History of the Society
In July 1978 the Federation of Family History Societies co-ordinated
the foundation of three family history societies to cover the City of London and the
former county of Middlesex. From west to east, these were the West Middlesex Family
History Society, the Westminster and Central Middlesex Family History Society and the
London and North Middlesex Family History Society. This division continued until 2001
when the latter two societies combined forces to form what was renamed the London,
Westminster and Middlesex Family History Society.
West Middlesex Family History Society now covers a little over thirty of the ancient parishes
in the west and south-west of the ancient county of Middlesex. A detailed
parish map elsewhere on this site provides a complete
definition of the coverage of the West Middlesex Family History Society. (Given the
complexity of the metropolitan area, a gazetteer has also
been provided to help locate the family history society that relates to a particular
location.)
The inaugural meeting of West Middlesex Family History Society was held on 19th July 1978
at Hounslow Manor School, Hounslow. The late John Rayment addressed the gathering and the
first Executive Committee was elected, chaired by David Hawkings.
The structure and activities of the Society were soon established, with a regular programme
of invited speakers, a journal and the beginnings of important
transcription and indexing work. The latter included the foundation of the
West Middlesex Marriage Index under
the management of Vic Gale and an active programme to record monumental
inscriptions from local churchyards. The venue for meetings changed first to the Old Town Hall in Hounslow in 1980,
and then to Montague Hall, Hounslow in 1984, where they have remained ever since.
Through the 1980s the Society was busy with indexing work on the 1851 Census returns for the
registration districts within our area, the results of which were published on a series of
1851 Census microfiche. This project saw the first use of home computers for
indexing work in the Society and the transition away from the traditional use of paper
slips for sorting work. The first directory of members' interests was published as a booklet in 1985. Further editions have since
been compiled at intervals of about three years, the format having switched to microfiche in 1993.
The Society held its first one-day conference at Isleworth in October 1984 on the theme
From Ag. Lab. to London Commuter and joined in a conference with the other Middlesex societies for the first time at
the Bishopsgate Institute for a London Miscellany in July 1986.
The wider use of home computers in the early 1990s led to the Society's decision to
digitise the West Middlesex Marriage Index. Further expansion of this index continued as project
work into the 2000s and it has been made more widely accessible since the Society's purchase of
its first computer in 2001. The marriage index has also been made available via
FamilyHistoryOnline since 2004.
During the 1990s society members were also very busy with work on the 1881 Census project,
co-ordinated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the first of the national
census indexes to become available. The 1990s also saw the publication of a book on the village of Harmondsworth and some of the
earlier memorial
inscription work. More recently, project work has led to the publication of a CD of
war memorial inscriptions and the first two volumes in a series of
local parish histories.
In recent years, the Society has held biennial Open Days and regularly runs a stand at
events held by other societies and organisations, including the Society of Genealogists Fair, and
most recently, Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE.
A one-day conference was held in 2002 at the National Archives
in Kew, with the title We seek 'em here, we seek 'em there. These have become biennial events too,
the most recent being Family History: Past, Present and Future held at Twickenham in September 2007, when
the speakers included Nick Barratt, well known from TV's Who Do You Think You Are?.
With the Society now past its 30th birthday, membership is being sustained and
attendance at meetings is higher than ever. In the area of projects, it has begun to contribute to the
National Burial Index and to lay
the foundations of baptism and burial indexes for its area, to complement the West
Middlesex Marriage Index, begun in the year of its foundation.