London Archives and Libraries

Several archives and libraries in London have material for family history. Some are mentioned in the England Archives and Libraries article and won't be repeated here.

Metropolitan City Archives

London Family History Centre 64-68 Exhibition Road London, England SW7 2PA 020-7589-8561 Web site http://www.londonfhc.org

The London Family History Centre is one of the 13 Regional Family History Centres of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes referred to as the Mormon Church). There are more than 4500 Family History Centres around the world with over 100 in the U.K., but the 13 Regional Centres are larger and have more resources on site. The London Family History Centre has an onsite collection of about 60,000 microfilms from the Salt Lake Family History Library collection and these are primarily records of the U.K., Ireland, and locations where the British were, e.g. The Caribbean. This collection is expanding regularly. Microfilms not in the onsight collection can be ordered from the Family History Library Catalog on http://www.familysearch.org for a relatively small charge. The Centre also has 25 computers for patron use with websites such as FamilySearch, the 1911 Census for England and Wales, FreeBMD, GENUKI, and subscriptions to Ancestry, The National Archives, FindMyPast, amongst others. Running on the internal server and available on each of its computers are databases which include but are not resticted to, the British Vital Records Index - 2nd Edition, the 1881 British Census, the 1881 Canadian Census, the 1880 U.S. Census, the Scottish Church Records database (10 million names indexed from parish registers before Civil Registration started in Scotland), the Mormon Immigration Index and the Pedigree Resource File.

The Family History Centre provides a series of free Family History talks on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2 PM with the schedule posted on the website under Events. The Centre is open to the public and no appointment is needed. There are no charges, except for printing and ordering microfilms. The Centre is directly across the street from the Science Museum and Imperial College. See the website for their opening hours, their catalogue of resources, the schedule of events and talks, a map showing the location and the nearest tube station (South Kensington) along with the nearest bus stops. You can also view a list of the other Family History Centres in the U.K..