Tuesday, 23rd February 2010
CHARLES DICKENS' marriage records* and details of William Blake's mysterious burial** are among the blasts from the past now available online as part of a new genealogy service called the London Collection.
Altogether, the London Collection has brought together over a million baptism, marriage and burial records, some dating from 1538.
"We now have a vast array of records documenting Londoners’ baptisms, marriages and burials from in and around the capital," said Debra Chatfield of findmypast.co.uk, which compiled the collection.
"The fact that the records include some famous names from history makes it even more intriguing."
There are also some bonus bits of social history, including a list of people involved in the famous Matchworkers' Strike of 1888, an event that highlighted the criminal working conditions suffered by many Londoners in the late Victorian era.
* Charles Dickens married Catherine Hogarth in Chelsea in 1836, as found in the West Middlesex Marriage Index.
** William Blake was buried at Bunhill Field, reports the City of London Burial Index. The exact location of the Jerusalem poet's grave has been unknown since 1965. To this day it is marked by a stone 20 metres from the actual burial spot.
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