Boyd's Inhabitants of London & Boyd's Family Units
Collection available to British Origins or Total Access subscribers only.
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Boyd's Inhabitants of London and Boyd's Family Units form a collection of 70,000 handwritten sheets each containing details of a London family, mostly covering the period of 16th to 18th centuries though extending from the 13th until well into the 20th centuries. Boyd's Family Units was intended as an extension to the 60,000 Inhabitants of London sheets, but covering a much wider geographical area. In fact about a third of the 10,000 Family Units sheets also relate to London families, so the two sets have been joined in the British Origins, with a single index; this contains the names of over half a million people
Compiled by Percival Boyd from a miscellany of sources, these extraordinary sheets are one of the Society of Genealogists' most valuable holdings, and provide one of the key sources for researchers into London families.
Each sheet is based upon a man who in the case of the Inhabitants of London was usually, but not always, a citizen of London. A sheet typically shows as a minimum the name of the man, the parish where he lived in London, and the date of his marriage. But many sheets show far more information, which can include: names of father and mother: names of mother's parents: wife's name and place she was living at the time of marriage; date and place of birth; date and place of death; date and place of marriage; notes on education and occupation; a note regarding the person's will; children's names, dates of birth/baptism, marriage & to whom. The Family Units sheets can be based on a man from almost anywhere in the world, but who had close links to Britain; there are many families for the USA, from all parts of the British Isles - Scotland and Ireland as well as all over England and Wales, and all over the former British Empire. Because of the wide geographic and long time period covered by these collections, they should be searched by every researcher whose family is linked to the UK, wherever the family settled.
On average an Inhabitants of London sheet contains the names of 6-7 people; the Family Units sheets contain on average the names of over 12 people. Well over half a million names appearing in the sheets are included in the person index, so you can search on a person's name, and optionally a year, and then view the pages containing references to that person. If you are lucky, you may then find information on a dozen or more other people related by blood or marriage to the one you searched for.
