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Looking for my cousin Iris E Richards born in 1940 who I believe married Trevor W West around 1963. Her Parents (my Aunt and Uncle) were James Leonard and Elsie both of whom are now deceased.

I would very much like to make contact and find out whether you have kept all of the family ancestry research thst your mother collected. Now that I am retired and have time on my hands I am trying to research the family tree but with so few living relatives it is proving difficult.

Please message me here with your email address and I will get in touch with my full contact detaila

Sending you a message, see 'messages at top of page, with possible address

I hope that works because I can't imagine Iris ever seeing this message!

Iris has herself in a tree here at this website

although for some reason she has her name as 'Richardsin'

have you tried contacting her through this site? ... proactive 'searching' always works better than passively hoping someone finds you ...

under 'Search' at the top click 'Search all member trees' for the name Iris Richardsin ... click on 'Find out more' beside her name to send her a message

she will receive an email notification of your message only if she still has a current email address in her account here, of course

but hopefully Rose's info will work :-)

I dont think this is the same person as I have found a record of her birth in Croydon in 1940 - this is consistent with the known location of her parents. I have written to the address suggested today so fingers crossed however she would be 80 now so she could have passed or be in a residential home - neither of which hold much hope of finding her Mothers research material. Ten years ago this would have been so much easier but I was working then and didn't have the time to do any research

if iris was born in 1940 she would be 76yrs old

yes with age goes mathematical ability! Actually for some reason it got stuck in my head that she was 10 years older than wheras it is in fact 6 years difference as you rightly point out. She is however I am convinced the right person as I have now found her son Robin which is the name I remember her mother used for her grandson. Its so satisfying when multiple facts come together

Clive, if you were referring to the Iris 'Richardsin' in the tree at this site as not being the same person ... lo and behold you are right, a 'Richardson' was born the year before your Richards ... and married a West :-)

No Iris West born 1940 had died in England/Wales to 2007 in any event.

Thanks one and all - The information has been very helpful to me - its still a bit of learning curve for me but I find that combination of acestry.co.uk, FreeBMD and this site provide a fairly comprehensive search facility.

Are there other resources (beyond Google) that I should be using? For example would a proprietor owned shop from the late 1800's likely be formally recorded anywhere (it was a Boot maker and shoe repair business in South London)

You might find a list of ratepayers held by the nearest Library with a Local Studies section, or at the Archive. Depending if it is now London or was in Kent/Surrey, they might be either at the County Archive, or the London Metropolitan Archive.

There might be surviving trade & residential directories at the local studies centre, also electoral rolls to help you track the years your family were in occupation. They might also feature in a photo/picture archive or included in a book.

See if there was an advert in the papers - British Newspaper Archives, local library. Google the name or proprietors to see what comes up. Many boot & shoe repairers were small family businesses which closed when the owner-craftsman retired.

Thanks for your input - I am rstricted to online sources due to health issues at the moment but its possible that my daughter might be able to check more local records.
In the case of my grandather the shop was named after him - he died suddenly when my father was 20 and he tried for a while to run the business - however he did not have his fathers specialist leather working skills, mamking boots and saddles and he found himself unale to compete with the new chains of shoe repairers springing up and the shop was sold. It carried my family name "Richards" over quite a large double fronted shop in south london. I am waiting to see if my cousin Iris has her mothers family research before I look further for connections to this business

Clive I don't know whether you have this?

the family in 1911


Name: William Richards
Age in 1911: 69
Estimated birth year: abt 1842
Relation to Head: Head
Gender: Male
Birth Place: Ham
Civil Parish: Wandsworth
County/Island: London
Country: England
>> Street address: 32 Queens Road, Clapham S W
Marital Status: Married
>> Occupation: BOOT MAKER
Registration district: Wandsworth

William Richards 69
Esther Emily Richards 45
Walter Conelious Richards 29 (Walter Cornelius), boot repairer
Jannie Caroline Richards 27 (Jennie Caroline)
Doris Mable Richards 5
Lily Caroline Richards 3
Walter Franks Richards 2
Sidney John Richards 0


The address doesn't seem to exist anymore, and I had no real luck at Google Images.


This is Walter's death

Deaths March quarter 1932
Richards Walter C age 50 Wandsworth vol 1d page 653

The death certificate would give you the address where he died, but likely the family did not live at the shop, I imagine, so if he died at home that would not help.

By 1939 George was at 61 Mandrake Road, Wandsworth, but was a carpenter & joiner.



In the 1930 phone book there is a Richards & Son, Boot-makers, at 5 Campden St W.8 but that is out of the area

There is also Richards & Sons, The Boot Stores, Station Road Hornchurch, so no.

There is a Walter C Richards listed but in N.W.2.


I tracked my way around Kelly's Directories at Ancestry a bit and found, eventually, that Clapham was under Wandsworth, and Wandworth was under not Surrey but 'London County Suburbs Directory'

so I tried 1902 'Kelly's Directory, Southern Districts' which seemed to be the closest in time and place available there

and I tracked through the Trades section to Boot & Shoe Makers and Warehouses - Retail, but there was no Richards that seemed to match

nothing under Saddlers & Harnesses

and nothing under Leather anything


sooo ... I found the 1918 edition on line

http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/cdm/ref/collection/p16445coll4/id/8859

and found boot and shoe makers listings, and found

Richards Walt.
32 Queen's rd.
Battrsea SW8

right back where we started from!


so you would need to find a more recent directory, I would think, to find the address of the business in later years - unless it was that Queens Rd address, in which case it means finding where that was.

