Have you found Dickens connections in your family tree?

As we celebrate the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens' birthday today, 7th February 2012, I am reminded of the period of his lifetime, 1812-1870, when my own ancestors were living in London and have been pondering how their own lives must have been during this period.  Did any of them brush up against this famous author, I wonder, or even provide inspiration for some of his characters?

I certainly have ancestors who had links to St George the Martyr, Southwark (shown opposite), often referred to as Little Dorrit's church because Dickens set several scenes from the novel Little Dorrit in the area around the church. (see my earlier post about the church and parish of St George the Martyr)

My own gg grandfather Edward Clifford, whom I wrote about in an earlier post, was baptised at St George the Martyr in 1799, along with his sister Charlotte.  Charlotte also went on to marry her husband John Rafter in 1824 in the same church.  These baptism and marriage records can be found either at the London Metropolitan Archives or online on Ancestry's specialist LMA parish register collection.

According to newspaper reports, I  also have various ancestors who seem to have been in and out of the debtors' prisons of south and east London, including the Marshalsea, where Charles' father, John and the rest of the family found themselves living for a period in 1824.  So did they met there I wonder?

In 1828 / 29, Dickens worked as a reporter for Doctors' Commons, in Knightrider Street.  Doctors Commons, also called the College of Civilians, was a group of lawyers practising civil law in London. It was also the home of the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts which had jurisdiction over marriage licences, divorces and registration of wills, until it was replaced by the Court of Probate Act in 1857.  The building was then demolished in 1867, and these days its original location is marked by a blue plaque, which can be found on the Faraday Building, on the north side of Queen Victoria Street.

My own ancestors, Charlotte and John Rafter, registered the death of her late father, Charles Clifford, for death duty purposes, in 1841, giving her address as 21 1/2 Lambeth Hill, Doctors Commons, London.  So this is another link between Dickens and my Clifford family.

I am still researching my own and my husband's London ancestors, looking for links to Charles Dickens, either in his writing or to places where he lived.  I'm pretty sure I have ancestors who lived not far from Dickens, and have been checking him  out on the censuses as follows:

Photograph of the author, c. 1850

• In 1841 Charles Dickens is found living at Devonshire Terrace, St Marylebone, Middlesex with his wife Catherine and their four eldest children: Charles, Mary, Catherine and Walter;
• In 1851, Charles is found living at 34, Keppel Street, Saint George Bloomsbury, Finsbury, Middlesex, with his widowed mother and siblings Alfred and Augustus;
• In 1861 Charles is found living at 3 Hanover Terrace, St Marylebone, Middlesex, with three of his children and his wife's sister, Georgina Hogarth who was his housekeeper.

I am now off to see how close my Londoners lived to these addresses - I must admit they all sound very familiar!  

Have you found any connections to Charles Dickens in your family tree?

Rosemary Morgan
London Roots Research

Review of 2011 and my Genealogy Goals for 2012

I've been a bit slow sorting out my New Year goals this year. I don't really have an excuse, except that I've been busy catching up on various genealogy bits and pieces, which I'd put to one side during November and December, while I worked on a non-genealogy work project (good for the bank balance!).


I also checked back to my Top 10 Genealogy Resolutions for 2011, and although not all of them have been achieved, I was pleased to see how many of them I did indeed achieve. The biggest one, for me, was definitely obtaining my PG Diploma in Genealogical Studies at the University of Strathclyde.  Although it was a huge amount of work, I found it a most satisfying experience. The PG Dip took up much of my energy in 2011 until August, but it is now serving me well in my genealogy client work.


Interestingly, I note that this time last year, I did not even mention "developing client work" as one of my resolutions, and I indeed I have not directly sought out these clients.  But "word of mouth" is a wonderful thing, and since completing my PG Dip, I've been lucky enough to have a continual source of client work on the go. This has lead me to rethink my goals for 2012, as I am really enjoying the research I am doing for others, either building their family trees from scratch, or helping them to break down their brick walls, especially in and around London.


So.......for 2012, my Genealogy goals are as follows:

1. Join at least one professional genealogy association such as APG and / or AGRA (since I started writing this list I've actually now joined APG so I've already achieved this one).
2. Blog more regularly. I have a long list of possible topics to write about, but don't seem to get around to completing them.  I am very aware that my latest blog post dates back to last September, which I am rather ashamed about.  My only excuse is my late summer holiday combined with taking on that non-genealogy work.
3. Attend all three days at WDYTYA Live - actually this is something that is already well on the way to being organised.  I am helping out on the SoG Ask an Expert Stand as well as the main SoG stand.  I have also offered to help my local family history society, the West Surrey Family History stand, so I may spend some time there as well. This brings me to my next goal, which is to:
4. Get more involved with my local family history society (WSFHS) and my local archives (Surrey History Centre). Sometimes genealogy work can be a lonely business and getting out of the house and sharing experiences with others, is good for the soul.
5. Make more regular visits to the London archives.  The archives which I am aiming to visit more regularly include London Metropolitan Archives, Society of Genealogists, Lambeth Archives, Southwark Archives, Westminster Archives, and of course The National Archives in Kew.
6. Write up my own and my husband's family histories - obviously the feasibility of achieving this will depend upon having some spare time to do this! But as I write up my own family history I am sure I will learn more aspects that will help me with future client work.
7. Explore the possibility of writing a family history related book.  I already have an idea for a book, about a particularly interesting character in my family, but I need to progress this by writing a plan, gaining approval from the rest of the family and exploring publication options.
8. Develop a London Roots Research website. This was one of the goals from 2011 that I didn't achieve last year, but that I would very much like tackle this year.
9. Continue to develop my client work in and around London, building family trees, finding new ways of presenting them, and helping others to break down their brick walls in and around London. I find I learn so much from each new client that I take on, and gain tremendous satisfaction from helping them.

Well that should keep me busy!  I doubt I will achieve all of them but I do find it useful to set them out as a start to the year ahead.

I wish all of my readers a very happy and healthy New Year and hope you enjoy sharing my progress along the way in 2012. 

Rosemary Morgan

London Roots Research