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Janet's Research

Sources & More

Lists and more

This section provides access to

• lists which include names of individuals
• sample documents: often specific to an individual but may be of interest to people with Brentford ancestors
• contemporary accounts: eg newspaper articles, may include names or property details
• ephemera: eg adverts, BFC programmes

Thank you to all providers. If you have a document you are willing to share, please scan and email it. Thank you!

Lists

In each of the lists below the persons' names appear in their original order; you can use your browser to search for a surname or forename.

The 'list of lists' below is roughly in date order.

• 1801 census of Old Brentford (John Gauss)
• 1806 Indenture relating to a property in the Butts (Rob Sutherland)
• 1811 census of New Brentford (Richard Chapman)
• 1811 census of Old Brentford (John Gauss)
• Owners / occupants of properties near Brentford Bridge, 1826 (Angie Beck)
• St George's Church gravestone inscriptions, 1829-1866 (Janet McNamara & Carolyn Hammond)
• 1836 Poor Rate (Vic Rosewarne)
• 1836 Poor Rate with occupations added (Vic Rosewarne/Celia Cotton)
• Old Brentford tithe apportionment: list of High Street owners and occupiers 1839/1841 (Celia Cotton)
• Official Establishments, Local Institutions (includes names) from 1866 Post Office Trade Directory (Celia Cotton)
• Street directory listings from 1872 and 1877, just before and after the High Street was numbered; this will help place people found in censuses into properties (Vic Rosewarne)
• Brentford Surveyors, 1875+ (Peter King)
• Brentford Firemen, 1879 (from Peter King)
• Accounts of Frederick William Neville, 1888-1890 (Alister Neville)
• Library Committee and other local dignitaries on the opening day of Brentford Library, 1904 (Janet McNamara)
• March 1906 prize giving at the Rothschild School; several pupils' names are mentioned; were your grandparents (or great grandparents) winning class prizes, or special awards for Handwriting? Were they musical? (Janet McNamara)
• Attendees at John Joseph Dorey's funeral, 1918 (Janet McNamara)
• 1922 Rothschild Girls' School put on the 'The Magic Key': cast photo and scan of the programme with names of 18 girls; was your mother, aunt, grandmother or great aunt a peasant, bandolero, gypsy, toreador, gnome or fairy? (Roger Davis)
• People who provided gifts at a 1926 wedding (Janet McNamara)
• Some names from South Ealing Cemetery burials (Janet McNamara)
• 1952 electoral register for the High Street, nearly 500 people recorded (Celia Cotton)
• Names and adverts, parish magazine for St Paul Brentford with St Lawrence and St George, October 1971 (Sandra Graves)
• Names and adverts, parish magazine for St Paul Brentford with St Lawrence and St George, April 1980 (Sandra Graves)

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Sample documents

These documents are included as they show either information recorded in official documents (registers, certificates) or the style and content of newspaper articles from different dates.

Some Brentford newspaper articles from the British Newspaper Archive are also available, selected as they either mark some change in Brentford, or tell a story about its inhabitants; most date from the late 18th to the mid 20th century.

• 1806 Indenture relating to a property in the Butts (Rob Sutherland)
• Death Duty Register entry, John Dale, 1809: death duty records in the period 1796 - 1811 are indexed and online
• Land tax record 1810: Union Court, Old Brentford
• Death notice, Joseph Dorey, 1884 (Janet McNamara)
• Funeral account, Joseph Dorey, 1884 (Janet McNamara)
• Register of Canal Boats entry for 1894: for the "Samuel" by the Buck family (Ann & David Podmore)
• Brentford British School certificate from 1894 for Jane Richardson (Maurice Lockyer)
• Inquest of Frances McCarthy, 1903 (Maggie Luscombe & Mike Perry)
• Baptismal certificate from St Faith's for Doris Edith Cownden, 1905 (Celia Cotton)
• Image from Field Book showing property details recorded around 1910: in this case no. 93 High Street (Celia Cotton)
• Death notice, John Joseph Dorey, 1918 (Janet McNamara)
• Funeral account, John Joseph Dorey, 1918 (Janet McNamara)
• Summary of the service records for Henry Adolphus Dunn, died WW1 (Celia Cotton)
• WW1 medal card (Trevor Mitchell)
• Ealing and Old Brentford Cemetery register entry 1923
• Account of a 1926 wedding: George Frederick Gower to Lily Violet Holt (Janet McNamara)
• 1939 Register page showing residents at numbers 241 to 251 High Street (Celia Cotton)
• A local postwar wedding, Ena Stone to Kenneth Thompson in 1948, (Ena and her sister Lynn Hayter)

Contemporary Accounts

Documents are in date order. There are also many pages devoted to people's memories of living and working in Brentford, most date from the 20th century.

• Flooding in The Ham, 1956 (Jean Dunsdon)
• 1960s archaeological excavations at 141 - 147 High Street (Quentin Pickard)
• Various newspaper articles from the early 19th to mid-20th century

Ephemera

• Local testimonials for ophthalmic ointment, early 1830s (Sally Douglas, Apr 2015)
• Adverts from St George's Parish Magazine, 1898 (Janet McNamara, Jan 2008)
• Eight Brentford Football Club programme covers from 1947/48 to 1958/59 seasons (Dave Stoneleigh, Jul 2013)

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Published 2008; last updated February 2023