Martin Genealogy Blog

I have a birth certificate for a Charles Martin:

• Born on 16 November at the Hospital, York Road, Lambeth
• Father: William Martin (another one!!), servant
• Mother: Harriot (Harriet? - unclear handwriting) Martin, nee Foster
• Registration District: Lambeth
• Subdistrict: Waterloo Second Part, Surrey
• Date registered: 23 November 1846

This date and place of birth matches the 1901 census, but the 1891 census gives POB as Hackney and DOB as 1846 and the 1881 gives Lambeth, again in 1846.

However I am more convinced by the marriage certificate of Charles Frederick MARTIN to Emma RICHARDSON, 11 July 1971. This gives Charles’ father as Frederick MARTIN. At the time of the wedding Charles and Emily(Emma) lived at 9 Thomas Street, Lambeth, which is where their 1st daughter, Emma, was born in October the same year.

So I still need Charles’ birth certificate showing his father as Frederick MARTIN.

I’ve now got the marriage certificate for a Charles Frederick MARTIN to Emily RICHARDSON, married 11 July 1871 at St Thomas’ Church. At the time of the wedding Charles & Emily were living at 9 Thomas St, which is where their first daughter, Emma, was born on 29th October the same year. It is noticeable that no Martins were witnesses. The witnesses were William RICHARDSON, Emily’s father, and Mary RICHARDSON (not sure what relation she was to Emily), who signed with her ‘mark’. I wonder whether this was a bit of a ’shotgun’ wedding, with Emily almost 6 months pregnant on her wedding day! I have sent off for several birth certificates for the children of Charles MARTIN and Emma. Each time the certificate gives the mother’s name as Emma MARTIN (nee Richardson) but the father’s name as Frederick Charles MARTIN, rather than Charles Frederick. So who was my gt gt grandfather, really? We first encountered Charles was on the 1903 marriage cert between William MARTIN and Emily Sarah COOPER, Parish Church, Christ Church, Southwark, Surrey (LONDON). William’s father is given as Charles MARTIN, coal porter. The coal porter profession fits well with a family legend of this man being covered in coal dust and known as ‘black dad’. After Dad & I met with one of the researchers at the Family Records Centre we’re certain that these records are for our family members.

I now need Charles’ death and birth certificates.

Dad & I went to London on 18th & 19th May 2007 to try to fill in some particular gaps in our knowledge of our Martin ancestors. We went to:

1. Peabody Buildings - the one just of Stamford Street, Lambeth, where my granddad, William MARTIN, lived just after his birth, with his father, William MARTIN & mother, Emily Sarah MARTIN (nee COOPER). We took photos of the estate, which will appear on the website soon. It was built to house London’s poor but had an unexpectedly well cared for look to it now!
2. Some of the streets where our family lived:
   i. Charles Street (now Nicholson Street) had none of the original housing. Probably bombed or just redeveloped. Have taken photos of the current street.
   ii. Duke Street (now Duchy Street), had very little of the original housing. The plot of grassy parkland just East of the northern part of Duchy St is where Cory Square used to be, when granddad was born there in 1905. Have taken various photos of the area.
   iii. Goding St (no 36, to be exact!). On visiting the street, there are no houses on the south side. On the north side there are businesses underneath the railway arches. Presumably the houses were destroyed in WW2 or were pulled down at some other time. I’ve written to London Metropolitan Archives for further info.
3. Christ Church, Southwark (Blackfriars Bridge Road), where William MARTIN & Emily COOPER were married in 1903. Have taken photos of the church, though the actual building our folks got married in was bombed in 1941.
4. Family Records Office - I wanted get advice on how best to increase certainty we are looking at the correct records for Charles MARTIN & his family. A Frederick Charles Martin appears on the birth certificates of his children (William, Emma & Catherine). Clive, one of the researchers at the FRC, advised us that this was almost certainly the same person as the Charles Martin given in the census records we have (1881, 1891, 1901) and also in the marriage certificate of his son, William (1). On his advice we’ve ordered the marriage certificate for a Charles Frederick MARTIN & Emily (not Emma) RICHARDSON (Lambeth 1871). This should give us some more clues. This was my first visit to the FRC. If you haven’t been before it is excellent.
5. London Metropolitan Archives - Another first visit. On the advice of the helpful Ms Wagg, from the Peabody Trust, we found the rent record books for K Block, Peabody Buildings (Stamford Street estate) and found that our William MARTIN moved to 22 K Block with his wife, Emily, in late January 1905 (about 2 weeks after granddad was born), and left in Nov 1905, with the comment: gone to Catford. This was probably to the house at 43 Engleheart Road, Catford, that the family lived in until the early 1930s.

I’ve got a death certificate for a Charles MARTIN. But I’m not convinced he’s ours:

• July-Sep, 1915 (Q3)
• District: Lambeth, Sub-district: Kennington
• 1d 268
• Age at death: 66
• d 3 July 1915, Lambeth Infirmary, Brook St
• Profession given as Engineer’s Labourer (different from what he’d done before)
• Address: 47 Thornton St, Brixton Rd (quite a different area from the Lambeth/Waterloo/Vauxhall area he’d lived in previously)
• Cause of death: Burst appendix, peritonitis
• Informant: George Stebbing, Acting Superintendent, Lambeth Infirmary, Brook St. (I was hoping the informant would be a family member. Heigh ho!)

DOB would have been around 1849, which fits with some of the census records I have. This doesn’t give any real corroborating evidence and can’t be relied on.

Maybe I will look for his death in Catford - after all, his son, William, had moved there by November 1905.