Thanks for your interest in this - all useful information. I am basically holding fire on this to see if I get a reply from my cousin Iris who I wrote to at the weekend. I know her Mother had a photograph of the shop which may have shown the number but I cannot find my photocopy of it unfortunately.

From what you have found it seems likely that Walter, my late grandfather, may have inherited the shop or at least the business from his father. I wish I had listened more carefully to my Dad's stories about how his grandfather had given him regular pocket money (he did the same with my children because of this) I would give anything to go back and talk with people who had first hand knowledge..

From the picture I saw of the shop it was quite substantial and therefore could well have had large living accommodation above it so it is not inconceivable that the address is the same - if the photo did show no.32 that would be strong evidence of this.

I also meant to say that all the dates tie in - My father George lived with my Mothers family (Hartnett/Jones) at 61 Mandrake Road. My mother always said she felt sorry for him as he had recently lost his father. If the business had to close it is quite likely that the family had to move out (especially if it was rented as much property was in those days) Maybe my father lodged there and as a result married my mother. He returned I know to the building trade but during the war he was unfit for service and took a job in a munitions factory (which had connections with Gilletes the razor blade company) he was by the time he retired a research development engineer for that company. He never forgot his carpentry skills and built many a person fitted wardrobes and other items in his spare time. I live in his former home and it still has a number of furniture items he made.

Hope I am not boring you with this - I am as much reminiscing to myself as I tie things together :-)

In the interest of finding out more for myself I am curious as to how you searched at the link you gave me - I have tried Boot and Shoe repairers and various combinations of name/address etc but each search I make returns thousands of entries on hundreds of different pages - I want to get better at this!

Not boring at all ... and don't we all wish we had paid more attention and asked more questions ...

Your dad was indeed a boarder with the Harnett family, mother and daughter, in 1939. The daughter's surname is crossed out and 'Richards' entered later; the 1939 register was regularly updated until 1991.

Since you've mentioned that now, here is the record:


Ethel (G) Hartnett 27 Jul 1883 Female Unpaid Domestic Duties Married
Phyllis Richards (Hartnett) 04 Sep 1910 Female Cashiers Clerk Single
George E Richards 28 Mar 1912 Male Carpenter & Joiner Single
Hope Jones 15 Aug 1856 Female Invalid Widowed


we may be related by marriage ... my grx2 grandfather's first wife was a Harnett :-)

Phyllis's father was Henry John R Harnett, married in Epsom ... born 1881 in Thanet ... and 'my' Harnetts (I'm from the second wife) were from Kent ... Hackington/Canterbury.

Sorry I don't think that we are - I eventually tracked my grandfather down to Portsmouth - it was initially a surprise though I did know anecdotally that there was family property in Portsmouth. Then I discovered that my great grandmother lived in portsmouth while one of her sons was studying there - I think they may have lodged in housing owned by my grrandfather which probably explains how he met my grandmother. Although I have still to verify a few more facts I am about 85% certain I have found the right connection there.

Eek, you're right :-)

I got all excited and I misread the surname ... HarTnett, not Harnett.

And there was that amazingly coincidental perfect match for Ethel Grace marrying a Harnett in Kent at exactly the right time.

Of course, now I see Ethel was actually a Jones, and that explains her invalid mother in the household in 1939.

Oh well, no cousins for us!

Yes - My main tree is at ancestry.com (though when that expires I may move it here)
I had changed the entry on the main one but not on this

according to this site http://www.maps.thehunthouse.com/Streets/Old_to_New_London_Street_Name_Changes.htm
Queens Road Battersea , Became Queenstown road Battersea between 1929- 1945. Mostl likely bomb damage as it would have been there in at least 1933.
32 Queenstown Road is today on google street view in a parade of shops with what look two story accommodation above that are of the period. - the shop was double fronted in those days so I am suspecting that the shop may well have been the family home

I need to try and track where the rest of the family were, from about a year after Walters death which may yield some more clues.

It is all too easy to stay up half the night once you find a lead or two :-D

Sorry Clive, somehow I missed your question about finding the link.

On page 3 of the directory (in the list of page links down the right side), it says that the Trades Directory starts on page 463 - which is actually page 471 in the links down the right side.

and then I went forward a few pages at a time until I got to the page for boot and shoe makers - the trades are listed alphabetically and at the top of each page it tells you the first letters of the trades on the page, e.g. BIC-BIS where I am now as I replicate the process ...

So you want page 490 in that list of page links (it's page 482 of the book itself), and Walt Richards is in the upper right corner.

I have Richards in my tree too, but they're from Nottinghamshire. :-)


btw, when your Ancestry sub expires, just leave your tree there. Just like here, you can reply to private messages sent to you there even if you are not paid up.