So...You Want to Visit an Archives or Record Office in the UK

I wanted to put down some good tips for travel and research if you're planning a trip to the UK soon in order to research your family history. These are all tips that I feel will help your research, and indeed your whole holiday, go more smoothly.

My Internship at Shropshire Archives, 2008,
Working on a Deed Collection

Money and the Chip and Pin System

Now, I know for a fact my US bank account debit card does not have a chip in it, though reports indicate that may change soon. This makes it increasingly difficult to buy anything with it when I'm in the UK because while my debit card needs to be swiped in order to use it, the chip and pin is used differently. Although some stores will swipe your card, more and more of the stores will not or cannot swipe your non-chip card.

I suggest knowing ahead of time what you'll be doing and taking money out of the ATM/Cash Machine for your copies, travel, and assorted expenses for the day, keeping in mind the fees you will be charged.

It's a good idea to keep some cash anyway because a lot of archives are switching to copy cards that you load or purchase in certain amounts. Keep in mind too that the actual bills only go down to 5 Pounds, so be prepared to have a change purse to keep Pound Coins in. Making sure you have a few Pound coins are also a good idea, especially since you'll need one to secure your valuables in a locker.

Hours of Operation

Check the website of the archives beforehand to make sure they haven't changed their hours and days of operation. Budgets are still strained due to the economy and the institution may have had to reduce the times they are open.

Reserving Microfilm and Computers

You also want to check to see if you will need reserve use of the microfilm machines and computers beforehand. If there is a chance you will be there during a busy period, you'll want to make sure you have access to the records that are microfilmed, particularly those parish and newspaper records that are available in that format, and online access to records that will help you find what you need.

Also, make sure ahead of time if there is a digital camera fee. This is used in a lot of cases in lieu of copying, and many repositories charge a nominal fee for the privilege.


Recommended Items

I would recommend you take the following items with you:

• Cash, including at least one Pound coin.
• Pencil and Notebook, including a list of what you need to find.
• Magnifying bookmark or small magnifying glass.
• Secretary hand letter guide.
• Digital Camera.

A lot of archives have a small shop where you can get the letter guide, pencils, and the magnifying aid.

Catalog Searches

I can't stress enough looking through their online catalog, if available, before your trip. Most of the time your time at the archives will be limited, so planning ahead is a good idea. Scour the website of the archives too, to see if anything you want to see is on microfilm, like parish registers. Make a list of what you want to find, and not the reference numbers of any documents you want to see. This is the magical number you will need in order to have one of the archivists on public service pull the document.

Courtesy

Keep in mind that right now a lot of funds are going toward the Olympics being held in London in 2012. In addition to that, the economy is causing a lot of institutions and government bodies to cut funding, and the heritage sector is a prime target. As a result, archives are experiencing reduced staff and less time to do their work. The fees in place are there to make sure the archives can preserve the documents and provide access to their collections.

Additionally, archivists are being asked to do more in less time. If they restrict access to a document, there is a reason for the policy. Please thank them for their help and advice and perhaps buy something from the archives shop. It'll be a good memento of the trip and a lot of their books will help expand details on your ancestor's lifestyle in that area.

ARCHON (A directory of repositories in the UK): http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archon/

Finally...

Some News (Or News about News)

I'm hoping that in the next month, I will be announcing my plans to attend school in the UK again. I am applying to the Masters in Heritage Studies at the University of East London. It will get me back there, I hope permanently, because I intend to get a job over there after graduation. When I make this announcement, I will also be trying to expand my business here, including offering my services for people unable to get to London/England, and starting a companion blog about moving and living in the UK. My aim is to earn as much as I can this summer to cover my plane ticket and the first month of living over there when I have purchase necessities such as household goods. Wish me luck!

Records and Research: Edith Elizabeth Eckard (No. 10-11)

This series began with a randomly selected document that contains genealogical information. I will then take that information and outline what we can learn from the document and what I would do next to find more information on the person involved.


