Genealogy Chat

- for Samantha

nudged for Norm

nudge

Big thanks to all the tips on here - managed to find some superb info at Glamorgan Record office. Crew lists which included my Great Grandfather along with an Inquest report into his death!

you have to write your own address on it,

sorry i didnt answer sooner had to be taxi service for daughter.

i dont even have a driving licence with photo on it coz that would have done, mines still pink or is it green, i suppose i could take that

thanks for advice

andie

Andie - i think passport plus utility bill (they ask for photo plus proof of address and i dont think address is on passport is it?)

i have been thinking of going to the records office at matlock in derbyshire which i believe is where the records are for derby.

i have been on the web site and i am waiting till the children go away with there father on hols, as i dont get that much free time.

all the tips on here have all been noted and have answered alot of the questions that were on my mind.

would a passport do for an id, i dont have an id card, although i have been asked for one once before.

i have never been anywhere like this before and i think its bewildering.

the advice everyone is giving boost confidence

andie

Keep a note of which records you have searched.or if you go back you'll end up searching them all again (like i did )

To add to what Miss Marple and Jill have said, it is polite to be quieter. I am not a short-tempered person but I was in Preston records office on Saturday and a couple were behind me on separate microfiche readers, talking away. I very nearly turned round and asked them to be quiet, but I didn't.

It's not so much the talking as the fact that it can be so distracting to be trying to study records carefully when there is any kind of noise around you, especially if you yourself are being careful not to make any noise.

Bumping this as i am off for my first record office visit tomorrow and wanted to re-read this thread!

I'm also looking into going to one of these for the 1st time, just gathering the rellies from my tree I'd want to search about 1st so I don't end up coming out not remembering any info of what I went to look for in the first place.

As I've never been to one before, can you search for more or less anything of that rellie?

I do know at one point a rellie and his kids on my mothers side were in a workhouse at some point and was wondering if I'd be able to find more info on this time in their lifes at one of these records centres?

Pauline

This is a thread that we are all posting on now, i.e. a threaded conversation.

Amanda x

Marion
Please can you explaine to me what threads are i am new to GRU.
Thank you Polly.

Thanks Miss Marple and Ann. I am visiting the Wakefield Office and I believe it's best to ring and arrange a visit as it can become really busy.

Thanks again to everyone who has my confidence up enough to go.

Cheers

Kate x

Kate,

I hope you thoroughly enjoy your "maiden visit" to the records centre. It can be an extremely rewarding experience: you get such a buzz when you find that elusive piece of information.

Word of warning: it can become addictive!

Amanda x

Sorry, but you all seem to be mentioning other threads, but I don't know how to find them. Can someone advise?

I've been to 3 records offices now and found nothing of use, other than sheer frustrating, freezing cold hands (take gloves) and nothing to eat or drink for miles.

Regards

Margaret

Thanks for such a fantastic thread. Always wanted to go to the Records Office but never had the courage as I had no idea what to do.

Going to try and get there in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks again.

Kate x

Margaret,

I'm sorry you had such a fruitless experience. unfortunately, it just happens that way sometimes.

Judging by what you've said about the very disorganised way in which the data has been arranged and filmed, it could be that the page you need has been damaged or is lost.

Alternatively, it could be that you have seen the information you wanted but haven't recognised it as such because of the way it has been presented. As you say, you sometimes found it hard to tell if the reference was to a baptism or a burial. Having said that, there are usually (though sadly not always)other clues that help, such as mention of the person's age. Advanced years would obviously suggest a burial rather than a baptism. Also, with baptisms, the parents' names are usually recorded, though not in some very early registers. It is much less common to find parents' names next to burial entries.

Another possibility might be that although there was one parish church in that area, it might have had a number of subsidiary chapelries that came under its umbrella. The IGI reference may relate to the "mother church" but the baptism may have taken place at one of the chapelries.

It sounds to me like you prepared well and did everything right. You were just unlucky. One word of advice I would offer is that 30 reels are FAR too many to look at in one day and actually I can't understand how you (physically) managed it. I would expect that if you were to spend a whole day on careful, detailed reading, you would not be likely to get through more than four full reels, depending on how much info was on each one.

I would suggest that when, after many hours of reading, you start to feel frustrated and know you've had enough, call it a day. those reels are not going anywhere and you can look again with fresh eyes another time. Once our eyes get tired it can be easy to miss things, especially if the text is particularly difficult to read anyway.

Good luck in the future

Amanda

I recently visited my local records centre, well armed with info to search for, but found nothing.

For example, I wanted to find the baptism of William Needham in 1796 in Tideswell, Derbyshire. Nothing.

There was only one church in Tideswell in those days, C of E. The baptism is on the LDS site, I wanted confirmation of it.

Why did I not find it? I went through at least 30 reels of film, the dates are in such random order, you can get a reel which has baptisms 1700-1739, marriages 1715-1780, more baptisms, 1750-1780, burials different dates, and there is absolutely no way of knowing what you are looking at on the reel.

For example, you can see William Needham 1821, son of George Needham, and you have no idea whether you are looking at a baptism or a burial.

Most are totally unreadable, never mind the varifocals, take a magnifying glass, which I did, but I spent the whole day there and found nothing.

What should I do for future visits to be more fruitful?

Margaret

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