Switching the lens: call for volunteers

Can you help us research the history of Londoners of African, Caribbean and Asian heritage?

For many years London Metropolitan Archives has been collecting evidence of the lives of Londoners of African, Caribbean and Asian heritage. This important work shows that London has long been home to a very diverse population, a fact often obscured by mainstream British history which traditionally excludes the histories of people of colour.

This evidence has been collected into our 'Switching the Lens' dataset (available to access via our Collections Catalogue ). It records entries found in London’s parish registers, and we have been steadily adding to it over the last few years. A dedicated group of volunteers are currently systematically searching the burial registers of London’s parish churches to find relevant entries. Surprisingly few archive sources include information about race, but parish registers do make reference to ethnicity (although not always consistently), so they are an important demographic source. Although with over 1000 parishes in the Greater London area this is an extensive piece of research.

'Switching the Lens' is a long-term project and as such we do occasionally open the project up for new volunteers. We are currently hoping to attract volunteers who have experience in using sixteenth and seventeenth century parish registers as these have their own challenges in terms of handwriting. This is a particularly good opportunity for students who need experience in this area for their own research or study. The project is run remotely, so you can be based anywhere, and uses the digitised parish registers on Ancestry.com. Volunteers are set registers to search, and relevant entries are checked and added to our dataset where they can be used by the public.

Recent finds from the project include the burials of children from the African Academy, Clapham in the parish of Holy Trinity Clapham. This was a school where the children of prominent African political leaders were trained in language, reading, writing and religion which had strong links with the abolitionist Clapham Sect. Unfortunately some of the children died through exposure to measles, but it is now believed that more children returned home to Africa than originally thought.

Burial registers from the London Borough of Greenwich have also demonstrated the number of Asian mariners who had sailed to London via their work for the East India Company, and registers from Rotherhithe show the links between black servants and their maritime masters - many of whom are captains of vessels - potential further research could find whether these masters were linked to the transatlantic trade in enslaved people.

If you are interested in helping us search the parish registers - even if you are a beginner to using historical records – you are very welcome to contact us for further information via the contact form on the contact LMA page.