Genealogy Chat

Just to let everyone know, I will be contacting each of you with basic details over the next two or three days.

Hi Alison I know several people would like to come but can't make the 5th. If this is successful, I'll see if I can organise another meet up in the summer.

If anyone's travelling from the Heathrow area I am happy to do a pickup and drop off as I will probably drive. Karen

Hi Brenda Would be interested, but cant do the 5th. If there is another trip let me know please

Hi Nell It would be really good to actually meet up! I think several people might find it difficult to get to Kew before 9.30am. If I'm shattered by the journey, it takes the edge off the day. We'll see what other people think. Fi I'm adding your name to the list.

I would like to join you at Kew. I believe I can make both the 19th Feb and 5 March. Please put my name down. Fi

Brenda On my only visit to Kew it took me 2 hours, though admittedly that was because I had taken the wrong tube train - doh! If you find a time that suits others I will fit in with it - obviously the earlier we get there the more time we have. nell

Hi Patricia Once you get to Richmond, the tubes are about every five or ten minutes. There's usually one waiting on the platform. It's just one stop to Kew Gardens. You go through the underpass and then it's a five to ten minute walk.

Brenda I might not make it for 9 am, as I have to change trains twice, but will do my best! Natalie

nudge for Sunday morning

The restaurant at Kew opens at 9am and the search rooms at 9.30am. I travel by public transport and can usually get there by 9am. The current list of people who would like to meet up on 5th March are: Chris from NZ Fi and Angel Helen Little Nell June (if she can make it) Karen Hall Louise R Margaret of Epsom Natalie Patricia Cheeseman The meet up point will be immediately on your right in the entrance hall. You go through the green revolving doors, have your bags checked by security, then turn through 180 degrees. Over the next few days, would you all post to this thread with an indication of how early you can reasonably get to Kew. I believe there is ample parking in the car park and it is a well-signposted five minute walk from Kew Gardens station. The National Rail website only has details of engineering work up to the end of February. I will firm up times once I am sure that I can get there at least as early as the earliest of you! B

Hi Brenda, This all sounds great. Have pencilled in 5th March now we just have to have a time and exactly where we are going to meet. Sounds really good. Christine

Thanks Brenda! I'll have a look and see what I can find. Natalie

Hi Natalie There's quite a lot of info on microfilm etc on a self help basis, but it takes on average 30 minutes between putting in a request and a document arriving. Unless you are good at dovetailing, it is sensible to order documents in advance. If you follow the screens, it will tell you whether the info is on microfilm or not. B

Hi Brenda 5th March is okay for me, too, so count me in!! I'm now going to see what I need to look up on their website. Do you think it is worth pre-booking the documents I need to look at? That is, of course, if I can work out which ones I need!! Looking forward to it. Natalie

Good information thanks it will be my 1st visit

As Chris proposes travelling rather further than the rest of us, shall we say 5th March for an initial visit? If we enjoy ourselves, there is no reason to confine ourselves to a single meetup, or one on a Saturday, though anything during the week would have to be organised by someone else. Gwynne is right: record offices are very thirsty places and Helen is right that Kew isn’t scary at all. The main things to remember if you don’t want to be thrown out, and I’m sure you all know this already, is that you can’t take food and drink into the search rooms with you (and this includes cough sweets etc) and you mustn’t use pens, rubbers or pencil sharpeners anywhere near the documents. These rules are to protect documents created long before we were born, to help ensure they last long after we are dead. The National Archives at Kew hold masses of records, but they are not the first port of call if you are interested in civil registration or censuses. They have some things (and by the time of our visit should have free access to some of the Ancestry census indexes) but the best place for this is the Family Record Centre. If you’ve not done so already, visit their website at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ to find out whether they have the records you want, if there is a research guide on the subject, and WHAT PROOFS OF IDENTITY YOU NEED TO OBTAIN A READER’S TICKET. I apologise if I am teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here, but I have known the mortification of arriving at a record office without adequate proofs of identity! B

Kew isn't scary at all. I was pleasantly surprised when I got there to find a bright, spacious building with helpful staff, signs and materials. You can pre-register in advance of your visit and pre-order your documents so they will be ready when you arrive. After getting your readers' ticket (which you can use with computers all over the building to check the status of documents you've ordered) go straight past the fantastic bookshop or you will never make it to the search rooms! The ground floor also has a restaurant which does lovely hot lunches and puddings, as well as the usual sandwiches etc. But taking a bottle of water is a good idea. Upstairs there's helpdesks with friendly staff who don't bite, and a room with the IGI on microfiche, ditto medal rolls index, plus lots of other military stuff including Army Lists. Up another set of stairs is the Map Room for looking at large documents and also trial records - which for 1862 when I was researching are all bundled into card boxes and tied with pink - though presumably once red - ribbon. All folded as they had been when first put in, and some are quite frail now - lists of jurors, lists of witnesses, a book with the court cases written in with the time the trial started - everything except the actual trial transcript, which for my case wasn't in the box! nell

Hi, I love Kew but work Saturdays, sadly. It isn't so scary if you take the tour and write down exactly what you want to find before you get there. I always look through the online catalogue and make a note of the ref numbers of the documents I want before I get there. The staff are very helpful and will point you in the right direction but won't do it for you. There are lots of useful leaflets you can download as well. I find it very dry so take some water with you. Gwynne

Hi Brenda I've only just caught up with your thread. Heather and I share a birthday, as mine's on the 19th February as well, but I'd be happy to go as a 'birthday treat' to myself!! 5th March looks okay too, so I'm a DEFINITE whichever date you go for. Thanks so much for helping us to team up in this way! Looking forward to it! Love Natalie