Martin Genealogy Blog

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)
3. Katy - b 2 Oct 1875 (sweet maker/confectioner in 1891)*
4. Annie - b abt 1877 (domestic servant in 1891)
5. Lizzie - b 1879 (still at school in 1891)
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.

Charles Frederick MARTIN was born abt 1849 in Lambeth (though the 1891 census says it was Hackney). Well the 1901 and 1891 say Lambeth so I’m going with that for the moment! He was known as Charles, as that was how his name appeared on the censuses and on the marriage certificate of his son, William to Emily Cooper (1903).

However, the birth certificates I’ve got hold of for Charles’ children all give his name as Frederick Charles MARTIN. This discrepancy is evidently not uncommon in the older records and I’ve been advised by the Family Records Centre that we can be very certain that this is indeed our family!
He married Emma/Emily Richardson in July 1871 and their first child, Emma was born in a few months later, October 1871. By the 1901 census Charles was widowed. In between they had 9 children in total!

Charles and family lived in one of the poorest parts of London: Lambeth. In 1881 they were at Cottage Place, Lambeth. In 1891 they were at 37 Duke Street (now known as Duchy Street) and 1901, Charles and his 4 boys were to be found at 36 Goding Street (near Vauxhall Station).

We don’t know when he died - the last record we have of him is his son’s wedding in 1903. I’ve found a death certificate for a Charles Martin who died in 1915 but it shows no next of kin, so I can’t be certain it’s him. I wonder whether maybe he moved to Catford with son William in 1905.

Have located census info about my gt gt grandfather, Charles MARTIN.

He was a ‘coal porter’ (working on the Thames), according to the 1881 & 1901 census. In 1891 he was a dock labourer. he was known as ‘black dad’ because he was usually covered in coal dust.