Genealogy Chat

I have one day only in London later this year with my mum. We are both keen to do some FH research but don't know where to go. If you had one day only, where would you spend it? eg National Archives, LMA, A particular parish ( rellies we are looking at are from London)...................My gt grandfather served in WW1 and my GGGrandfather had a tailors business..........which place would be most valuable to us do you think? TIA Claire xx

Well National Archives is at Kew which is way out of London.Depends what you want to look up. The FRC s at Islington & 5 mins walk away is The Metroplitan Archives which hold lots of parish records for London both sides of the Thames. You can look on the National Archives online & maybe find medal record of your rellie which you can download for £3.50

I don't exactly know what I am going to be looking up yet! We just thought that we would go to the place that might have the most relevant records to my family, which is why I mentioned my Gt grandfathers occ. I didn't know that the FRC and LMA were close together. Is it viable to spend 1/2 a day at each or would I need a whole day for a good trawl? Claire xx

I think you need to make a list of what records you need to help you with your research and then write down where those records are kept. Most of the records that are at the records office you can search online now(BMD Ancestry or 1837)so perhaps the LMA would be your best bet, check the IGI for all your records first as that will give you details of the churches your ancesters were baptised or married in. Good Luck Irene

If you google 'Archive Awareness Campaign' and search London there's a calendar of events going on at various archives and a map showing all the places you may want to visit. Haven't been on the site for a while now, but hope this helps! Whereabouts in London were your ancestors based?

You can't really tell how much time you're going to need at the FRC - you might find that the first record you look up gives you enough new leads to spend weeks pursuing. I've been down there for the whole day twice and both times came away with unfinished business. Michael (also in Cov)

If you split up, one could go to Guildhall: good for directories, apprenticeship records etc and the other to FRC/ LMA. Decide in advance EXACTLY what you want to do. Check websites for opening hours and holdings. LMA has Greater London records only. City of London are at Guildhall RO (I can't remember its proper name) and other records are held at Westminster Archives. Unless you have great stamina, you cannot spend all day looking at microfilm, but if you plan in advance, you can chop and change the media you are looking at, and make sure you end the day at the place that stays open longest. If you have Ancestry, FRC is largely useful for: free access to Documents Online - PCC wills, Estate Duty Records 1796 - 1811, medal cards, royal naval seamen Estate Duty records 1811 - 1858 Wills index 1858 - circa 1940 Trade directories Street indexes for every town over 30k inhabitants London parishes are small in area, but very high density, so you may trawl forlornly through huge registers without finding a thing. Use IGI and Pallots for entries that are starting points to find out more. It sometimes feels like an exam: I want to find out so much and can get panicky and upset if time passes and I've only got a few illegible notes. Try not to save all your photocopying to the end of the day. The machines at LMA are swine. You need a degree in photocopying to understand how they work. Well, I do, anyway. So try to choose a quiet period to do copies. Above all, relax, enjoy. (There's a brilliant Turkish restaurant in Exmouth Market!) You are unlikely to knock down every brickwall, but that just gives you an excuse for a second trip!

I always regard my first trip to a new archive as a recce - I want to just browse, see what they've got. You can't do everything. You also need fresh air and a break. Looking at microfilm or index lists all day is exhausting. I like to go round the streets where my relatives lived and see if any of the original buildings are still there. I would suggest you do your homework write down the most urgent priorities - which piece of information do you most want now? Then decide to get that. Check out all the archive websites to make sure that where you are going has what you want and will be open. Enjoy. nell

and if you are really lucky you may find some fo the churches your relatives were married or baptised in are nearby.

Wow! Thanks for all the suggestions. I have some food for thought there. The Guildhall sounds good as a couple of my rellies were tailors and would have been apprenticed I would have thought. They lived all over London and Surrey, mainly in Chelsea and Lambeth though. Well I have a couple of months to make my list and book the hotel ect so I can really think about how best to spend my time. Thanks again, Claire xx