Genealogy Chat

After you have chosen a reader and take the machine number box to find a film, don’t change your mind and go to the toilet before you get the film because as you leave the room the alarm will sound, staff will be in hot pursuit, and EVERYONE will look at you. The fact that the box you are holding is empty will have no bearing on the matter. Try not to panic when you don’t load the film properly, it falls off the spool and rolls across the floor.

LOL Brenda! Another.. Courtesy of my friend Barb Do not sit so closely to the screen that when you adjust your seat - you bang your head on the top of the reader, almost rendering you unconscious, this too will cause everyone to look at you, and almost make your friend (me) wet themselves!!

Always visit the toilet first! And if you haven't got reels of film all over the floor, you can't call yourself a serious researcher. Remember that everyone else in the room has either done the same or been very lucky. nell

If you must waltz off with one of those boxes, try not to do it when one of your 'friends' is on duty. Also, when attempting to leave a building, make sure you have your long-distance glasses on: all the doors marked 'private' are alarmed. And, if the film appears to be stuck in the viewer, don't keep pressing the forward button: the film may break. (There's no fool like an old fool)

And remember to bring your NOTES home, the next person at the reader may not be interested in them!!! Jay

Another reason for not sitting too close to the screen is that after reading pages of film you might start to feel a bit drowsy. If you nod off you might also bang your head causing everyone to turn and snigger.

Finish your Cornish Pasty before you sign in. There's no need to put the GRO fiches in EXACTLY the place they came from - the staff are used to finding them for someone else. Wait until about 20 minutes before you are due to leave before finding that the fiche readers can be adjusted to make the images a) larger b) brighter. The person on the fiche reader to your right will be left handed. Make sure that they are in no doubt that right handers have preference when it comes to desk space. Tell the couple on the adjacent fiche reader that you want your chair to sit on as soon as you arrive.

Before you go and fetch a member of staff to complain that your reader isn't working, make sure that the lens cap is off and that it is switched on at the mains.

When you sign up for a Readers Ticket on your first visit, do so before you have locked all your proofs of identity in the locker with your lunch. Tina

Before travelling 220 miles to visit a records office, check you have proof of ID for readers ticket. Write everything remotely interesting down clearly. 220 miles is along way to go to check a mispelling or 'possible' that you discounted at the time. Be nice to everyone in the RO including the reception. It can make a big difference to how they treat you when your brain is addled from the fiche or spool reader.

One more thing.....do check the opening times before you travel to the records office. The outside of the buildings are not usually very interesting - especially when it's freezing cold in the middle of winter!

It's quite frightening to think that I am guilty of most of the above although so far I have never taken off with anything that wasn't mine or tried to enter a door marked 'Private' - Shame on you! As has already been mentioned, it's important to write your notes clearly so that you can understand them when you get home. This is particularly important for us left-handers who have been forced to write cack-handedly to the right of our readers by grumpy old right-handers like Geoff!

Plan, plan, plan. Reckon on spending more time working out exactly what you want to look at than you are going to spend there. Because I misread the opening hours, we went to LMA and the FRC in the wrong order. FRC was closing and we hadn't looked at everything we wanted to and hadn't the stamina to find something to look at in the LMA. Do not abbreviate. Write it down exactly as you find it. Otherwise you won't understand what you've written. And NEVER think that you can remember something you haven't written down. I think that the only crimes I haven't committed are: eating sweets in a record office, using pens for note taking, or licking my finger to turn a page, but over the years I've done everything else. (blush)