INSURANCE RECORDS FOR FAMILY HISTORY

There are many joint policies held where the first named person is usually the more “senior” of the policy holders.  If a policy holder was referred to as “gent”, the policy was usually about a private dwelling rather than a place of work. If the insured was engaged in more than one occupation, then the policy may only record the principal trade. When estates, farms or factories were being insured, most were valued separately and then described in “inventory style” with separate descriptions of the valuable items. Items which had less value were often lumped together.

Perhaps the most valuable insight that insurance records show is the frequency with which people moved.  It is often thought that the wealthy were fairly static, but many moved as frequently as twice a year. In order to discover these changes, you should look at the endorsements books as these give changes of address which link policies together. Endoresments form a valuable part of research and are contained in endorsement books as opposed to policy registers. It is easier to work from policy register to endorsement book as many policy register entries give endorsement numbers.

The City of London Joint Archive Service hold policy registers from about eighty London-based insurers. Accompanying indexes are a valuable finding aid. The Hand-in-Hand company registers are indexed by name. The early Sun registers are indexed from 1714 to 1839 some of which are online. There is a numerical index to Sun registers for the period 1723-1863 which relates policy numbers to individual registers. Some Royal Exchange registers are indexed up to about 1787. However, like all indexes, there are limitations and peculiarities such as contemporary spelling of personal, street and place names.  Street numbers appearing in a policy may have changed over time. Some policies covering multiple properties may not be indexed under all addresses.

It should be remembered that the information which appears in the records is only as good as that provided by the policy holder. It is important to realise that the Inland Revenue did not have access to the policy records, so any values given of real property, personal goods, chattels and stock were at best estimated by the policy holder rather than as a result of a professional valuation.  There is a strong supposition that policy information is accurate and this is particularly true of change of addresses because prudent insurers would always transfer their policy when they moved. Such information can therefore be crucial in tracing major family events and is certainly more accurate than finding an entry in an out-of-date trade directory.

As with all family history research it is essential to refer to contemporary maps. Fire insurance maps and plans are available which record in detail the location, type and use of any property. In 1886 Charles Goad began to produce insurance maps for the larger towns and cities which were updated every five years or so until well into the mid-twentieth century. Most insurance companies paid a “subscription to borrow” with access restricted to subscribing companies.  A complete collection of Goad's Fire Insurance Maps is held at the British Library and some are held by the London Metropolitan Archives, the Guildhall Library and are available in many local archives.

There are some research constraints. The extent of the records means your research will take time, especially if you cannot match the policy number to a name. Some registers may not be available due to conservation issues. Other associated records such as minutes and account books may also be stored in a different depository elsewhere because they are used less often.

In provincial areas, insurance business was conducted by the company agents who normally kept their own records. Such records where they survive may well have ended up in county record offices although some insurance company archives do hold their agents' records. The best way to find agents is by using local directories which normally list them as “insurance agents” and name the company.

There are two ways to approach research of life assurance; you can either research the company registers or look for actual life assurance policies and any correspondence that might be in family or estate papers. If you cannot find a policy, it is often a mammoth task to find out which company insured the person. Each policy holder had to give details of his address, occupation, date of birth and often statements relating to health and habits. This information was summarised in policy registers maintained by the life offices and may not be available on the policy itself.  

An early entry in the London Assurance Corporation's policy register provides some important military information that can be used in other research. Susanna Hartley of London a spinster insured the life of Capt. Charles Scott of Brig. Tyrrell’s Regiment of Foot for the sum of £360 if he died before a certain date, £270 if he died within six months of the policy date.

Policy registers often included soldiers, particularly officers and travellers as well as speculative investors.

In many cases policy registers are supported by evidence of death such as a death, burial or undertaker’s certificate or declarations by executors summarising age, occupation and cause of death. In some cases wills have been lodged with claims, particularly if the insurance company acted in an executor role; there may be a company register containing will extracts. The distribution of wealth and savings is often revealed in the records.

Most policy holders were men. The time lapse between the first premium payment and the dates of deaths of the insured shows that most people only insured themselves for the last twenty years or so of their lives. Most policies were taken out by people in their thirties or forties. 

Interest in life policies was a financial security for many investors. Specialist auction sales of policies were common in the late 1800s and early 1900s; these sales of policies came about because the policy holders defaulted as a result of bankruptcy or insolvency. Records of such sales can be found in surviving auctioneers' catalogues and solicitors' business records, usually held by local record offices or still in private archives.

Britain has a proud nautical history going back years; we are a sea-faring nation! Marine insurance risk books are a valuable resource. Records of marine insurance relate mainly to names of a shipper (the person who insured the cargo), the name of the vessel and its master and ports of call on its voyage. Most will not specify the type of cargo or name the owner of the vessel. If the policy was underwritten by a broker, than it may well fall within the auspices of Lloyds' Underwriters which is a completely separate subject. Merchants and others travellers such as civil servants, diplomats and missionaries going to foreign lands to live, usually insured their own belongings.

Boiler insurance is closely connected with the advent of steam ships and high-pressure boilers from c1800. Although not many family historians will have direct ancestors who are connected with this type of business, the results of accidents from explosions may well have affected your ancestors, so you could find reports from insurers or their engineers in the accident records. Documents usually lodged in local archives sometimes contain a copy of the policy which could be in the name of an individual or a company.

The term accident insurance denotes all types of commercial insurance other than marine, fire and life businesses. The risks of accidents at work, while on journeys, possibilties of breakages and the threats of theft gave rise to a class of insurance which is comparatively recent in the British insurance business; it began around 1840.

Policies are normally quite mixed and short-term.  Perhaps the most important type of policy was railway passenger insurance; unfortunately there were no such insurance schemes in place for disasters such as the Dee Bridge (1847) and Shrivenham train crash (1848).

Accidental death schemes, which even insured officers travelling to the Crimea War, developed after 1850. The policy registers provide only basic details such as name and date and are normally held in insurance archives.