would be great to have.

[Kerrywood]

Hi Lois, and welcome to the forums!

Ancestry's labelling of records in the schools database can't be relied on.

If you could give us the names of the people you're looking at, and the years, we might be able to help further. The references could then be checked against the online archives catalogue, with the hope of identifying the right school.

In terms of sheer mileage, I would say that Midway Place School (in Bush Road, off Rotherhithe New Road) was nearer, but it would be better to check it out properly.

[pattenwalsh]

Google maps makes it 1.8 miles from Rollins St to Mina Road.Midway Place school was in Bush Rd which is 1 mile away on google maps!,so none the wiser really

[Chris Doran]

I was one of the volunteers who keyed this under Ancestry's World Archives Project. School names weren't one of the things we (or at least I) got to see or key, so they probably got entered by Ancestry's staff when the whole thing was assembled. Some of the pages were jumbled! I suggest you report the problem to Ancestry. But as Kerrywood says, give us some details so that we can have a look.

Sadly, though all my ancestors must have gone to London schools, I haven't been able to find a single one of them yet.

[Lois in Canada]

It was wonderful to receive the three replies so quickly! My three relatives are: Winifred Marguerite CARTER, born 14 Dec. 1895 -admitted to School on 18 Feb 1901, Francis John CARTER, born 31 March 1898, - admitted to School on 21 July 1802, and Elsie CARTER, born 2 Sept. 1899, admitted to School 2 Sept. 1903. Their father was Edward Bland CARTER. The family left for Canada, from Liverpool, on 24 Aug. 1905.

[Chris Doran]

OK. It applies to another person chosen at random from that book also. As I expect you've noticed, the two search results go to the same page in the book. I've posted a question on the board used by Ancestry's "WAP" keyers to ask if anyone knows where the school names came from, but it will do no harm if you ask Ancestry as well.

[Chris Doran]

With a little browsing around, I have found that the actual problem is that Mina Road School has 4 registers:-
(1) "Admission and Discharge Register" covering 1895-1904
(2) "Admission and Discharge Register for boys", 1892-1898
(3) "Admission and Discharge Register for girls", 1889-1904
(4) "Admission and Discharge Register for infants", 1898-1905

of which (1) is identical to the single register given for Midway Place School, and clearly there is an overlap of dates. I suspect therefore that it actually belongs to Midway only. As a spot check, I looked for Winifred in (3) and (4) around 18-Feb-1901, but didn't find her. So unless we hear otherwise from Ancestry, I'd assume they went to Midway Place.

I have reported the problem to Ancestry.

[Lois in Canada]

Thanks Chris for your great detective work. It is much appreciated.

[Ed McKie]

A little cautionary tale about these registers. I have always thought that back then folk were not sure about their birthdays. This is borne out by these registers. My father and his brothers all appear on these registers with an incorrect birthdate. I have all the BCs, so either my gran got it wrong every time she registered a birth, which is always feasible I suppose, or someone got it wrong when they enrolled at school. Either way you cant rely on these DOBs. still they make interesting browsing.

cheers..Ed

[Lois in Canada]

Ed, I'm not sure what this says about my Granddad or your Gram, but the records for my aunts and uncle had the correct dates of birth.