. . . to ParishRegister.com, the Family History Web Site of Docklands Ancestors Ltd. for those tracing their Docklands, East End and Thames Watermen & Lightermen Ancestors.
James William Legon
8th July 1961
to
17th September 2008
James Legon, the founder of Docklands Ancestors and ParishRegister.com sustained a serious heart attack this year and on the morning of 17th September 2008 sadly passed away.
Docklands Ancestors and ParishRegister.com are James' legacy. Starting from nothing, James put together a body of work encompassing both Tower Hamlets Parish Registers and Company of Watermen & Lightermen records. The work is an immensely valuable historical resource, and the family are very proud of his achievements.
The information on this website, together with James' book ‘My Ancestors were Thames Watermen', stand as a testament to James' research and knowledge in this area. He was very proud of having written the book and of it being published.
The Legon family and the ParishRegister.com 'Team' are determined to ensure that James' legacy lives on. Jonathan, James' (middle) brother, agreed with James prior to his passing that he would help keep things going by becoming Managing Director of the company.
In accordance with James' wishes, business will continue under the leadership of his brother, Jonathan, together with the hard work of James' wife Yvonne, and the help of the Parish Register Team.
This
website is run by family historians for family historians. We specialize
in transcribing London's parish registers and our aim is to transcribe
them all. Our other passion is the river Thames, London's Docks and in
particular the Company of Watermen and Lightermen. We have collected much
of interest, to inform and delight, on these pages. We hope you enjoy
them!
THE
DOCKLANDS ANCESTORS PARISH REGISTER TRANSCRIPTION PROJECT
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 £3.25 per database.
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. If
you are searching for many names or variations, they represent excellent
value for money, priced at just £7.95. 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.
Browse our Shop pages for products to enhance your family history research. Books, maps, census and directory CDs all help to put the ‘flesh on the bones’ of your research. We specialize in products with a distinctly London flavour, as well as being the leading publisher of original Parish Register and Waterman material.
We are specialist suppliers of books about London and family history. In our Bookshop you will find over 500 titles in categories such as the East End, London History, the River Thames, Docklands, London Transport, Watermen & Lightermen, London Fiction, London Guide Books and London in Archive Photography. Please click here to browse our bookshop.
All our products are usually ‘in stock’ items and we aim to despatch orders ‘same day’. Whether you choose to pay securely online with WorldPay or by popping a cheque in the post, rest assured that you can order in complete confidence.
We stock publications from leading UK publishers, including Archive CD Books, Alan Godfrey Maps, London Topographical Society, and Robert Cottrell Publications (Trueflare Ltd).
Whatever
your interest, from original parish register transcriptions to Census
records, Docklands & River Thames history, Thames Watermen & Lightermen,
military & occupational records, you are sure to find much of interest. Secure online payment facilities are available, as
well as mail order.
We are
constantly updating the information on our website, and adding thousands
of new records to our existing and new databases. To allow you to keep
up with the latest news we work hard to produce a Newsletter, which we
try to make as informative, useful, interesting, and sometimes amusing
(so we are told by some of our readers!) as possible. We also review the
latest family history titles from leading publishers. Look out too for
our special offers, many of which are exclusive to our Newsletter subscribers.
To receive your free ParishRegister.com Newsletter please enter your email
address below, and then simply fill out the very small, simple form on
the next page. Rest assured that we never pass on your email address to
other companies. We send out one Newsletter per month. Remember to notify
us if you change your email address!
Please rest assured that ParishRegister.com and Docklands Ancestors Ltd.
will NEVER pass your details onto any third party and by 'subscribing' you
are giving permission SOLELY to ParishRegister.com and Docklands Ancestors
Ltd. to contact you using the details provided.
