Genealogy Chat

You do realise Merry that record offices up and down the land are going to be on the look out for you now. No longer will you be able to visit incognito. From now on this ensemble will be known as the Merry look!

How about going dressed as a Victorian and asking everyone to help you trace your descendents?

That's an idea Joy... do you think Santa or a Womble would be better?

you get husband and wife tag teams because they have THE most difficult to trace family in the world and want to tell everyone about it (or make sure everyone in the office hears them anyway). they assume that as their is two of them they are allowed to take double the number of allowed items each from the drawers at any one time. No matter that you've been in and out of the office at least once a week for a year looking for one man's birth in every parish within a hundred miles your search is NEVER as arduous as theirs is They normally have matching coats - so beware if you spot a member of the opposite sex as you wearing similar outergarments waiting to get in in the morning - everyone will assume your' 'Family Tree From Hell Couple' - stand at leats 20 paces away.

How about fancy dress?

I wouldn't want mine coming with me. He would just get in the way.

And have you noticed how you quite often get a husband and wife team working in tandem? Boy, the words 'wild horses' and 'snowball in hell' come to mind when I think of my hubby and records offices.

I have always gone in whatever was warm and comfortable for sitting around for a long time. Oh, and comfy shoes for all that leaping up and down to collect things. The dress code appears to me to be: If you are over 25 stone (which of course you're not) then cropped stretch leggings and a tight teeshirt. If you are over 85 then anything tweedy with leather elbow patches is essential. Anything in between then think Miss Marple meets Victor Meldrew.

..... + mischievous.... :-) ........... ah the A blue.... :-)

Of course, you do often meet our american cousins at these offices - so any GR members from across the Atlantic, the dress code for you is slightly different. You keep the same world weary look (accompanied by the occasional deep sigh) but you wear a light coloured flat cap or a sun visor, tinted glasses, light coloured short sleeved shirt, off white anorak (well, is it an anorak without the hood - no probably a windcheater), pale cream cargo trousers and well buffed leather loafers (which you bought in a posh shop in Regent Street the day before). Like Brenda, who must aspire to be a Yank, you have a 'fanny bag' round your hips.(No, this isnt for collecting the Fannies you find in your search - though Gramps probably would - but for your camera and hotel key). And you dont speak in hushed tones when you ask the staff anything - you have to make sure the whole room knows you are from Connecticut or Long Island or Pennsylvania and that you have come to find your ancestors ................................(fill in the surnames, usually Smith, Jones or whatever the local equivalent of Smith and Jones is) and oh, do let us know where you are staying and what you think of the weather.

Merry!! - moi? Serious?........ irony is my middle name!!.... :-)

Id say stick with the train spotter gear but for a bit of added originality wear the Mr Spock ears.

Hmmmm Joy, wasn't your thread supposed to be serious?!!! (wasn't trying to step on it's toes!) Merry

Just noticed that my ''tips for research at records offices, libraries, and Family Records Centre, please add'' was added to yesterday. Maybe it could be put in here? then I could delete that one?

Thats a thought Merry, better take a couple of Sherpas with you.

Make that a container lorry! Thanks for the advice Keith as I am hoping to head for Chelmsford at some point. Do you think I could set a record for the fastest unsupported solo trek to the Bishop's Transcripts?

Blimey, Merry, are you going to be able to walk with all this lot on? Why not go the whole hog and get a space suit? Id suggest, long grey cardie with pockets that are stretched with the weight of all the stuff you didnt want to put in the locker but now dont know what to do with. Glasses if you wear them, if not, wear some from pound land anyway, makes you look a bit more like a blue stocking (no, not blue stockings). And you can take them off seductively and shake your hair when you are chatting up the 70 year old anorak next to you because you cant feed the film through your rotten machine. Brogues, preferably brown with little flappy bits on the front and your tweedy socks showing just an inch or so below your tweedy trousers. Hair band to drag it all back as it keeps getting under the microfiche magnifier and you think a tarantula has got in the place. Jess probably takes her roller machine - I dont think you smoke do you? But take some tissues - nothing worse than sneezing or a runny nose and no tissues - though you will have the cardie sleeves I suppose. Have the kids got a big magnifying glass? Hang that round your neck, it will get appreciative looks of envy from newbies who can see you obviously are an old hand at this.(Just make sure you dont sit in a position where the sun can shine through it) A trolley so you can be wheeled in under the weight of all the stuff peeps have suggested Oh, and enjoy!

Keith!!! Keith!!! While you were in the Chelmsford office, you didn't see my William Ketley frozen in a corner did you? It's the only place I haven't looked..

As a newish family hunter i`m about to pay my first visit to a records office, so nice to know exactly how to prepare for the occasion. shall I borrow hubby`s gardening hat, it would seem to fit the generally accepted ensemble? Sue heading for Exeter. ps any one know the temperature in that office?

ankle socks and sandals with a worn out kagoul, worn with a over stretched knitted woolly beret is always ...erm... acceptable. Oh , and a shopping trolley , ideally with a squeaky wheel, containly essentilas like your flack and sandwiches in their 'Mothers Pride' bread bag. Bloater paste butties ensure un - cramped seating in the rest area