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500 Years of London History to Launch Online - 77 Million Names Posted 04 September 2008 By Jeri Brown, on behalf of Ancestry Ancestry™ chosen to host City of London’s historical ‘London records’- largest collection in existence The most comprehensive collection of historical London records, covering 500 years of the city’s history, is to be made available online for the first time. Following a lengthy tendering process, Ancestry has secured the exclusive online rights to digitize and host key records from London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) and Guildhall Library Manuscripts. LMA’s historical record collection, which is owned and managed by the City of London, is considered to be of international importance, particularly given London’s prominence at the centre of the British Empire for almost 300 years from the mid-1700s. As the City of London’s official partner, Ancestry, which has a global network of nine family history websites, will be responsible for providing access to The LMA Collection. Original record images and more than 77 million names searchable using key information such as name, date and place, will be available on Ancestry.ca, Canada’s No.1 family and social history website. Dating from the early 16th Century through to 2006, the collection details the lives of both princes and paupers. Included are parish records, school records, electoral registers, wills, lists of workhouse labourers from the Poor Law ledgers and a comprehensive list of those granted ‘Freedom of the City’ . Ancestry.ca spokesperson Karen Peterson comments: “This collection is particularly exciting for the family history research industry because it breaks what we call the ‘1837 barrier’, which is the year official record keeping began.” “Again, advances in technology will enable so many people, who previously were not able to physically find and search through these rare records, the ability to do so with ease.” The collection will take several years to index and image. Until now, those wishing to view records have had to visit LMA or the Guildhall Library, both based in Central London. Online access to LMA records has long been anticipated by family history enthusiasts around the world: it will allow millions of people with ancestors who lived in or passed through London at some point in time to trace their roots, whether it be to the City’s slums or its more affluent boroughs. The first records will launch on Ancestry.ca in early 2009, with the following prioritised for launch in the coming year:
The records will be available to Ancestry’s World Deluxe Members. Many Canadian genealogical societies and local libraries will also have access to the records through their organisational membership. ABOUT ANCESTRY.CA Ancestry.ca was launched in January 2006 and has 400 million Canadian names in such collections as the 1851, 1901, 1906, 1911 and 1921 Censuses of Canada, Ontario and British Columbia Vital Records from as early as 1813, The Drouin Collection, 1621-1957 and U.S. / Canada Border Crossings from 1895 to 1956. Ancestry.ca is part of the global network of Ancestry websites (wholly owned by The Generations Network Inc), which contains seven billion names in 26,000 historical record collections. To date more than 6.5 million family trees have been created and 650 million names and 10 million photographs uploaded. 6.5 million unique visitors logged on to an Ancestry website in June 2008. The Ancestry global network of family history websites: www.ancestry.ca in Canada, www.ancestry.co.uk in the UK, www.ancestry.com.au in Australia, www.ancestry.com in the US, www.ancestry.de in Germany, www.ancestry.it in Italy, www.ancestry.fr in France, www.ancestry.se in Sweden and www.jiapu.cn in China. ABOUT LONDON METROPOLITAN ARCHIVES London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) is the largest local authority record office in the United Kingdom. It manages and provides public access to 80KM of archives, photographs, plans, audio-visual and printed material dating from 1067 to the present day - an enormous amount of information about the capital and its people. LMA is the premier destination for family historians tracing their roots in the London area and for learning about any aspect of the capital’s past. ABOUT GUILDHALL LIBRARY The Manuscripts Section of Guildhall Library is the local record office for the City of London (the "Square Mile"). Its holdings date from the 11th Century and include the archives of the Diocese of London, St Paul's Cathedral, the City wards and parishes, and around 80 of the City livery companies. Jeri Brown, on behalf of Ancestry More United Kingdom Genealogy & History Resources from Global Genealogy:
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