I wish to share the excellent response I received from John Driver of Greater London, Eng. because he has had a tie with our NW & Puget Sound, and also because I wish to answere him, but I will do so on a separate transmission relative to his answers. Carroll in Snohomish. * * * 30 * * * On Wed, 02 Dec 1998 17:04:45 GMT "John E.S. Driver" <jdriver@ibm.net> writes: >** Reply to message from Carroll H Clark <clarkw7iml@juno.com> on Tue, >1 Dec >1998 09:52:49 -0800 > >Carroll, > (The following enumerated questions were Carroll's followed by John's reply to him. CC.): >> 1. I need enlightenment on what Greater London means more >specifically. >> London within the ancient Wall? The main part of London, whatever >that >> might be? Pardon my ignorance but I would like to know more. And >is >> Lewisham a section of it - I would appreciate knowing more. > >Greater London is the county set up in the 19th cent., and again >enlarged in >the 1970s, to embrace the whole built-up area generally known as >"London" (and >then some). It comprises the old county of Middlesex (which today only >exists in >certain postal addresses) plus parts of Surrey and Kent, south of the >Thames, >and Essex north of it. I think there is even a little bit of >Hertfordshire >thrown in. In addition it contains the original City of London, >sometimes known >as the Square Mile, today largely the home of financial institutions, >but still >with its Lord Mayor, Tower of London, medieval guilds and so forth. >This is the >historic "London", most of it within the ancient walls. Immediately to >the west, >in what was Middlesex, is the City of Westminster, which contains the >Houses of >Parliament, the royal palaces etc. > >Lewisham is south of the river in what used to be Kent, but now part >of the >county of [Greater] London. 150 years ago it was still pretty much a >village, >but there has been a huge amount of development since then and in the >1970s the >London Borough of Lewisham was expanded geographically to take in >neighbouring >areas like Deptford with its Thames-side docks. > >> 2. Are you anywhere near the old Guildhall? I am particularly >> interested in the Guildhall area and more specifically slightly East >of >> it, as I recall, namely Coleman >> Street - a very short street that has existed for centuries, not >unusual >> for London. > >The Guildhall is the ancient civic centre of London, in the City. I >visit it >sometimes when I go up to town, to do a bit of research at the >Guildhall >Library, which is a part of a new building at the edge of the >Guildhall's land, >and contains many of the old City of London archives. parish registers >etc. >Coleman Street, as you say, is a very short block to the east of the >Guildhall. >The road pattern has probably persisted for centuries, but the aspect >of the >buildings will have changed out of recognition. This process is still >going on >all the time, but the buildings in Coleman Street as far as I remember >are very >solid late Victorian institutional. The name goes back to the 12th >cent., and >may have been the name of the man who first built it, or there could >have been a >church dedicated to St Coleman there at one time. The road is still >quite >narrow, and Moorgate Street (now simply Moorgate) was built parallel >to it on >the east to provide a more convenient route between Moorfields and the >Bank of >England, demolishing a mass of slum property for its construction. > >> 3. Are you interested in genealogy, and if so perhaps you could >mention >> some surnames that you have been able to trace among them. > >I am indeed, but not as a professional genealogist. My family moved to >Lewisham >from Nottingham soon after WW2, but I only recently found here the >graves of >people with the surnames DRIVER and KEYWOOD which are among those >that interest >me, though the chance of establishing a family link is quite slender. >Two of my >grandmother's Keywood brothers emigrated to the USA in the earlier >part of this >century, and ended their lives in Tacoma, which is why I became >interested in >that part of the world. I do not know if they have left any >descendants, but >one of their daughters, Gladys E. Keywood, married a Clyde WILLIAMS. >My other >interests include STAPLETON and my mother-in-law's family name CLARKE > >> 4. My reason for asking, is that I have ties to London ancestry >that I >> discovered in 1983, > >Would that be through your CLARK descent, or one of your other lines? > >I was interested to hear of your visit to Kensington Palace Museum. >Another >museum you should visit if you're ever here again is the Museum of >London on >London Wall, not all that far from the Guildhall. > >Good to hear from you. > > > >John, in >Lewisham, Greater London, England > > ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]