Genealogy Chat

I'm trying to be really well organised for my visit to Cambridge RO the week after next, to make the most of the time I'll have there but my head is getting in a spin. Do I make a list of all the people and events I want to check and stick to that, do I take blank forms and fill in the details of every instance of the names I'm interested in, or should I make a list of all the names from the IGI and confirm and add details as I go. All suggestions gratefully received!! Jane

How long are you planning to be there - a week?!! Depends what sort of person you are. I go with plans and then they go out of the window! i get carried away down off shoots and interesting alleys...but have the advantage my CRO is 5 mins away, although that is only HIS family line,not mine. Jess

I wish I did have a week there! Realistically it will probably be just an afternoon or two out of my holiday. Jane

Take a pencil and lots of paper. Secondly, think why are you going? To smell the flowers or to research a certain family or record? I always go with 3 things to look for and concentrate on those otherwise you will get side-tracked. If you are tempted to get side-tracked make a note of it and if you have time do that as well. Time will fly and you can get mesmerised by all the 'stuff' they have. Take as much info as you can carry as it is guaranteed there will be something you can't remember. Good Luck and enjoy

They will , however let you only take the bare minimum into the research area, so park the car close if you can , or stuff everything into the (usually) provided locker. Pencils (no Pens) 10p's

I take a list of targets of things that I can't do on the internet or would be too expensive to do at home. For instance my great great grandparents had 23 children and ordering that many certs would blow my budget for the next 10 years! Also looking at Parish records past 1901 was really helpful too. I use FTM 2005 so I find it useful to have a report printed off of my family groups so I remember who everyone is. Try also to look up before you go which villages came under which churches for the period you are looking for. My example was finding the fiche and looking through the records for Carlton church wondering why I couldn't find anything and then I remembered it wasn't built until 60 years after my ancestors were there so I had to look at Gedling church. That wasted half an hour! Take 2 forms of ID for a readers ticket so that you can view orginal registers and I always take some food! I hope that you enjoy yourself and time always flies! Pippa

Cambridge record office is quite cramped. I would suggest, since it is a little way north of the town, that you take bottled water and some sandwiches. There's a grassy castle mound outside where you could eat and enjoy the view at lunchtime - assuming it doesn't rain. nell

Take some money with you because if Cambridge is the same as ours in Portsmouth, you can complete a form in the Record Office and for 75p, you can get a photocopy of for an example, a marriage certificate. You need to find the actual entry and the Staff arrange the copy and you can come home with it. I take a pencil sharpener as well because you tend to scribble like mad with stuff that you find and it soon becomes blunt. A notebook is useful because if you write down on paper, you tend to lose them, so by writing in a notebook, the info is always to hand for later reference. Jan

Less is more. Take as little as you possibly can. One notebook, with your name and address on it. A couple of pencils. If you take a sharpener, make sure it is an enclosed one. At the National Archives, sharpeners are banned anywhere near records as the shavings can damage them. If you write the list of what you wanted to look up in your notebook, in a year or ten's time, you'll have some idea of the way your mind was working. Reckon to spend as much time deciding what to look up as you will actually in the Record Office. There are lots of indexes on the Internet. Use them to decide what sorts of records to look up. Will indexes for the Consistory Court of Ely are in print. These may be a guide to when people died. I'm really jealous, as it's been years since I've been to Cambridge and will be years before I can go again. Enjoy yourself!

A bit boring - but practical! Take a cardi cos it has a tendecy to get chilly and glasses if you wear them! lol Jeanette x

All the advice so far is good, but because it's your first time, you'll be like the new kid in school. Use it as a training exercise, and concentrate on some of your records that you may have second thoughts on. Be prepared that some staff are more helpful than others. Good luck, and don't forget to leave a contribution in the box -Terry

Thanks for all your good idea's, I can't wait to get there and put them into practice! Jane

You have had some brill advice from everyone (I was going to add headache tabs, but thats optional!). What I would say (though I am useless at records off, faff about half the time) is read the website for the office before you go. You may need a pound coin for the locker and dont forget your glasses! (I did last time and a kind gentleman lent me his magniffying glass, but it was a long old haul). But the most important tip as a newbie, like me, is to use the staff there. Dont be nervous of asking and letting them guide you round the place. I faffed about for half an hour doing nothing when I first went. In the end, annoyed with myself, I asked a member of staff to help and she virtually held my hand for the rest of the afternoon! Good luck. (And dont shout 'YES!' when you find something you had hoped for, you get dirty looks!)

I have a 'kit' which includes - a hardback notebook - pencils - a pound-coin sized piece of metal - he kind you can buy on a keyring for supermarket trolleys - which I use for the lockers -my A5 size A-Z book with all basic relative details so I can quickly check if I have got all the burials/census etc if I find them -my CARN ticket -some ROs need this if you want info from the strongroom/documents not on display - loose change for photocopies - an A4 sized magnifying sheet All in a see-through plastic bag. You need this at Kew, and I need it to find what I want. Before you all swoon at my efficiency, I feel I must point out that I almost invariably manage to forget to take the bag, or some of the contents! Luckily most ROs stock basic items like magnifying sheets, notebooks & pencils. I'm getting quite a collection of pencils!!! nell

Nudged for Tina

Hi Every one I am planning to take a trip to london office can you get photo copies of birth certs or do you need to order them and if you can get photo copies what is the differance in the price . I have so many that i would like to get and photo copies would be ideal for brothers sisters ect if they were cheaper . Although i would want the real thing for key members of the family . I hope you do not mind me asking this question on your thread Thank you Diana

Birth Marriage and Death certificates are held by the GRO (General Record Office). As far as I know, the original certificates are held in Southport as this is where they are sent from when you order on-line. You can't view the full entries themselves personally, but have to order a copy of the entry from the register based on the GRO indexes that are kept in various record offices or online at places like 1837online. The £7 fee for a certificate is essentally only a glorified photocopy of the original entry kept in the central registers, and if you want any more than that, your best bet is to pop down your local Spar shop and run off a few photocopies yourself at 5p a pop or just use a scanner to do it yourself on your PC.

Nudged for myself so I can find it again - too much information to take in at once!

Can someone tell me how to find out where a local office for an area is please? Victoria

Nudge so I can find it again. Great advice. Thanks all.