I've so wanted to ask about Green Street Green in Orpington, Kent. Gt.Gt.Aunts dtr ended up there with her Whitehead family in 1880s. Children were always listed as Bromley or Farnborough which led me to wrong place in Kent. [First two children were b. Battersea.] until 1911 when one son listed place of birth 1885 as Orpington. and a dtr listed Green Street Green as 1890 birth place. finding Green Street Green as a place in Orpington was great but awoke questions as to how it was so named. I then found that 1891 & 1901 censuses listed the family at Green Street Green as 'street / house address'. Then to find a Farnborough one & a bit miles from Green Street Green caused mind boggles. Several rellies dwelt in Farnborough, & Cranbrook, a different place altogether & 44-ish miles away, including 1st cousin x 2 removed Eleanor- Mrs Whitehead as a child.[so many versions of her name.] Have now found that the name originates from La Grenestrete c.1290, meaning the green or grassy hamlet, It is recorded as Greenstreet Green in 1819, the addition of the suffix Green, referring to a village green. So do I list these 2 children as born in Farnborough, as their early census records show, Bromley [GRO] or as Green Street Green, Orpington.? My people are moving out & taking over Kent it seems. One Lady from a different line lives there now.
First thing I thought of was a pretty little chook. An Orpington. I would list them as Green Street Green, Orpington. It sounds rather nice.
I must say that I've always considered Green Street Green to be an identifiable place in its own right. Basically it was a hamlet and I'm fairly sure that people in the 1890s would not consider themselves to be part of Orpington. If you said Green Street Green near Farnborough (Kent) then that would be far more accurate I think. See e.g.>http://www.genuki. org.uk/big/eng/KEN/Farnborough There is a 6 inch OS map of the area here (dated 1888-1913) > http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=15&lat=51.3537&lon=0.0874&layers=171&b=1
I've just been trying to recall why I used to go to Green Street Green so often and I've just remembered that it was because I used to tackle the nearby notorious Cudham Hill on my motorbike - that was always a ride and three-quarters! Of far greater interest, Green Street Green isn't all that far from Downe where Charles Darwin lived.
Me too. Have you seen this site @Ma-dotcom. Code: http://boroughphotos.org/bromley/category/place/green-street-green/
Me too Sue, I was chuffed to find it so near to the residences of other rellies. I wonder if they ever met up? It's the 'near Farnborough' bit which confused me in the beginning, didn't expect another little one over there. The maps a bonus thank you Flook, I've been invited back on Tuesday [today here] to look about a bit more when they finish what they are doing. Sis, thank you for those photos, "Worlds End, Green Street Green, 1887 View down to valley and houses" 1st photo threw in a wee bit more con-addlement. Too many places tossed together for one just recently awoken. Nice tho' to see how it may have looked when folks I'm finding lived in the area. I wonder where I'll go next. Several are ending their times in Sussex instead of Essex. I guess I'll be going back there too. Thank you all. must do his brekky.
Just back from an appointment with a 168 year old convict owned tailors measurement notebook owned by GGGrandfather. Gobsmacked we are. Such a privilege to hold and turn those brittle little pages. Back to Orpington and Green Street Green. It is a little confusing, to say the least. I based my guess on that they share the same postcode (currently) and Green Street Green is listed under the Orpington postal area and under the UK Parliament area of Orpington. So have really no idea how it all works over there.
What an exciting day for you. What a lovely appointment to have. So now you know how I feel. Am now looking at the original family [Thompson] who were in Farnborough areas 40+ miles away. Various places nearby given in various times -births, censuses...I'm lucky I found any of them but have still been mislead because of different same name families using same Christian names.
I do apologise in advance for getting off that well worn beaten track.......but.....there in that tiny little note book were the waistcoat measurements of one gentleman, a butcher by the name of Triffett. I have met on a number of occasions a descendent of Mr Triffett, a freed convict who was sent to Tasmania. All Triffetts here are from this one man.
The thing is that we're now looking back at how the country was organised about 130 years ago and it now bears no relation to how it was then (apart from the City of London which is a very small discrete area). What we now call London didn't exist before 1965. Before that, a much smaller area, called the County of London, was only created in 1889. Prior to 1889 almost every part of London (again apart from the City) was in a county - hence anything south of the Thames was in Surrey or Kent and anything immediately north of the Thames was in Middlesex or Essex. This is why these counties are mentioned so often in 19th & 20th century family history records. Although Orpington is now in London, up until 1965 it was in Kent and had no connection with London at all (apart from the trains!!).
At last, I have it right with Farnborough- must have been sighting the one in Berkshire area in earlier days, difficult tho' when some children on GRO were registered as born in Cranbrook- Dartford , but in censuses as Farnborough & Goudhurst. All different I guess because of where they actually lived & registration changes plus where Mr. stopped off to register each babe. I love that these places are all close by each other after all. ----------------------- May I deviate a little here to ask if a person who died 1987 in the Crawley district as did his Mother in 1986 necessarily do so in a hospital there? I ask that because the surviving wife [I believe] is listed at E.Grinstead in 2004+ electoral yrs. & I wondered if they had all lived in E.Grinstead but gone to Crawley for medical reasons. I'm really getting out there now aren't I? I accused it of being in Surrey the other day on F.B. well it's near enough & if someone had thought of it back then, it probably would have been.
Thanks Flook. So much easier here. Of course it does help that we are only 230 years of modern boundaries. State or otherwise.
Just like counties etc can be, Registration Districts are a law unto themselves. When it says e.g. Crawley Registration District, it doesn't mean that the person was born, married or died in Crawley - only that the event happened somewhere within that District. One problem is that these Districts change so much over the years but there is a very good site which can help show you which places come/came under each District> http://www.ukbmd. org.uk/Reg/districts/index.html
I does SO make one wonder why one bothers, don't it? Don't think I'll venture into Sussex again. once bitten...& then all of this. Wonder how rellies in Australia are doing?
