Genealogy Chat

Good luck to everyone tomorrow - hope you have a lovely time. Do tell us how you get on. Id love to come, but apart from it being my birthday and son is coming for weekend, we are snowbound up here - no trains running today! Hope its nice weather for you all.

I look forwards to seeing everyone who can make it tomorrow. As I shall be leaving the house an hour before I usually wake up, I'll be off the boards at 10pm tonight. Hopefully, tomorrow's weather will be better than today's and NOT include snow. I will make sure that there is someone in the entrance until 10am if necessary. Should anyone arrive later than that, I will be in the microform room (on the first floor, turn right and go through the glass door at the end of the corridor. I have name labels for everyone, so we should all be recognisable!

Natalie I have my Kew readers' ticket and my clear plastic bag with sharpened pencils, paper and notes. I have also pre-booked 3 documents in advance and have printed out the train times. The difficult bit will be getting up tomorrow so early and in such cold weather!!! See you there. nell

Are we all ready then? Pencils sharpened and notebooks in clear plastic bags? Reader tickets booked? Passports/Driving licences at the ready? Bottle of water? Alarm clock set for 6 am (eek!). Credit cards for the shop? Let me know if I've forgotten anything vital! Look forward to seeing you all there tomorrow! Best wishes Natalie

Have just found your chat thread on Genes Reunited and you all sound so excited about your visit and so you should be - I had a wonderful time. I went with a vague idea of what I was looking for - information on a great uncle who died in Rhodesia in 1929 and came away with a mountain of copied documents relating to his death including hand written letters from his father to the foreign office regarding winding up his estate. I was thrilled and we cannot wait to go again. Take a deep breath, tread bodly and ask for help. Everyone who seems to know what they are doing was a 'first timer' once. Don't forget your ID so you can get your readers tickets and the clear plastic bags are freely available in the locker room. Pencils only remember and you will need the plastic money as they have a wonderful book shop. It's set in lovely grounds and if the weather is kind you can sit outside - ha ha! I hope everyone has a good a day as I did. I am off to SoG on Friday to dig for more goodies. Regards Christine in Bedfordshire

Brenda I would have loved to have gone with you. Perhaps we can do it again later. Pauline

I feel the same as you, Pat! Look forward to meeting you on Saturday! Have you ordered documents in advance to look at? I'm struggling a bit with which documents I need exactly. There seem to be so many sections and sub-sections! Perhaps I'll just take my chances on the day, as it will hopefully be the first of many visits!! Best wishes Natalie

Hi Jay I checked the full rules, which say no bags, containers etc and that you are only permitted to take transparent containers in. They have clear carrier bags that you can put notes, photocopies in. You might be asked to remove a bumbag as some of the documents are small enough to be slipped inside one. I have a credit card sized wallet that I keep all my valuables in and have not heard anything to suggest that the lockers are not secure. Hope this helps B

Hi Brenda Thanks very much for that. I'll type up some notes on a single sheet to take in with me. Thanks for the tip about the tube, as well! Natalie

Hi Natalie I'm on automatic pilot first thing in the morning, so make my way straight for the tube. Unless the buses are very frequent, the tube is going to be quicker at that time. They are at least one every ten minutes, you just have to cross platforms and there's usually one waiting so you can get straight on. You are not allowed to take more than twenty loose sheets into the research room (just in case you try to walk off with something valuable!). There is not a lot of space to spread yourself out and you will find it easier to look things up if you have a list on a single page. Also, don't bring anything you can't replace. If you lost original certificates or notes, you'd be devastated. B

I'm really looking forward to it! I think I'll be on same train to Richmond as some other people in the group. Was thinking of getting the R68 bus to Kew, as it goes straight to the Archive. Thought this might be easier than Tube. Also, quick query, if you have to check in your bags, are you allowed to carry a folder with all your notes in? I wanted to bring a file so that I could check out people on the GRO index, which Zoe so helpfully mentioned. See you all there!!!! Natalie

There are engineering works on my line on Saturday. I will be setting off a little earlier than anticipated and catching a bus for the first part of the journey. This should not make any difference to my planned arrival time of 9am, but for any earlybirds arriving before I do please DO NOT PANIC! I shall be on my way. B

