Birth in Clapham, Middlesex.

[shirtylady]

Happy New Year.

I have an ancestor who was born in Clapham, Middlesex around 1840.

As Clapham itself doesn't seem to be a Registration District, which District would this come under?

I have tried all the obvious ones, but Clapham just isn't mentioned. As the name I am researching is quite a common one, a search throws up lots of possible births in Middlesex, but there is no Clapham.

Can anyone help.

Regards,

Pam (Shirtylady)

[Jan1954]

Try Wandsworth (http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/REG/districts/wandsworth.html) ;)

(But it was in Surrey, not Middlesex)

[peter nicholl]

Hi Pam
Jan's right about Surrey, however, there is a Clapton, which at the time would have been on the Middlesex/Essex border. It's in the area of Hackney/Dalston/ Leyton. That rather famous London football team |bowdown| Leyton Orient started out as Clapton Orient.
Peter

[Jan1954]

Quite right, Peter. I have just had a look and Upper and Lower Clapton now sit in the present-day London E7 postal district. The registration district in this case would be Hackney.

I actually went to the football grounds last summer at Orient. They have a new stadium. :)

[shirtylady]

Hi Jan and Peter,

Thank you both very much for your suggestions. I have had a look at the Surrey registration districts and things seem to be a lot more promising. The Birth Registrations have thrown up one or two interesting possibilities.

Clapham and Hammersmith have shown up on various census returns so I will have to do a bit more digging. Possibly the geography thing wasn't a strong point - I know it isn't mine. Although I have definitely heard of Leyton Orient !!.

Thanks once again.

Regards,
Pam

[Thomasin]

.. fmp aren't too hot on Clapton and Clapham either. I've been researching a family where the father was born in Clapton, the mother in Berkhamsted, one child in Berkhamsted, two in Clapton, another in Hampstead and then three in Clapham. Needless to say, fmp transcribed all the Claptons as Clapham!

Thomasin

PS If Surrey is right, fine - if not, there are other Claphams in Bedfordshire and Sussex and Yorkshire!

[Annamarie]

I have a birth certificate for a GGrandmother b 1845 in Clapham registration district Wandsworth and Clapham Union, County of Surrey. However, siblilings baptised before 1840 in Clapham are listed under the Borough of Lambeth.

[Peter Goodey]

I have a birth certificate for a GGrandmother b 1845 in Clapham registration district Wandsworth and Clapham Union, County of Surrey. However, siblilings baptised before 1840 in Clapham are listed under the Borough of Lambeth.

But these are two completely different things. At that time, Clapham was indeed in the Wandsworth (or Wandsworth & Clapham) registration district. In those days the boundaries of registration districts mirrored those of the corresponding Poor Law Union (the officials were usually the same).

When the County of London was created in 1890, Clapham became administratively part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth. In 1965 another reorganisation meant that Clapham transferred to the London Borough of Lambeth.

The London Metropolitan Archives decided that they wanted some way to organise their catalogue geographically and decided on using the post-1965 London Boroughs. This a pretty arbitrary way to do it and isn't necessarily all that relevant to family historians.

For better or worse, in their wisdom or ignorance, Ancestry perpetuated LMA's cataloguing and showed parishes as part of the appropriate London Borough. It would probably have been better if they hadn't. For much of the period that family historians are interested in, there weren't any London (or Metropolitan) boroughs at all!

I'm not at all surprised that people are confused by all of this.