Trip to Edinburgh

Post by **Pandabean** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 10:42 am

Looks like I will have all of Friday to play with.

I have a few people I want to look up and I am hoping that I can then follow on from them and their children. I don't know how much I will need to take with me in terms of already obtained certificates or even printouts.

Do I have to book now in order to get a place? Also what if you wish to leave for a lunch break do you still get to keep your seat and is there somewhere to go for lunch?

AnnieMack · Post by **AnnieMack** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:17 pm

Hi Andy, I was at NAS today and was literally in and out as the item I wanted was on the 'virtual archive'. If you check the online catalogue and have the relevant info to hand I reckon you could do both :O) by using your break away from the pc in NRH to pop next door to NAS.

It took me longer to be issued with my reader card than it did to get my info online and printed.

Annie

Post by **Pandabean** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:55 pm

What I am wanting from NAS is the Kirk session records for Inveresk. I cant remember what I was told when I phoned them up asking for a copy to be sent by mail.

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 10:17 pm

Pandabean wrote:What I am wanting from NAS is the Kirk session records for Inveresk. I cant remember what I was told when I phoned them up asking for a copy to be sent by mail.

Andy

Essential to check before any visit to NAS that the Inveresk Kirk Session records aren't among the 50 or so sessional records that have been retained by the congregation in question.

There was never any legal compulsion, as was the case with the OPRs and GROS, for sessional records to be submitted to NAS, but the great majority of congregations saw the advantage in terms of the preservation of their sessional records in passing them over to NAS.

David

Rockford · Post by **Rockford** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 7:14 pm

Hi Andy,

How did it go at NRH? I've just booked myself a space next month for my first visit and can't wait!

Best wishes

Brian

Post by **Pandabean** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 9:48 am

I was in all day yesterday and found nearly all I wanted to know, got a bit bored near the end when I started running out ideas for searches. The staff were really helpful and you could ask them questions no problem. The only problem I had was with some recent certificates I couldn't print them but thats for obvious reasons (same cut offs as SP), but there was a certificate with a 1940 death but I had to ask to see if I could print it as there was no print icon. I also managed to trace down two Greenlees siblings who were really the only surviving people of that line as most of the brothers (with the exception of Andrew) who did not survive the great war.

Also when you go into the dome room, have a look up. I never noticed til half way through my session. Its eye opening for sure.

The one thing I didn't like was the search interface especially when looking for McDonald's. It returns all males/females of that name in that year, you can't narrow it by places. However a way around that is to use Ctrl+F which brings up IE's find tool and if you have a long list of names you can search for a place if known within the list.

All I can see is it was well worth the visit.

Rach · Post by **Rach** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 12:45 pm

Hi Andy,
Very pleased to read that you had a good day researching. It is very satisfactory to leave having found as much, or even, more than you thought you would. Thanks for the tip about the IE find tool. That should come in useful in the future.
I must admit I haven't looked up at the dome, always seem to have been peering at a screen and then being too dazed to see anything!
Expect you have it all written up now or has the weather been too good?
Rae

Post by **AndrewP** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 1:12 pm

Rach wrote:Thanks for the tip about the IE find tool. That should come in useful in the future.

The Control-F (IE Find) tool is useful but not often advertised. I used it very successfully to search through about 16000 index entries (23 years x 2 genders x (average) 350 results) in about 15 minutes. I was searching recent births, where the commonly used surname I was seeking had these 16000 or so results for the range of years I was seeking. So using the IE find tool, I was able to search each results page for the mother's maiden surname, which (thankfully) was a very unusual name. I was hoping to find two children to this mother, but found only one. I know where they were staying, so I am confident (as I can be) that any such births would have been in Scotland. Given the accuracy of the search compared to any manual method I am happy to conclude that this mother has produced only one child since she married.

Rach wrote:I must admit I haven't looked up at the dome, always seem to have been peering at a screen and then being too dazed to see anything!

For a couple of views of the dome, click on each of the links near the middle of the following webpage (note - the information on this page is out of date).

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~hunter/personal ... alogy.html

All the best,

AndrewP

Post by **Pandabean** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 1:16 pm

I have written some of it up into my family tree program but I still have to do the rest. I didnt look up til half way through as I said and thought to myself "When did that appear?"

The only problem with the Ctrl+F thing is the "ding" noise it makes if it doesnt find something.

Post by **AndrewP** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 1:35 pm

Pandabean wrote:The only problem with the Ctrl+F thing is the "ding" noise it makes if it doesnt find something.

Well, it must have been "dinging" a lot for me that day.

All the best,

AndrewP