{"id":11709,"date":"2022-03-14T13:18:33","date_gmt":"2022-03-14T12:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com\/?p=10307"},"modified":"2022-03-14T13:31:19","modified_gmt":"2022-03-14T12:31:19","slug":"how-to-get-old-school-records-online-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/rss_feed\/how-to-get-old-school-records-online-in-the-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"How to get old school records online in the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Jonathan Scott\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 14 March 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

How to get old school records online in the UK<\/h1>\n
Throughout the 19th century, children in the UK slowly secured the right to an education. Schooling was made mandatory in England and Wales<\/a> in 1880 (for children aged 5 to 10) and in Scotland<\/a> in 1872 (for children aged 5 to 13). Prior to this schools were run by churches, charities and burghs. The Anglican National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor was established in 1811, and founded many schools over the following years that became known as National Schools. Conversely \u2018British Schools\u2019 were run by a nonconformist organisation formed in 1808 that promoted the Monitorial System, where older children helped teach younger children, while \u2018ragged schools\u2019 trace their history back to John Pounds, who in 1818 set up a free school for poor children.<\/p>\n

Read the full version of this article and much more expert family history advice in Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine<\/em> April 2022, on sale now<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/p><\/div> <\/section>
This means that survival of old school records depends on the specific school. Finding your ancestor in old school records provides a fascinating glimpse into their childhood and precious proof of where they were living between census records<\/a>. Fortunately, there are some surviving collections of old school records online for you to search.<\/p>\n
Old school records: The best websites<\/h2>\n
1. National School Admissions Registers & Log-Books 1870-1914<\/a><\/h3>\n
$\""Findmypast\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nSome of the most important old school records are logbooks and admission and discharge registers which, if they survive, tend to reside in local archives. Findmypast\u2019s centralised source for England and Wales first launched in 2014 and now boasts more than seven million old school records from 41 counties. In total there is data here from over 1,500 schools. Admission registers were usually kept from around 1870 and give the name of the child, date of birth, date of admission to the school, plus father\u2019s name, address and sometimes occupation. Logbooks can tell you more about the community, often mentioning bouts of sickness, harvests, civic celebrations and national events, and sometimes children\u2019s reports and reasons for absence.\n
2. Rugby School Digital Archives<\/a><\/h3>\n
$\""Rugby\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nFounded in 1567, Rugby is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. Not only the official birthplace of rugby football, it was also the stomping ground of influential educator Thomas Arnold, who also features in Thomas Hughes\u2019 novel Tom Brown\u2019s School Days<\/em> (1857). This digital archive is an excellent example of the kind of old records that might survive within school archives, containing registers, photograph albums, account books, minute books, school magazines, programmes, reports, bills, exam papers and house records. Digitised highlights include in-school magazine The Meteor<\/em> and school registers from 1675 to 1946.\n3. The National Library of Wales<\/a><\/h3>\n
$\""The\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nWales was a hotbed of social unrest during the first half of the 19th century, and the quality of education on offer was seen as an important factor. In 1847 a survey of all Welsh schools was carried out, and the resulting books have been digitised by the National Library of Wales. Although pupils are not named, the books give a fascinating insight into the education that your ancestors would have received. Powys Archives has also added three transcribed school logbooks from the 1870s to 1900 to its website<\/a>.\n
4. London School Admissions And Discharges<\/a><\/h3>\n
$\""Ancestry\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Although Findmypast rules the roost elsewhere in England and Wales, Ancestry dominates the landscape in London. This collection has records from 843 London schools, containing references to about one million students, mainly from admission and discharge registers \u2013 children could be discharged from schooling if they needed to work to help support the family. The details vary between schools, but at the very least you should be able to discover parents\u2019 names and occupations, address and the child\u2019s date of birth. Make sure that you check this Card Catalogue<\/a> page listing the many other UK schools.<\/p>\n
5. Lambeth Palace Library<\/a><\/h3>\n
$\""Lambeth\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nThe Church of England Record Centre, located at the Lambeth Palace Library, has various categories of records created by the Church, including records of the National Society, founded in 1811 to promote elementary education. The collection includes indexes of schoolteachers, as well as material relating to the first generation of National Society schools. The homepage includes a link to the wider \u2018Collections\u2019 page which will lead you to the research guides in PDF format, including one on education sources. There\u2019s also this Building on History<\/a> page on the Church in London.\n
