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Family Research Project


  • When I am not researching for clients, I delve deeper into my own family's history. One of my  main projects currently is looking further into the life of my great-great grandfather.

  • If you are connected to any of the people or places mentioned below, please contact us.


1881 Census of The South Kensington Museum, London (RG11/44: folios 42-43, pages 16-17)

Registration District: Kensington

Sub Registration District: Brompton


 Henry Jackson
Head
M
Male
30
Birmingham, Warwickshire
Sergeant RE
 Hugh E. Caston
Boarder
M
Male
27
Kenilworth, Warwickshire
Corporal RE
 John Mager
Boarder
U
 Male25
Dublin, Ireland
Sapper RE
 Charles Anderson
 Boarder
M
 Male 35 Linlithgow, Scotland
 Sapper RE
 John Bunkall
 Boarder  Male 45 Cambridge, Cambridge
 Sapper RE
 John Dougherty
 Boarder M Male 40 Louth, Ireland
 Sapper RE
 William Forster
 Boarder  Male 34 Minories, Middlesex
 Sapper RE
 William Mills
 Boarder  Male 35 Stoney Stratford, Buckinghamshire
 Sapper RE
 Henry Newell
 Boarder M Male 33 Greenwich, Kent
 Sapper RE
 William Nias
 Boarder  Male 39 Exeter, Devon
 Sapper RE
 Joseph D. Annett
 Boarder  Male 21 Windsor, Berkshire
 Sapper RE
 John McAuliff
 Boarder M Male 36 Moneghan, Ireland
 Sapper RE
 page 17
      
 Walter P. Jones
 Head U Male 37 Mallon, York
 Captain & Sert Major RE
 Thomas W. Robinson
 Servant U Male 20 Newbury, Berkshire
 Valet Domestic Servant
 John Knight
 Boarder M Male 28 Woolpit, Suffolk
 Sapper RE
 Margaret Knight
 Servant M Female 30 Jusson, Norfolk
 Cook Domestic Servant
 Thomas W. Talbot
 Head M Male 48 St Georges, Middlesex
 Gas & Electrical Engineer
 Elizabeth Talbot
 Wife M Female 49 Chelsea, Middlesex
 
 Thomas Beardsmore
 Head U Male 50 Niaidwell, Northamptonshire
 Foreman of Works Timbler
 George Baker
 Servant M Male 48 Bromley, Kent
 Labourer
 Anne E. Baker
 Servant M Female 41 Hotchworth, Cambridge
 Housekeeper Domestic Servant
 Jessie Anderson
 Head M Female 25 Kings Lynn, Norfolk
 
 George G. Anderson
 Son U Male 4 Old Brompton, Kent
 
 Jessie H. I. Anderson
 Daur Female 3 Old Brompton, Kent
 
 Wilhimina L. Anderson
 Daur U Female9 mo  Kensington, Middlesex
 
 Laura Ellis
 Mother W Female 62 Zeal, Devon
Annuitant
 The Residences No 1
      
 Edward R Festing
 Head M Male 42 Frome, Somerset
 Lieut Col RE PR4 Assist Dir So Kensington Museum Science & Art Department
 Frances M Festing
 Wife M Female 29 Chaldon, Surrey
 
 Gabriell E,
 Daur U Female 9 Kensington 
 Richard CR
 Son U Male 5 Westminster 
 Louisa S Parkinson
 Cousin U Female 29 Dunganon, Brecknock, Wales
 
 Eliza J Williams
 Servant U Female 31 St Neots, Cornwall
 Cook Domestic Servant
 Marian Cole
 Servant U Female 32 London Nurse Domestic Servant
 Elizabeth Ramsay
 Servant U Female 32 Westminster Housemaid Domestic Servant
 The Residences No 2
    The  Director of the Museum + household
 
page 18
      
The Residences No 3     The Assistant Drector of the Museum + household
 
  The Residences No 4     The Keeper of the Collection Science and Art + household
 


If any of the above are ancestors of yours, or otherwise appear in your family tree, please let us know.

Censuses are very useful in genealogy.

1871 Census of South Kensington Museum. Barracks, RE, London [RG10/51, ff. 15-16]

Detachment 38 Company RE 
 NameCondition
Age
Rank
Where Born
 Patrick Connell
Unmarried
26
Corporal
Wakefield, Yorkshire
 Joseph Brown
 Unmarried 32 Corporal Blandford, Dorset
 James Wright
 Unmarried 26 2nd Corporal
 Lancashire, Manchester
 John Harlow
 Married 31 Lance Corporal
 Ireland
 John Bodle
 Unmarried 21 Sapper Lewes, Sussex
 Hugh Conway
 Unmarried 29 Sapper Ireland
 John Cook
 Unmarried 30 Sapper Bampton, Oxford
 WILLIAM JOLLY
 UNMARRIED 27 SAPPER SCOTLAND
 Norman Montgomery
 Unmarried 23 Sapper Scotland
 Alfred Smither(s)
 Unmarried 26 Sapper Winchester, Hants
 Hugh Strairs?
 Unmarried 29 Sapper Scotland
 Benjamin L. Spackman
 Married 37 Sergeant Chellard, Gloucestershire



1871 Census of South Kensington Museum. Barracks, RE, London [RG10/51, ff. 15-16]

In 1851 the South Kensington Museum was constructed to hold the contents of the International Exhibition

(now known as the Great Exhibiton). From these early years the Royal Engineers (RE) were involved in the

construction of the Museum and in the supervision of the Science section. One of the first men to work

there was Captain Francis Fowke RE. He died in 1865, but before this he began the adaption of the Art School

into the sappers' barracks and carpentry workshops. This is recorded in papers held at The National Archives

(Class ED 84/4, 3 January, 1865). Many state papers of this kind can be useful in genealogy.

A map of the museum from 1867 (Kensington Library) shows the sappers' quarters as being against the far wall

of the building, behind the North Cloister, the Refreshment Rooms and the Art Museums. The quarters faced

workshops (backing directly onto the first numbers of Princes Gate Mews) across a road or path.

My ancestor, William Jolly, joined the Royal Engineers in 1867 and is shown on the census transcript above.

He was still living in the Sappers Quarters a year later (1872) when he married at Kensington Registry Office. It

is possible he had been living in the Museum from 1869, by which time the detachment was established.

Sergeant Benjamin Spackman lived in the Museum for some years, with all his children being born in

Kensington, and he became noted for pioneering work in photography. The Victoria and Albert Archives

(www.vam.ac.uk) hold records on him and his work. He shared his (separate) quarters with his young wife,

Ann (18), his children, Harry (9), Benjamin (7) & Marian (4), and a Scottish maidservant, Margaret Kennedy

(24).

The sappers spent their days looking after the fire engines, hoses, hydrants and so on; they also worked as

photographers, clerks in the offices, in the Art Library, or as artisans. As the Royal Albert Hall was being

constructed in this period, it is likely the sappers made some contribution to the build. I am researching this

at present.

The establishment of sappers was intended to be reduced in 1880, but there were certainly sappers there at

the time of the 1881 and 1891 censuses (see page 2 for details). According to the census (RG13/34) the newly

named Victoria and Albert Museum was uninhabited in 1901.

The science department has since become a museum in its own right (The Science Museum on Exhibition

Road) and the building that once housed a Detachment of Royal Engineers (South Kensington Museum) now

houses decorative arts (The Victoria and Albert Museum).

This proves how ancestors can be found in the most unlikely places.

If any of the people listed are in your family tree, or you are interested in anything featured, please contact us.