Gypsies, Roma and Travellers

In 2007 an innovative project to find out about the family histories and culture of local Gypsies, Roma and Travellers (GRT) began in Leicestershire.  Working in partnership with museum colleagues in Leicester, the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland assisted by volunteers from the local GRT community, began to collect information and material.  The funding was provided by Renaissance East Midlands and channelled through the Leicester City Council Museum Service. This project was part of a bigger enterprise “Moving Here”, hosted by The National Archives, which gives access through the website www.movinghere.org.uk to migration stories from people of various backgrounds and origins who moved to Britain. The undertaking had its own Project Worker, Margot Farnham, who conducted all of the interviews with the representatives of the Gypsy Roma and Travellers Community and edited them digitally. After collating all the available resources, the Record Office put on an exhibition called ‘Stopping Places’ in July 2008.

Gypsies and Travellers leave very little trace in archives because of their nomadic lifestyle and dependence on an oral tradition rather than a written one, and little is known about them.  What can be found in the Record Office, as in many county archives, are passing references to Gypsies in parish registers or in documents such as parish Constables’ accounts, where they had brushes with the law.  The picture is very one-sided.  As a result of this, one of the main aims of the project was to create a resource about them, working as equal partners with members of the community to tell their stories. Through cooperation with members of the Travelling community, the Record Office now has recorded interviews, written stories, photographs and other documentation, which the public and researchers can access. Another vital reason for working on this project was the request of the representatives of the Gypsy group to create records about their lives and customs so that their descendants may use them in future.

In this section you can discover the history and customs of the GRT community, read their family histories and view various photos and documents.