6. Expert\u2019s choice: The National Archives<\/a><\/h3>\n
$\""The\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Chosen by Gill Blanchard, author of Writing Your Family History<\/a><\/em> and Tracing Your House History<\/a><\/em>:<\/strong>\n\u201cOld school records can be such an enlightening source. Not only can they offer you a record of your ancestor\u2019s education, but also provide a window onto the local community. Many schools existed as parish, Church of England or voluntary schools, and records of nonconformist<\/a> churches may also contain information about schools.\n
\u201cThe website of The National Archives at Kew (TNA) forms an excellent starting point for finding out more about this subject. This very concise guide<\/a> should be used in conjunction with the site\u2019s related guides to education records, education inspectorate and teacher training.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guide has links to some of the most useful online resources, many of which are mentioned elsewhere in this article. And once you have the name of a school, an approximate date range, and the county or local authority, you can also dive into TNA\u2019s online catalogue Discovery<\/a> to search for where the original records may survive.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf your forebear was a teacher, unfortunately TNA does not have any records of individual teachers or training colleges. However, there is material about the administrative or policy files relating to teachers and teacher training in England and Wales, plus links to where records may survive.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a professional house historian<\/a>, my other tip is to approach your research from the perspective of the school building. This can lead to information about the origins of the school, the kind of education it offered, and its place as a focal point for the local community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Old school records: More websites<\/h3>\n
7. National Records of Scotland<\/a><\/h4>\n
This National Records of Scotland guide explains how to research old school records in Scotland, and the Virtual Vault on the website of the defunct Scottish Archive Network <\/a>project includes a headteacher\u2019s logbook from Pitsligo School.<\/p>\n
8. Family and Community Historical Research Society<\/a><\/h4>\n
The society has run research projects into schoolmistresses and school logbooks.<\/p>\n
9. Hidden Lives Revealed<\/a><\/h4>\n
Explore the lives and schooling of children in the care of the Children\u2019s Society (formerly the Waifs and Strays\u2019 Society) from 1881.<\/p>\n
10. History of Education Society<\/a><\/h4>\n
The society\u2019s twice-yearly bulletin includes a digest of major accessions to UK repositories.<\/p>\n
11. Manchester High School for Girls Archive<\/a><\/h4>\n
Search letters, governors\u2019 minutes, newspaper cuttings, programmes, magazines and reports from this progressive school, founded in 1874.<\/p>\n
12. Radley College Archives<\/a><\/h4>\n
The digital archive from this Oxfordshire school includes registers, staff records, photographs, newsletters and manuscript collections.<\/p>\n
13. Sheffield Indexers<\/a><\/h4>\n
Search transcribed admission registers from the city\u2019s schools, many reaching back to the 1870s.<\/p>\n
14. GenGuide<\/a><\/h4>\n
This page of Peter Humphries\u2019 website GenGuide describes some of the most useful resources for researching the teachers in your tree, many of which are now available online.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jonathan Scott is a freelance writer and family history expert. You can visit his website<\/a> or follow him on Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Jonathan Scott Published: Monday, 14 March 2022 at 12:00 am How to get old school records online in the UK Throughout the 19th century, children in the UK slowly secured the right to an education. Schooling was made mandatory in England and Wales in 1880 (for children aged 5 to 10) and in Scotland […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":11710,"template":"","categories":[1,19],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"7"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/03\/how-to-get-old-school-records-online-in-the-uk-scaled.jpg",2560,1648,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/03\/how-to-get-old-school-records-online-in-the-uk-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/03\/how-to-get-old-school-records-online-in-the-uk-300x193.jpg",300,193,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/03\/how-to-get-old-school-records-online-in-the-uk-768x495.jpg",768,495,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/03\/how-to-get-old-school-records-online-in-the-uk-1024x659.jpg",800,515,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/03\/how-to-get-old-school-records-online-in-the-uk-1536x989.jpg",1536,989,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/03\/how-to-get-old-school-records-online-in-the-uk-2048x1319.jpg",2048,1319,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Jonathan Scott Published: Monday, 14 March 2022 at 12:00 am How to get old school records online in the UK Throughout the 19th century, children in the UK slowly secured the right to an education. Schooling was made mandatory in England and Wales in 1880 (for children aged 5 to 10) and in Scotland…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/11709"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}