London has acted like a magnet for generations of our ancestors. It's very rare to find a family that doesn't have some sort of link to the city. Our partnership with London Metropolitan Archives lets us provide you with a wealth of key records to trace your family's capital connection.
Build a picture of your ancestors' lives with our parish registers. Then add more detail with our further London records, before filling in the colour with our exclusive timeline.
Most crucial of all our London records are parish registers — records of births, marriages and deaths that allow you to move through the generations all the way back before the Great Fire. As soon as you go beyond censuses and birth, marriage and death indexes, these records become your most crucial resource.
After 1813, baptism registers usually tell you the date, the child and both their parents' names, plus the father's occupation and address.
Search nowDiscover your forebears' names, addresses and ages when they passed away — then use this information to work backwards and uncover their births.
Search nowThese are almost complete lists of London's newlyweds, as from 1754 everyone in England and Wales except Quakers and Jews had to get married in an Anglican church.
Search nowTrace your family as far back as the Great Plague with over 7 million records — some of which are among the oldest on our site.
Search nowIf you can't find your forebears in our parish registers, perhaps they weren't Anglicans? See if you can spot them in our non-conformist records.
Anyone who's interested in London's history will find answers to their questions among the 78km of records at London Metropolitan Archives.
The capital's premier record office lets you research the records of religious, public, business, local authority and other organisations dating from 1067 to the present day — and gain a fascinating insight into every aspect of London life.
Once you've found names and dates in our parish registers, discover the stories behind them in our other London records. Then see what else was happening in the region in our exclusive timeline.
Find out exactly where your family was living – often down to the street name – at a particular time. Then use this information to work out where you should be looking in censuses or parish records.
Delve into our political history and discover who your ancestors voted for, all over the country. The poll books in this collection may also reveal their addresses, occupations and the qualifications that allowed them to vote.
See if you can spot your missing ancestors among these transported convicts. For each criminal, you’ll discover their name, destination and the dates they travelled on. You’ll even find the name of the ship!
Find love in your family tree long before the start of civil registration. This collection includes more than 750,000 marriage allegations and bonds, revealing the bride and groom’s names, ages and home parishes, plus the parish where the marriage was planned.
These records of over a million students from 843 different schools offer a rare opportunity to discover your ancestors as children. Do your homework properly, and you’ll find their birth dates, when they started school and their parents' names and occupations.
Our electoral registers reveal over 150 million names and addresses all over the old counties of London and Middlesex. Because they were taken every 12 months, they let you pinpoint your ancestors’ movements in-between the census years, and well into the 20th century.
We also have several London collections that aren't part of our partnership with the LMA, including city directories, marriage licenses and much more.
Anyone who's interested in London's history will find answers to their questions among the 78km of records at London Metropolitan Archives.
The capital's premier record office lets you research the records of religious, public, business, local authority and other organisations dating from 1067 to the present day – and gain a fascinating insight into every aspect of London life.
Once you've discovered your family's stories in our parish records and other records, put them in the context of London's wider history with our timeline.
Few people around the world have seen as much change as London's families. Find out how your ancestors coped with famous events like the Great Fire, Plague epidemic and Jack the Ripper murders by following these simple steps:
Follow your ancestors' lives in our new parish records, and use your family tree to keep track of their birth, marriage and death dates.
Read the timeline below to see what events affected your forebears' lives. Perhaps members of your family helped to build Buckingham Palace in 1703 or took the first train into Euston Station in 1837.
Our timeline may suggest good next steps for your research. Mass migration would point you towards passenger lists; warfare would suggest military records; while changes in working habits might have you looking in occupation records.
Follow your family's fortunes in an ever-changing capital city
Anyone who's interested in London's history will find answers to their questions among the 78km of records at London Metropolitan Archives.
The capital's premier record office lets you research the records of religious, public, business, local authority and other organisations dating from 1067 to the present day — and gain a fascinating insight into every aspect of London life.
Get more help with using parish records.
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