Docklands Ancestors Ltd

General information

In 2001 we began the mammoth task of transcribing London's parish registers. This was because of the poor coverage given to the East End by the IGI and our frustration at the lack of records available online. Having spent almost 6 months travelling to the London Metropolitan Archives researching our family history, we thought there had to be a better way of accessing parish register archives.

Our efforts thus far have seen much of Tower Hamlets registers transcribed and a few from Southwark too. These records are available for you to search in two different formats: Online database search and CD-ROMs.

ONLINE PARISH REGISTER SEARCHING

Search online allows you to search for your ancestors in each individual parish. It is free to search and you have the option of searching by surname only or with a forename. You will then be presented with a list of all the matches within the database. You then have the option of viewing the detailed entries, which are instantly displayed on screen and also automatically emailed to you. This costs £3.50 per database (£3.95 for Merchant Taylor's searches).

Our databases contain entry-by-entry detailed transcriptions, recording ALL of the information found in the original registers and not just scanned images. Click here to view a typical entry.

Parish Registers on CD-ROM are also available for each parish. They are in easily searchable Adobe Acrobat format and indexed alphabetically. The years given on the CDs do not run from 1st January to 31st December, so if you want the exact start and finish dates for any specific CD then please enquire. If you are searching for many names or variations, they represent excellent value for money, priced at just £7.95 or £8.95. Be sure to have a look at our Special Offer CDs which offer even better value for money.

THAMES WATERMEN & LIGHTERMEN

If you have ancestors who worked on the river Thames as watermen or Lightermen, you have come to the right place! We have waterman ancestors too and as a result of researching our family history we have assembled an unrivalled collection of material. Most of this material is available for you to enjoy, completely free of charge. Naturally we also stock every published source of waterman material (indeed James transcribed half of them!).

The Waterman & Lighterman page hosts a wealth of interesting and useful material: Book extracts, a Picture Gallery, interviews with Lightermen, free databases, useful links, articles as well as sections on the history of the Company of Watermen and advice on how to trace your waterman family history.

We actively encourage our visitors to contribute articles and images, helping us to preserve and disseminate our proud waterman heritage.

Waterman publications can be found in our Shop by clicking here. The recommended starting point in tracing your ancestors is the Apprenticeship Bindings Indexes 1692-1908, transcribed by our friend and colleague Rob Cottrell, and also the book written by this site's James Legon, My Ancestors were Thames Watermen.

Waterman Hoy!