Sue & Jonathan Farmer were the speakers at our May meeting. Sue began the talk by taking us on a 97 miles informative tour of the National Archives. This is the amount of space required to house all the records safely. She told us what could & could not be found at Kew & the Family Record Centre in Islington & the best way to do our searches. The documents held at Kew are many & varied, from records of central government to maps & tithes and records for armed forces to legal documents & taxes. The list was endless. Sue spoke about the library & explained that if you asked for a particular item with as much information as possible, the helpful staff would find if for you or at least knew where to send you. She amused us by recounting the story of a lady who asked for ‘the gold book’ & with this very limited information the correct book was acquired.
We were told of the facilities for photocopying records when we found them & that our own digital cameras could also be used, providing they were checked in on entrance.
Advice was given on how to equip ourselves with as much information as possible about our own research needs, before a trip the National Archives, firstly to save time when we got there & secondly to help the staff to help us when we had queries.
Jonathan continued the talk on how he became involved with the work at Kew. He then illustrated with slides & explained the information leaflets available at Kew that would ease our research tasks. He told us what was available at Kew on computer & on line at home. He again stressed the need to go ‘fully equipped with information’ when visiting The National Archives & the talk ended with Sue & Jonathan answering questions. An evening, which we hope, encouraged all to visit the National Archives at Kew.
[Barbara Holmes]
January meeting: Kevin Rodgers – Wisbech workhouse
As most members know, Kevin is a prolific writer on Wisbech local history. He owned up that after publishing a book he tries to forget
6th March 2024