Hi all,
I am familiar with the most common sources in the UK (census, BMD records, parish registers, professional directories, voters' lists etc), but there's one thing I never encountered and which would be so helpful...: a list of residents. Could anyone tell me if such a thing even exists, and if so, where to find it?
The situation where I live (Belgium) is the following:
Since even before the 1830's, every person living in a city had to be registered. The city kept a detailed list of your situation. They kept your birth date and place, your current address and your family. Each newborn child was added, each death or marriage was recorded etc. When a person moves, his new address is registered as well. Even when he moves to another city, they register the exact address where he came from.
This information is now kept digitally, of course, but back in the days it was archived on large sheets covering 10 years. It is basically a census, not recording the family situation and whereabouts of a person/family on one day, but all changes over a period of 10 years.
The reason why I am looking for something similar - even les extensive - is the following...
My 3rd great-grandfather William henry Gra(y)ham, about whom I've written a lot on RootsChat already, is a complete mystery until his marriage. His marriage certificate from 1852 says he was a resident of Hastings, Sussex. I have looked in the 1851 census and in all directories I could find of the area around that time, but he is nowhere to be found.
I was hoping that residents in cities were somehow registered, and that there might be some trace of him in those registers confirming he actually lived in Hastings, and maybe even telling me where he came from...
Later documents claim he was born in 1819 in Brighton, Sussex, but he is untraceable there as well...
Thanks in advance!
Tom
