Historical records to go online

The first records are expected to go online in early 2009

A collection of historical records covering 500 years of London's history is to go online.

The London Metropolitan Archive and Guildhall Library Manuscripts date from the early 16th Century to 2006.

Owned by the City of London, they include parish records, school records, electoral registers, lists of workhouse labourers and wills

The first records are expected to be launched in early 2009 on the website Ancestry.co.uk.

Those records will include parish records from more than 10,000 Greater London parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials, dating from the 1530s to the 20th Century.

London school admissions from 843 schools, dating from the early Victorian times to 1911, will also be made available initially.

It is hoped the records will help people trying to trace the roots of ancestors who lived in or passed through London at some point in time.