Brenda I can't make the 5th of March as I'm still up in Scotland. But I'm moving back down in April so will be game for a future trip as I have a heap of stuff to look up. Maybe worth pointing out for the first timers going on the 5th - in the self service room they have on microfiche the GRO indexes i.e. what you pay to see on 1837online. I always take a handful of GRO looks up with me for when I'm waiting for documents to be retrieved or if I need time out from what I'm looking at to work it through in my head Hope you all have a fantastic time Zoe

Hi Louise I've added your name to the list. Vivienne If you can come down in the summer, it would be great. I'm just praying that all the snow will have disappeared by the 5th! There ought to be less hassle around a summer trip. B

Brenda, Just to let you that know I'm going to join you. Never been before and really looking foward to it. I will be one of the really divvy looking folk hanging around at 9.30am. Louise

The majority of you would like as early a start as possible so the meetup time is 9am for 9.30am If anyone will find this time impossibly late, don’t worry. If you give me a time, I will make sure I am back in the entrance hall to meet you. Several of you already have readers tickets for the National Archives. Processing new tickets probably doesn’t take much more than five minutes, it just depends how busy reception is. I will print off sticky labels so that we may recognise each other during the day. I have also set up an album on the photopage. I am extremely reluctant to add to it as in the only recent photo of myself that I possess I am wearing a pink pointed hat and am enjoying myself rather too well! But if the consensus is that you’d like to see what I look like and add your own photos, then I’ll relent. We are interested in a wide range of records. If you want to look at original documents, please don’t wear anything that will suffer. The older the document, the dirtier it is. Your hands can get absolutely black. I will make myself available in the microfilm room during the morning. It shouldn’t matter if we talk there. The actual reading rooms are areas where we should respect others’ desire for quiet. Records cannot be ordered between 12.00 and 1.30pm, although you can collect them at any time during the day. We can meet up for lunch at 12.30 to discuss how we’re getting on. You can get cooked meals, salads and sandwiches, or bring your own meal. There are all sorts of drinks and a water cooler. There are several sites that you can browse free of charge, like Times Online and hopefully some of the censuses on Ancestry. You can download medalcards and pcc wills for free, only paying if you want to make copies. Bags cannot be taken beyond the barrier, but the lockers are quite large. Be prepared by the way, to have your bag searched when you arrive. It is sensible to take as little as possible with you into the reading rooms as there is not a great deal of space, particularly between microfilm readers. When I have contacted all of you, I will put this on the thread. Looking forwards to meeting you on the 5th Brenda

Hi Jenny, you do realise that I will be absolutely shattered by the end of that Saturday!! I'll do my best, but it might be a bit brief! Lou it would be really great if you could come down. I'm not planning beyond the 5th at the moment, just in case this is an absolute disaster! but if it does work I'm certainly game for a repeat performance. B

Hi Brenda If you arrange another one in the summer I'd love to come. It's a major trip from here but would certainly make the effort after seeing Ernest's records! Lou

Hi Brenda I am not sure what time yet . but will let you know in a day or two.

1. Please let me know what time meet up would best suit you: a. 9am for 9.30am start b. 9.30 am for 10.00am start c. 10am for 10.30am start There don’t appear to be any rail problems in the Kew area on 5th March, thank goodness, so we are limited only by the length of journey some people have to make. I will go with the decision of the majority on this. 2. There are New reader orientation tours. Quoting from the website: “When you register, you will be offered a tour to help you get the best out of your day. The tours run once a day at 14:15. Please book at reception if you are interested in attending.” I can’t unfortunately organise this as a group session as another group is booked for the day. 3. There are also “behind the scenes” tours. These last approximately two hours, running at 11am and 2pm. It is fascinating to see how Kew works, but this may cover more than you are interested in at present. 4. if you have not already done so, do visit the National Archives website at: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk. There is a lot of helpful information there, particularly about planning a visit. 5. Would you let me know whether you will want to look at microfilm, or order documents or do both. These are the major points. Please get back to me on items 1 and 5 asap. Brenda