Previous parts in this series can be found here: No. 1, No. 2, No. 3-4, and No. 5-9

Document No. 10-11: Passenger Lists

No. 10: 11 Jun 1923, Arrival from Quebec on the Ship Canada

Link: UK Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960, Via Ancestry.com

No. 11: 27 Nov 1923, Arrival to New York on the SS. President Garfield

Link: New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957, Via Ancestry.com

What These Records Tell Us: 
Edith Elizabeth Eckard and her daughter Elizabeth were traveling onward to London from Liverpool. It is possible she planned to visit her Shropshire family on the way to London. However, she states her address in the UK as 16 Southwick, Hyde Park, London (Link: Google Maps). As she lived in London during the 1901 Census with an Aunt, it may have been her she intended to visit. These documents also confirm that she was an American citizen at the time.

On her return journey, she stated she was naturalized by marriage. Since her daughter was a native of the United States, Edith gave her daughters birth as 9 Mar 1914 in St. Louis Missouri. Their address is given as 2741 Dakota Street (Link:Google Maps) in St. Louis Missouri.

Next Step: Check for her original immigration as Elizabeth Edith Brookfield and then double check for any other journeys after she was married.

Resource: My Recommended UK Genealogy Books

2 1/2 year old Quincy models the book I bought this weekend.

Someone in the chat for geneablogger radio during their United Kingdom genealogy show last week asked me about books about the parish chest and records over there in general. I told them I would post a list of books I'd recommend this week.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. This is merely a list of books that I have used in my academic studies.

Information about Records:

• Herber, Mark D. Ancestral Trails: The Complete Guide to British Genealogy and Family History. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1998).
• Irvine, Sherry. Your English Ancestry: A Guide for North Americans. (Provo: Ancestry Publishing, 1998).
• The National Archives Research Guides  http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guide-listing.htm
• Tate, W. E. The Parish Chest. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1946).
• The My Ancestor Was Series, which includes the following titles:
• ...Came with the Conqueror
• ... a Coalminer
• ...a Bastard
• ...a Merchant Seaman
• ...a Freemason
• ...a Policeman
• ...a Railway Worker
• ...a Royal Marine
• ...an Agricultural Labourer 
• ...an Apprentice
• ...in Service
• ...in the British Army
• ...were Baptists
• ...were Gypsies
• ...were Jewish
• ...Londoners
• ...English Presbyterians or Unitarians
• ...Thames Waterman

Books to Help Understand What Records Say:

• Cheney, C. R., ed. A Handbook of Dates: For Students of British History. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
• Humphery-Smith, Cecil. Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers. (Chichester: Institute of Heraldric and Genealogical Studies, 1995). 
• Ison, Alf. A Secretary Hand ABC Book. (Reading: Berkshire Family History Society Research Centre, 2000).
• Martin, Charles Trice. The Record Interpreter. (London: Reeves and Turner, 1892).
• Morris, Janet. A Latin Glossary for Family and Local Historians. (Bury: Federation of Family History Societies, 2002).  Note: available for purchase at www.familyhistorybooks.co.uk
• Stuart, Denis. Latin for Local & Family Historians. (Chichester: Phillimore, 1995).

Note: You can get quite a lot of these through the National Archives online shop: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/shop/

This Friday: Geneablogger's Radio

Friday, April 29, 2011
9 p.m.-11 p.m. CST
Link
Topic: British Genealogy
Guests Include: Audrey Collins, Family History Specialist at the National Archives, Barbara Baker, A.G. and British Reference Consultant at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

I'll be listening in and chatting with people about British genealogy during the program. As many of you know, I studied over there for my Archives Degree (and wish I could go back there to work!), and I'm hoping to get some great ideas for posts here!

Also: Geneabloggers has a post about Royal Genealogy. Looks like Prince William's 27th Great-Grandfather Charlemagne is my 39th great-grandfather. Link: Royal Genealogy

Resource: Internet Archive and Connected Histories

http://www.archive.org/details/texts

Though I tend to find it easier to search for books through Google for the internet archive, I want to highlight it here because I have found a few books through the site that have been very useful. You can view the book in a variety of formats, some easier to to text search than others.

http://www.connectedhistories.org/

Connected Histories has several databases, a mixture of free and subscription, that you can search in one go for British history sources, 1500-1900. It has quite a few resources that will help the researcher in the area of context when researching your own history.

I also wanted to thank all the people who have stopped by my blog in the past few days from geneabloggers. Thanks for the welcome!

Free Resource for April 10th-April 24th: Gale Group Databases

In honor of National Library Week, the Gale Group is giving free access to their NewsVault Database for the period of April 10th-April 24th. This resource has both US and UK newspapers from the 17th century onwards. They also are giving free access to their Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transitional Archive as well. 


