School Admissions and Discharges

[Carla]

I use Ancestry.co.uk and it has an interesting section where you can search London school admissions 1840 - 1911. I managed to find a few of my ancestors, including my grandfather's admission to the Knapp Road School in Tower Hamlets at the age of 3. Who ever filled in his details at the school put the 14th December instead of the 14th October....unless my g grandparents lied about his dob? It's definitely him as the address and parental details are correct. I must admit i was surprised at the mixed ages of the children, but school classes were different all those years ago.

 

[Jacqueline]

I use Ancestry.co.uk and it has an interesting section where you can search London school admissions 1840 - 1911. I managed to find a few of my ancestors, including my grandfather's admission to the Knapp Road School in Tower Hamlets at the age of 3. Who ever filled in his details at the school put the 14th December instead of the 14th October....unless my g grandparents lied about his dob? It's definitely him as the address and parental details are correct. I must admit i was surprised at the mixed ages of the children, but school classes were different all those years ago.

Hi Carla,
this section on Ancestry made the tiniest dent in one of my most distressing brick walls by giving me the date of birth and mose importantly the year of birth of my gt grandfather. My grandmother told me his birthday but had no idea of the year. He seems to have appeared ready made aged 8 living with his grandparents. He was registered at school by his grandfather, whose date of birth is two days earlier than that told me by my grandmother, his daughter. Now I'm a grandmother myself, I know I'd trust his daughter's memory of his birthday rather than his grandfather's. I suspect parents especially fathers (am I being sexist here, I wonder?) with many children, could get a bit confused about the actual date, especially if they were not very literate.

 

[AnneC]

For details of pupils etc at Bow Creek School in London this site is very interesting - includes maps, photos and transcriptions of the entry registers. This site was developed by Eileen Weston and Geoff Matthews. Geoff was a cousin of my husband's, a fellow researcher who sadly passed away in 2007. His websites are still kept going as a tribute to his work. It was partly through Geoff that I first became interested in researching our family history.