A great visit to the Metropolitan Archives with Jane, Pat and Grando, an absolute treasure trove stacked floor to ceiling with history and discoveries from past times. We were shown around and guided through the archives by Marta Lomza, Development Officer for the Met Archives.
Marta showed us fragile, delicate posters / invitations and hand written notes and receipts which she had pulled out for our visit that related to the Polish Relief Fund. This was set up by the London upper classes and the Government in 1940 to raise money to help and assist all Polish refugees. There were great details about high society charity balls held for the fund, including the cost of all the napkins ordered! A great insight of social history.
There wasn’t time to research into any links with Polish people living and working in Walthamstow on this occasion as the Archives were closed to the public the day of our visit (Friday’s), but Marta gave us the tools and some of her expertise to be able to go back and explore further. She showed us that by simply using the search terms, ‘Walthamstow’ and ‘Poland’ together on Ancestry.co.uk it provided a huge list of Polish people living in Walthamstow from the 1860’s onwards.
On my next visit, which I hope to be soon, I will delve deeper and hopefully discover what those Polish people living in Walthamstow did for work, when they arrived in Walthamstow etc… and take it from there.
F.Y.I: In the Met Archives library, Ancestry.co.uk can be used on their computers by anyone and is free to use.
