At a BIFHSGO conference at LAC many years ago, Helen Osborn, author of Genealogy: Essential Research Methods, mentioned the London Library in a talk on London resources. It’s a private, membership-only institution going back to the mid-19th century.
If there’s someone in your tree who might have used the Library, the new London Library Digital Archive could be useful. It gives access to more than 70,000 historical London Library membership records dating from 1841–1950.
Who’s Who has nothing on the Library membership: Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Fanny Cradock, Terence Rattigan.
There’s also Thomas Fairman Ordish, my relative, although not a direct-line ancestor. He appears from 1878 to 1903. I didn’t learn much I didn’t already know, just the name of a sponsor.
None of my rellies that I could find… If we ever win a significant lottery, joining the London Library is on my bucket list!!