Middlesex Families

My Middlesex roots are strongly planted in the parish of Northolt for many generations. There has been the occasional foray into surrounding parishes especially Greenford. This very small geographic area made some families relatively easy to research. When I lived in the London area I took many trips to the London Metropolitan Archives and sourced the records first hand either via the original documents themselves or by the laborious winding of the microfilm handle. The challenge of idiosyncratic handwriting and faded ink is not something to underestimate in this age of scanned images, enhancement and extensive indexing. Finding my Middlesex families was, however, very satisfying. The records and cross checking achievable because what has to be considered is the population sizes of the past compared to today. Northolt today is a vast urban sprawl of housing. When my families lived there Middlesex was in the main an agrarian society. Northolt being described in one history as for many centuries an isolated rural community with no major roads where the population never exceeded 350 people. The same could be said of the surrounding parishes. I imagine everyone knowing everyone and the gossip would have been very incestuous.

The economy was based on farming and therefore most of my ancestors laboured in some way on the land. Some were fortunate enough to have small land holdings whilst the majority were simple labourers struggling each year upon year to survive. Life expectancy was high and the register showing burials tell a story in themselves, the good years and the bad years.

I have been fortunate to be able to trace back a number of lines into the 1600's and these families are shown with access to the trees via the site pages