Genealogy Chat

Hi all, I recently went on the the national archives web site and did a quick search on one of my less common surnames. To my surprise (as i wasn't expecting anything) there were quite a few records and some of them were On-line that I could purchase. They were WW1 medal cards. Well I chose about 5 and paid the £3.50 each. When I came to download the data I found that as all my guys had the same surname 3 of them were on the same page. Hence, I paid for the same page 3 times!! I just feel that this isn't advertised properly and I wasted £7. Right, feel better now I've had a winge

thanks for this, I am just trying to download one now but all I get is There was a problem showing the document details, please refresh the page or contact TNA Linda

Why don't you complain to NA? Worth a try. Pauline

If you go on Documents Online, specifically, they do mention that as a hazard to watch out for. <<< Searching for a card on DocumentsOnline Top of page As there are more than 5.5 million medal cards, we have created a specific search form for the medals category. You can also use the Quick and Advanced Search facilities, which search across ALL documents. The index to the images contains data transcribed from the cards. The fields you can search on are last name, first name (or initial) and corps, and you can search on their rank and regimental number in the other keywords field (you cannot search on the medals themselves). Occasionally there may be no regimental number recorded on the card, which may be the case if the person was an Officer. In the transcribed index, names are listed as 'Last Name, First Name (or Initial)' (for example, 'medal card of Robinson, John'). So if you are having no luck searching on 'John Robinson' in Quick Search, try using 'Robinson John' or 'Robinson J'. The cards have been indexed this way so you can sort your search results list alphabetically. For more help on searching, please see the search tips. All the medal cards have a covering date of 1914-1920. Because of this there is no need to restrict your search by date. ******If you are ordering more than one medal card for individuals with similar names, you should check that their cards are not contained on the same image, please see How are the cards arranged? below. >>> Christine

I have recently found something on the NTA website which I believe relates to my 2xggfather`s army service. Unfortunately it is not something I can download so decided to send for an estimate to have the document copied. I have no idea what is there - it may be something that I already have - so was naturally concerned that the price for having the document looked up, copied and posted to me might outweigh the risk of receiving duplicate information. I was very pleased this morning to receive the estimate - cost one pounds sixty pence. At this price I will certainly be sending for it - if it´s a duplicate of what I have already got only 1.60 lost. I did notice that I could have the document sent as a digitised image - but the cost of this would be 10 pounds to cover the cost of the CD and postage. Will let you know if its value for money!!

Must admit I was also surprised at the estimate. I think it really depends on whether you want paper copies (photocopies) or digitalised images. I have chosen the estimate for photocopies and have this afternoon received another estimate for something - 40 pence!!! I think if you go for digital images then there is a flat rate of 10 pounds to cover the cost of the disc, regardless of how much information they copy for you. Give it a go and ask for an estimate - you obviously don´t have to accept it - and you might be pleasantly surprised! Elaine

A tip for anyone ordering documents from TNA. I have recently requested two separate estimates of documents, one priced at 1.60 and the other at 0.40. I have just gone on line to order them and find that the postage quoted for EACH set of documents is 5.06 pounds. I can see no way of combining these orders, thus saving on one lot of postage. I have sent an email to TNA and received a reply within 15 minutes, saying that a further estimate will be sent to me covering the 2 sets of documents I wish to order, which means I will only have to pay one lot of postage. It was pointed out that you can request 5 estimates at any one time - so anyone looking up information I would suggest you combine as many requests as possible as the minimum postage for each order appears to be 5.06 pounds. I must add I am very impressed with the TNA costs and service. Well done to the TNA. One of these days I will brave enought to visit in person!!!

I have had the same the TNA, paid the money (from Oz) and the page was illegible, how do you ask for an estimate??

Elanie I used their 'request a quote' service and I think it's fantastic....I told them I wanted all pages relating to Joe Bloggs and gave his service number...within the hour they had sent me a quote and told me there were 31 pages relating to him and would cost 40p per page plus p&p...this brought the cost up to nearly £15 but was well worth it.....7 days later I had the said mans ww1 service record sent to me. They were perfect copies all on A3 paper (no squinting to read it) I was also surprised that although they were apart of the burnt records series there was not a single singed piece in sight!!! I think I must have been lucky!! Deb

Annette, I do my searches from the following web address http://www.nationalarchives(.)gov(.)uk/search/quick_search.aspx?javascriptenabled=True&searchtext= when you have found a document that you want there is a tab which says REQUEST THIS. Click on that tab and it takes you to another page where you request an estimate. The estimate is then sent to you by email. You can also do your search from http://www.nationalarchives(.)gov(.)uk/documentsonline/ - but I find when I use this I don´t get as many results as when I use the first web address I gave.

nudging to come back to later;; Babs

Elaine, Thank you for that. I am very new to all this, and have been a bit nervous about asking for help on the tips boards, thinking I'll look like a complete numnut. I love reading everyones replies, I should be researching, but am reading instead. Thank you again. Annette

Elaine, Just a quickie...... how do you nudge?? Annette

The first address from Elaine...in Spain brought up my gr grandfather (with an unusual name) applying for naturalisation-uh uh more expense-I have to have it. I am assumimg it may say more than is given on the website altho' I know quite a bit of his later life anyway. Jennie

Annette - when you want to nudge a thread to the top of the board - just go the thread - click add reply - type in the word nudge (or in fact anything you want) and the thread will come to the top of the list.

Jennie, You can get an estimate for the information that they have - you will find that you are charged 40p for each sheet to be copied - so if the estimate is 40p you know there is only one sheet, if its 1.60 pounds you know there are 4 sheets. etc. Just out of interest you said that when used the first web address I gave you came up with some naturalisation papers for your ggranfather. Do you get the same results when you use the second address. I always find that the first address seems to bring up some different things - don´t know why!