Main website navigation:
Patsy’s late father was an East End villain. Jimmy Kensit was associated with two of London’s most notorious gangs of the 1960s: the Krays and the Richardsons. Reggie Kray was godfather to Patsy’s brother. Patsy investigates her father’s criminal past with the help of a criminologist and unearths the extent of his crimes.
Patsy gets a shock at The National Archives as she goes back a generation to her grandfather. After looking at her grandfather’s First World War medal roll, she uncovers documents that show he, like her father, was a prolific criminal after the war (on the right, see a 1921 record of his crimes). Looking further back, Patsy discovers that her 19th century forebears were far from criminals. Her ancestors were good honest tradesmen but the Industrial Revolution plunged them into poverty.
Ultimately Patsy makes an emotional discovery. Rather than just descending from villains, she in fact descends from a remarkable Victorian clergyman who dedicated his life to helping the poor in Bethnal Green. Ironically, Bethnal Green was the very area where her father began his life of crime.
A good place to start is with official records, such as census returns from 1841-1901, to locate an ancestor. Institutions such as workhouses, pauper hospitals and charitable establishments are listed, with the name, age, place of birth and occasionally the occupation of each inmate. So if like Patsy your ancestors fell on hard times you might be able to locate them.
Another source is birth, marriage and death certificates, introduced in England and Wales in 1837. Certificates often provide an indication of a person’s social status.
First World War Army Service Records
Tracing Your Ancestors in The National Archives
If you have any media player, download podcasts from many of our talks held at Kew including:
Sources for First World War army ancestry
'Living the poor life': poverty and the workhouse in the 19th century
