Name Search Help

Most names which include both a surname and forename in London Lives have been tagged, and can be searched for using this form. Depending on how much information you possess you can widen or narrow your searches using this search facility.

To allow for variant spellings or transcription errors, you can use metaphone searching, or the Keyword Search page, which allows wildcard and phrase searches.

Metaphone

To widen your name search, choose Metaphone searching from the drop down menu. You can make this choice separately for surnames and forenames. Selecting Metaphone searching widens your search to include names which sound like, but are not spelled the same as, the name you typed in the search box. This facility has been created using a Double Metaphone phonetic algorithm. Essentially Double Metaphone breaks up an individual name/word into two different versions of its component consonant sounds, and groups them into sound families. In a metaphone search, names with either a ch or sh in the same position in an otherwise similar name will both be returned regardless of how you spell the initial search term. The version of metaphone used here has been modified to reflect eighteenth-century transcription practices and the very different ways that names are spelled in comparison to other types of vocabulary.

Surnames

In the case of Surnames, the metaphone matching facility excludes the initial letter of each name from its phonetic analysis. This was done on the grounds that the first letter of most name instances is the letter which is most consistently transcribed. We have also excluded consideration of the final two letters of any name where these include the letter s. Substantial testing of the system illustrated that the greatest spelling variance occurred at this location in names of this sort.

Forenames

The metaphone matching on forenames has been implemented in a different way. Tables of forename equivalents have been developed, grouping names such as Liz, Betty, and Eliza, with a full version of the relevant name. In this case Elizabeth. Searching for Elizabeth or any of its many variants should return all relevant results. In addition a metaphone search of forenames also implements a search for names that sound like the search term. As with metaphone surname searches, the initial letter and final s have been excluded.

See Implement Phonetic ("Sounds-like") Name Searches with Double Metaphone for a technical description of the workings of the unmodified algorithm, and About this Project for its implementation on this site.

Search In Document Type

This allows you to specify which Document Type you wish to search. By narrowing your search in this way, you can significantly increase the relevance of the results. The default setting is Any. This will allow you to search the full text of every document and dataset included in the London Lives site.

Document Types

The following choices are available. Follow the two letter code link to the right for a detailed description of each Document Type or Additional Dataset. The parish records are listed first, followed by criminal records, Coroners' Inquests, and documents from the Carpenter's Company and St Thomas's Hospital. The Additional Datasets are listed last.