We’re going to Lambeth in May 07 to visit:

1) Peabody Buildings - where my granddad, William MARTIN, lived just after his born, with his father, William MARTIN & mother, Emily Sarah MARTIN (nee COOPER). They lived at no 22, K Block, just off what is now Duchy Street, north of Waterloo Station.

2) Lambeth Archives - to explore further the local history of our family at the end of the 1800s, living in one of the poorest parts of London.

3) Some of the streets where our family lived: Charles Street (now Nicholson Street), Goding Street, Duke Street (now Duchy Street), East Street (off Lambeth Walk), Thomas Street, Launcelot Street, Cottage Place (Lambeth). If the houses, given in the records we have, still exist, we plan to photograph them for our archives.

4) Family Records Office - to get advice on how best to increase certainty we are looking at the correct records. In particular, I would like to know that the person shown as Frederick Charles Martin on the birth certificates of his children is the same person as the Charles Martin given in the census records we have (1881, 1891, 1901) and also in the marriage certificate of his son, William (1).

This Emma was the daughter of Charles & Emma and she appears only on the 1881 census. She was born 6 months too late for the 1871 census. Details as follows:

• Born on 29 October, 1871, at 9 Thomas Street, Lambeth
• Father: Frederick Charles Martin (not plain Charles), Carman. He was also the informant, living at 9 Thomas Street, Gibson Street, Lambeth
• Mother: Emma Martin, nee Richardson
• Registration District: Lambeth
• Subdistrict: Waterloo Second Part, Surrey
• Date registered: 7 December 1871

What happened to Emma? She would have been 19 by the 1891 census and would have left home, maybe she was married. I can’t find any trace of her!

I’ve got hold of a birth certificate for William Martin. The similarities with the certificate I have for Katy are clear: same mother and father, born in Lambeth.

• Born on 7 December 1884, 97 East Street, Lambeth
• Father: Frederick Charles Martin (census gives him as Charles), coal porter (his profession as given in 1881 census)
• Mother: Emma Martin, nee Richardson (same as Katy)
• Registration District: Lambeth
• Subdistrict: Lambeth Church 2nd, Surrey
• Date registered: 16 January 1885

East Street appears to have been a narrow alleyway containing poor housing, just of Lambeth Walk.

According to the 1881 and 1891 census, Katy would have been the 2nd eldest of Charles’ & Emma’s children. I sent off for a birth certificate, details as follows:

• Born on 2 October, 31 Charles Street, Lambeth
• Father: Frederick Charles Martin, Deal Porter*
• Mother: Emma Martin, nee Richardson
• Registration District: Lambeth
• Subdistrict: Waterloo Second Part, Surrey
• Date registered: 8 November 1875

* The census tells us that her father was Charles Martin. The Birth certificate gives him as Frederick Charles Martin.

Later in his career we know Charles as a coal porter. At this time he was working as ‘deal porter’ - a job which involved lugging wood to and from barges and around the many timber yards that can be seen in Lambeth on the Godfrey Edition of the Old Ordnance Survey Maps of Waterloo & Southwark, published in 1894 and later.

The 1891 census shows Charles & Emma living with their 8 kids at 37 Duke Street, Lambeth. The 1881 census shows another older girl, Emma, who has presumably left home by the 1891 census. The full list of their offspring is as follows (all are born in Lambeth):

1. Emma - b 29 Oct 1871
2. Mary - b abt 1873 (envelope folder in 1891), m George TROUSE, 24 September 1893, St John’s Church, Newington)
3. Katy - b 2 Oct 1875 (sweet maker/confectioner in 1891)*
4. Annie - b abt 1877 (domestic servant in 1891)
5. Lizzie (Elizabeth) - b 1879/80 (still at school in 1891), m Henry (Arthur) RICH, 2 August 1899, St Mary’s Church, Newington). Wintesses: George TROUSE and Mary TROUSE (née MARTIN)
6. Charles - b 1881 (worked as a carman in 1901)
7. William - b 7 Dec 1884 (painter in 1901 - presumably decorator rather than artist; was an engineer for Cockburn’s Iron Works, Westminster Bridge Rd, in 1905; ran own window cleaning business in Catford till he died in 1912)
8. Frederick - b abt 1886-7
9. John (Jack) - b 1891. He was 1 month old at the time of the 1891 census, which puts his DOB in March 1891.

I sent off for a birth cert for Mary, b 1875, 31 Charles Street (interestingly Mary’s brother was living at 9 Charles St with his bride-to-be, Emily Cooper, in 1903).
It gives the father’s name as Frederick Charles Martin (full details elsewhere).

This William was my gt grandfather, b 1885, Lambeth, d 1912, Catford, from falling off a ladder while working in his window cleaning business. My Dad remembers seeing a badge or sign in a draw at his parents’ house, many years ago, which said: ‘W C Martin, Window Cleaner’.

William 1 is found on the 1891 census living with his 7 siblings at 37 Duke Street. In 1901 he is shown living with his father, Charles, and brothers, Charles, Frederick & John (known as Jack).
William married Emily Sarah Cooper in 1903. The marriage certificate shows both of them living together at the time of the marriage, at 9 Charles Street (now Nicholson Street). There ages given on the marriage cert are questionable as we believe Emily married quite young, after they’d already been living together. We suspect that they inflated their ages by a couple of years on the certificate.

The marriage cert is very interesting also because it shows one of the witnesses as Sarah Pratt, who was Emily Cooper’s mum, who married Thomas Pratt after her husband Henry Cooper (soldier) died. The other witness on the marriage certificate was George Trouse, who turns out to have been a neighbour in Goding Street in the 1901 census.