Genealogy Chat

With so many newbies and others who have never visited a local history center could you wonderful experienced "oldies" give a blow by blow account on what to do or ask for. THANK YOU SO MUCH Pat

Good question ..... I would love to know as well !! Elaine :-)

The first thing to do is to have a good idea of who and what you are looking for, on the LDS site you can find lists of the records held and for what areas, it will tell you there also whether they have to be ordered in. It is worth giving the History centre a ring to check whether the particular documents you wish to view are actually in the building. Take a packed lunch and plenty to drink. The staff at the centre will not search for you but in my experience of the centre in Exhibition Road South Kensington they are really nice people, very helpful and will point you in the right direction. The best tips I personally could give- be clear what you want to research, take a pad of paper and plenty of sharp pencils, and if you are blind as a bat like me remember your glasses, I spent a very frustrating day in the FHC and again at the FRO because I could not see a thing, you would have thought I would have learned the first time, also check which days they stay open later because you might be just getting to the good bits and the place needs to close. Gen

Gen Thank you very much for that valuable advice (esp the glasses). It will save a lot of wasted time re pads pencils etc. Pat

Jan That is brilliant. Thank you so much. Pat

Hi Donna A very good tip. How embarrassing for you though. Pat

Always keep a record of exactly what you have searched - ie marriage of X to Y, searched all quarters 1852-1890 at ABC record office. Otherwise you can end up looking for the same thing in the same place more than once! Maz. XX