Preparation is everything

After a busy few weeks at work I managed to take a day off and scurried down to the National Archives. I had originally planned to tackle the 1939 Register for my area but revised this when FMP announced that this would be free to subscribers in February. By the time I found this out it was too late to preorder any of the material specific to Springhill (of which there is lots of juicy Chancery stuff, litigious lot they were). Plan B therefore was to extend my coverage of the 1910 Valuation, which currently has only been transcribed for the immediate Springhill area.

Lesson number one: if you are going to look at something which requires access to the Reading Room, make sure your readers' ticked is up to date. Mine wasn't.

Having realised that I didn't have any proof of address, I decided not to waste time on the e-learning about not using pencils with rubbers and headed back to the open area. No matter, I will make a start on the 1939 after all.

Find My Past website was down.

In the event I found the Register for births as Sion Baptist ('the Particular Baptist Church at Cloughfold' - it helps to know the history of the place) and had great fun transcribing these. I managed about 2/3 of them in the time available. Yes, they are available on Ancestry and the Genealogist but having got to Kew it was a shame to waste the time and the weather was too poor for the gardens.

So for next time:
Complete the e-learning and register for a ticket before leaving home
Remember to preorder the documents in advance so I finally can find out the settlement of Mary Ann Patrick's will and the custody arrangements for her nieces in their minority.
Take the documents necessary for the reader card
Decide in advance what computer-based resource I will use if there is a gap between fetching documents from the reading room.

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