ENGLISH-FENS-L Archives

From: Andrew Peckett <>
Subject: [FENS] Analysis of Cambridge strays in West Ham 1891
Date: Thu, 2 Nov 2000 02:00:10 -0500

West Ham expanded rapidly from a small market town in the late eighteenth
century, largely the result of the establishment of the railway works for
the Great Eastern Railway at Stratford (my paternal great grandfather and
grandfather worked there), and the extension eastwards of the London Docks.
Incomers included many from
the country areas of East Anglia and migrants from the East End of London.

The migration of our Cambridge ancestors to West Ham was not always a
simple one-to-one move. Analysis of the 1881 and 1891 census data for the
same persons showed that many moved in two stages, firstly to the Middlesex
parishes of the East End of London, and from there to West Ham.

The statistics are percentage of the total of those located in both 1881
and 1891 census and therefore do not include deaths in that decade:

Persons in 1891 census who were already in West Ham in 1881: 48%

Those who came to West Ham from Cambridgeshire between 1881 and 1891: 28%

Those of Cambridge origin who moved from Middlesex to West Ham between 1881
and 1891: 14%

The rest are those of Cambridge origin who had moved to West Ham between
1881 and 1891 from other of the
Home Counties, the Midlands, and a very few from the North, Scotland, Wales
and the Southwest.

Only 80% of those in the 1891 census have been located so far in the LDS
CD-ROM 1881 census, even after allowing for new children and the 250+
Cambridge-born women who changed their name upon marriage in that decade,
and the vagaries of name spellings. This unexpectedly low figure of 80% is
somewhat worrying.

Dr Andrew Peckett
Durham City, UK
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/apeckett/
e-mail:

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