Link: 
Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transitional Archive
http://find.galegroup.com/sas/start.do?prodId=SAS&userGroupName=nlw2011


News Vault
http://find.galegroup.com/dvnw/start.do?prodId=DVNW&userGroupName=nlw2011


Thanks to Ladonna Garner for the link. 

Records and Research: Edith Elizabeth Eckard (No. 5-9)

This series began with a randomly selected document that contains genealogical information. I will then take that information and outline what we can learn from the document and what I would do next to find more information on the person involved.


Previous parts in this series can be found here: No. 1, No. 2, and Part 3-4.

Resource: Trafalgar Ancestors

The National Archives has a database of people who served the British side during the Battle of Trafalgar, which includes any service histories and biographies that they've found. (Note: There are  multiple nationalities that served on the British side, and there are even Americans who were serving on British ships. Searching 'America' in advanced search for place of birth, lists 84 people, let alone if you search for specific American locations.)

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/trafalgarancestors/

Resource: DocumentsOnline

Now that this blog is a month old, I'm going to be easing from my post a day approach. I'm going to try for once or twice a week in order for me to write better posts (in theory). It's also entirely possible that I will post more or less depending upon my schedule and/or health.

This website is part of the National Archives (UK) which allows you to search through several databases, including Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, seals, and Ancient Petitions. You can download images of records, some for free and some, like the wills, for a reasonable fee. Really, I recommend looking around to see what you find. I've purchased a few wills that way and I likely will purchase a few more if I ever make any progress on my dissertation.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/

Resource: Welsh Wills Pre-1858

The National Library of Wales has a very helpful database of wills proved before 1858. I'd suggest looking all over this website for plenty of excellent genealogical resources and tips though, but I felt the wills to be a particularly useful resource.

National Library of Wales

(Note: Having spent a lot of time there last year, I recommend having one of their paninis should you visit and need some lunch. Also, take the bus up to the University and walk down the hill. Trust me.)

Resource: Find My Past

For those of you with ancestors in England, this website is extremely useful. It operates on a paid credits system, which is a bit different to ancestry, or a subscription. The site has the 1911 English census available, which Ancestry does not yet have. It also claims to have the most complete BMD (birth, marriage, death) index from when they began national registration in 1837 to 2006, indexes of parish registers, and some military records.

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/home.jsp

Information on how much the credits and subscription costs can be found here. For those that need a quick currency exchange to know how much it will cost, I've found this tool to be useful during my travels: Link.

Resource: Scotland's People

I haven't had much of an opportunity to use this website for research, but I wanted to make note of it because you can see the census images for Scotland as compared to just an index of the census records on ancestry.com. The site also has indexes for parish registers, vital records, and wills. Credits can be bought to view search results. Also, the 1911 Scotland Census will be available on this site on the 5th of April.

Link: Scotland's People

The Old Poor Law (Part I)

While studying for my Archives Administration degree in Wales, I had to complete four miniature papers on various record types, which I figured I'd share here in order that the files could see the light of day again.

Part II will include the documents produced because of the poor law. 

Resource: The Old Bailey Online, 1674-1913

Anyone researching their family history may have to prepare themselves for the fact that at some point one's ancestors were not always squeaky clean models of society. I myself have a rumored horse thief on my father's side and possible counterfeiters on my mother's side.

Petty Sessions Records (United Kingdom)

What are Petty Sessions?

The Baptists of the United Kingdom and Their Records

While studying for my Archives Administration degree in Wales, I had to complete four miniature papers on various record types, which I figured I'd share here in order that the files could see the light of day again. 

Resource: Memorials & Monuments in Portsmouth

Link: Memorials & Monuments in Portsmouth

I found this website when I googled my 11th great-grandfather Colonel William Willoughby. Coincidently, I found this when a year before, I had been in Portsmouth Cathedral and the Royal Dockyards on a pleasure trip. I find him extremely interesting because I already had a minor interest in the Royal Navy at the time, and after generations of my family being in as few records as seemingly possible, as I'm sure you all understand, to find him and his son (Francis Willoughby, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts) in several government documents was absolutely fantastic to find.

All I'm saying is do a quick Google search of any ancestors with a few location or date parameters, sooner rather than later!