What The Admissions Ledgers provide 

Peter Goble, who analyzed the registers from 1803 to 1880 and produced the CD that appears on this page, has calculated that during the period studied, the Royal Military Asylum was a haven to 10,302 boys and girls of military families. Based on very conservative assumptions, he estimates that the data relate to about 2.5 million descendants in today's population. He made his calculation on a premise that four generations per 100 years and only two children per family reasonable represent the descendents of the RMA children. Nor are those infants and children who died in the Asylum (from unheard of diseases such as scrofula and pthisis) excluded from the inquiries.

Typical of the inquiries received regarding deceased children was that of Marianne King. It concerned Henry Stipani Rita, who died of pthisis (a variant of tuberculosis) at a sanatorium in Herne Bay in 1840. Registered as Harry Stipani Rita, this boy was the son of Marianne's g-g-g-grandfather, Pietro's brother Vincenzo of the Grenadier Guards, who died in March 1840. Harry or Henry, entered the Asylum in July 1840. Marianne's inquiry could not have been answered without Peter Goble’s work.

The data base provides a full trasncription of the RMA's admissions ledgers from 1803 to 1880. There are 'head counts' for the census years of 1811, 1821 and 1823; also, a fully indexed transcription for the RMA (Chelsea) for the years 1841 through 1891. The ledger entries are fully referenced to the student's admission, parents, regiment, discharge or apprenticeship and, where the information is recorded, the master or mistress or regimental unit into which the student enlisted. The CD includes images of the census enumerators books, set forms and pivot tables in ACCESS and an EXCEL. Workbook complete this fully searchable data base.

Download a PDF order form for the Admissions Ledgers CD.

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