Genealogy Chat

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Family Records Centre,1 Myddelton Street, London EC1R 1UW - website: http://www.familyrecords.gov.uk/frc Some thoughts of mine: Family Records Centre - if you can travel there - Cross over Clerkenwell Road and when you reach the big Post Office on the left, turn into Exmouth Market on the right. At the end of this, you see the FRC as shown in magazine pictures. The entrance is on the right of the wedge-shaped building.; go up the steps or the ramp to the front door. There is an attendant who will want to check your bag. Best to go down to the basement to start with; here are toilets, refreshment area and cloakroom to leave coat (it gets warm upstairs). You will need a pound coin for a locker. Then go back up to where you came in. and then you walk through past the shop into big room dealing with BMD certificates. There is an information desk, also the counter where eventually you will fill out coloured request forms and pay for your orders. The main part of this floor contains three areas of registers, births, marriages and deaths. You just get as close as you can to the dates you want to start with, and then take down one book at a time and see what you can find. All the books are alphabetical by surname, you will see by the area given which name is the right one for you. Jot down the year, quarter, district, volume and page number; this is what goes on the request forms. The books are **heavy**. Just a matter of working round all the other people, and getting through the years you want. After a time you will want to take a break to fill up some request forms or take a walk downstairs. The floor above deals with census data; and there are interesting books. Leave enough time for the payment counter; quite a queue builds up from about 2 o'clock.

Jennifer You can save the thread to your 'my documents' file. I just did it. Rename it for easy ref. and then pop it into a folder. You will then be able to add further tips as and when. Linda

Thanks for all your tips. I have just about exhausted all the searching I can do using the BMD indexes and census and need to venture to the records office. These tips will help a lot. Catherine

Bookmarking for future use

Bookmarking for 1st visit next month. T.O.R. ;o))

One thing I make sure to do now when looking at a new (to me) type of document is to spend some time familiarising myself with the layout and contents. I'm thinking particularly of personnel records, staff registers and the like. Whilst researching a policeman ancestor and looking through some station diaries from the 1860s I flipped to the back page of one and found that someone at the time had hand-copied the standing orders into it (Gawd bless yer, mate), which included information such as promotions, disciplinaries, transfers etc. that, as far as I know, has not survived anywhere else. I've uncovered some totally unexpected gems in this way. Peter.

Nudge for Claire.

nudged If you'd like to visit the Family Records Centre in London, ensure that you do so before the end of April next year; after then, it will transfer to Kew.

hi all, this is brilliant! thanks for this i am hoping to make my first trip this summer. i just dread walking in not knowing what i am doing . is the first time always the worst !!!! elaine

Elaine - for me, the first time was at the Family Records Centre in London, and I was very nervous and very excited at the same time! A friend had told me where things were, and how to get there, but it's never the same as doing it yourself! I walked through the door - I have the same feeling right now! - and found that bags / handbags are searched. Good idea, thought I. I went downstairs, left my coat and handbag in a locker (having put in a pound coin), made sure I had pen and all necessary papers - yes, oddly enough, biros can be used at the FRC! - went to the loo, and upstairs I went to the ground floor to explore the rows of big books in which the registrations of births, marriages and deaths are recorded. It wasn't until my next trip that I ventured upstairs to look at census on microfilm - and there I found the staff so helpful. Probably I said something like I am new here, please can you help me. I remember then the many times I asked them to help me put the film on the viewer, and they never seemed to tire of me! I find if I smile at people, they smile back … and you should have seen the smiles when I had my first 'find': ''There he is!'' said I! ''There's my Great-Grandad!' One mistake I have been known to make is to forget to write down all the details at the time of finding someone, ie the year, the quarter of the year in which the event was registered, and the volume no …. and had to go back and look again! And now, having had a brief break, I must return to work! Happy hunting!

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nudge for Kate

nudge thanks fornall the info Y

Thank you. I recognised you, Brian ... just as you recognised me (I hope!) ... :-) Joy Kentish Maid with bouncebackability PTFA&G GC - Positive Thoughts For Alfie & Gaynor Genes Connected. Alfie and Gaynor both had cancer; sadly, both died. Genes Connected was the original name of this site. By the way, 'bouncebackability' - I am a Crystal Palace supporter; the phrase was coined by the previous manager Iain Dowie.

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nudged for when I'm brave enough to venture to a records office.

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nudge for Margaret Weaver