The student record cards of the Lincoln Diocesan Training College: A genealogical and demographic evaluation for the periods 1862-1871 and 1892- 1901

Abstract

The Lincoln Diocesan Training College (LDTC), now Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), trained women as elementary school teachers. The student records, in the form of handwritten cards, are located in the BGU archives. This study set out to determine the genealogical value of these records. To this end, a sample of the records for 1862-1871 and 1892-1901 were examined and compared.1 The two periods cover the first ten years of the first and second principals’ respective tenures at LDTC. A study of the genealogical information on the cards, for both periods, showed that there were very few serious discrepancies between this information and online genealogical records. In addition, many of the cards provide information that would not normally be found in other genealogical sources. Other online teacher records collections were analysed for information relating to the individuals in the two samples and found to
apply to a very small group of LDTC teachers. The demographic analysis of the students was compared to other teacher-related studies. The differences between some of the findings for the two periods, like marriage age and probate effects, were found to be significant.