• St Botolph Aldgate > Account Books (AC)
• St Botolph Aldgate > Apprenticeship Records (IA)
• St Botolph Aldgate > Lists of Paupers (LP)
• St Botolph Aldgate > Miscellaneous Account Books (AO)
• St Botolph Aldgate > Misc. Parish Minute Books (MO)
• St Botolph Aldgate > Pauper Examinations (EP)
• St Botolph Aldgate > Payments to Paupers (AP)
• St Botolph Aldgate > Registers of Pauper Apprentices (RA)
• St Botolph Aldgate > Registers of Poor Children (RC)
• St Botolph Aldgate > Vestry Minutes (MV)
• St Botolph Aldgate > Workhouse Admissions Registers (RW)
• St Clement Danes > Clothing and Nursing Books (BN)
• St Clement Danes > Clothing Books (BC)
• St Clement Danes > Enfield Books (BE)
• St Clement Danes > Lists of Paupers (LP)
• St Clement Danes > Lists of Persons in the Workhouse (LW)
• St Clement Danes > Miscellaneous Account Books (AO)
• St Clement Danes > Miscellaneous Papers (PM)
• St Clement Danes > Misc. Parish Minute Books (MO)
• St Clement Danes > Overseers Orders Book (OO)
• St Clement Danes > Parish Apprenticeship Records (PA)
• St Clement Danes > Pauper Examinations (EP)
• St Clement Danes > Pauper Removal Orders (RV)
• St Clement Danes > Payments to Paupers (AP)
• St Clement Danes > Registers of Bastard Children (RR)
• St Clement Danes > Registers of Exams (RD)
• St Clement Danes > Registers of Poor Children (RC)
• St Clement Danes > Registers of the Poor (RP)
• St Clement Danes > Vestry Minutes (MV)
• St Dionis Backchurch > Account Books (AC)
• St Dionis Backchurch > Bastardy Bonds (WB)
• St Dionis Backchurch > Churchwardens' Voucher/Receipts (PP)
• St Dionis Backchurch > Clothing Books (BC)
• St Dionis Backchurch > Letters Seeking Pauper Relief (PR)
• St Dionis Backchurch > Miscellaneous Papers (PM)
• St Dionis Backchurch > Miscellaneous Parish Minute Books (MO)
• St Dionis Backchurch > Register of Poor Infants (RI)
• St Dionis Backchurch > Vestry Minutes (MV)
• St Dionis Backchurch > Workhouse Inquest Minute Books (IW)
• Bridewell Royal Hospital > Apprentice Records (IA)
• Bridewell Royal Hospital > Prison Committee Minute Books (MB)
• Bridewell Royal Hospital > Minutes of the Court of Governors (MG)
• Bridewell Royal Hospital > Miscellaneous Papers (PM)
• Bridewell Royal Hospital > Registers of Pauper Apprentices (RA)
• Home Office > Criminal Registers (CR)
• Old Bailey Proceedings > Accounts of Criminal Trials (OBP)
• Old Bailey Sessions > Sessions Papers (PS)
• Ordinary's Accounts > Biographies of Executed Convicts (OA)
• City of London Sessions > Sessions Papers (PS)
• Middlesex Sessions > Orders of the Court (GO)
• Middlesex Sessions > Sessions Papers (PS)
• Westminster Sessions > Sessions Papers (PS)
• City of London Coroners > Coroners' Inquests (IC)
• Middlesex Coroners > Coroners' Inquests (IC)
• City of Westminster Coroners > Coroners' Inquests (IC)
• Carpenters' Company > Court/Committee Minute Books (MC)
• St Thomas's Hospital > Court/Committee Minute Books (MC)
• St Thomas's Hospital > Hospital Admissions Registers (RH)
• St Thomas's Hospital > Lists of Governor Takers-In (LT)
• St Thomas's Hospital > Minutes of the Court of Governors (MG)
• St Thomas's Hospital > Out Letter Books (LB)
• Additional Datasets > 4 Shillings in the £ Tax, 1693-94 (FSP)
• Additional Datasets > Aldgate Marriage Duty Tax, 1695 (MDA)
• Additional Datasets > Aldgate Parish Registers, 1681-1709 (PAR)
• Additional Datasets > Aldgate Poll Tax, 1690-98 (POL)
• Additional Datasets > Fire Insurance Registers, 1777-86 (FIR)
• Additional Datasets > Income Tax Payments 1799-1802 (ITP)
• Additional Datasets > London/Westminster Directory, 1774 (DIR)
• Additional Datasets > Marine Society Boys, 1770-1804 (MAR)
• Additional Datasets > Old Bailey Associated Records (ASS)
• Additional Datasets > PCC Abstracts of Wills (PCC)
• Additional Datasets > St Luke's Workhouse Registers (WHR)
• Additional Datasets > St Martin's Settlement Exams, 1725-93 (SET)
• Additional Datasets > St Martins Workhouse Registers, 1725-1819 (SWR)
• Additional Datasets > Salaries Paid to East India Clerks, 1760-1820 (EIC)
• Additional Datasets > Westminster Pollbooks, 1749-1820 (WHD)
• Additional Datasets > Westminster Ratebooks, 1749-1820 (WHD)

See About this Project for a description of the rationale for the choice of sources, and the methodology used in developing London Lives.

Date (From Month/Year; To Month/Year)

By filling in the From and To date boxes you can specify the period you wish to search. A date has been assigned to each manuscript page or other data division (in the case of most Additional Datasets, a single record). For manuscripts these dates have been derived from the first date to appear on any given page, or else, if no date is given, the closest date available in the text preceding the page displayed. Since some documents are undated, in some cases this date can refer to the document that precedes it. These details should therefore be checked against a close reading of the document itself. Where no date can be found, the earliest date given in the metadata for the document has been used. In the case of the Old Bailey Proceedings, the dates of all trials are recorded as the first day of the Sessions in which the trial took place, although most meetings of the court lasted several days.

Please note that until September 1752 England and Wales still used the old style, Julian calendar. As a result, the documents produced prior to that date, and reproduced here, were between 10 and 11 days out of kilter with the Gregorian calendar used on the continent and adopted in England and Wales at mid century. Under the Julian Calendar the start of the year was also 25 March rather than 1 January. For many documents, such as the Old Bailey Proceedings (OBP) and the Ordinary's Accounts (OA), dates effected have been consistently transformed to reflect a 1 January start of the year throughout. But different practices were adopted by the various projects contributing to the Additional Datasets. Different tagging levels have also been applied to the main run of transcribed manuscripts, resulting in some variability in the application of a consistent recording of dates from January, February and March, prior to 1752. Early eighteenth-century practice was also variable, with many clerks adopting a 1 January start to the year prior to 1752. When using materials from the first half of the century, users should check carefully whether the dates they are recording have been transposed to start the year on 1 January.

If you enter start and end years only, or the same year in both boxes, this will be taken to mean from January to December inclusive.