Visiting the National Archives (TNA) at Kew - Lessons Learnt

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Beckenham1
Posts: 62
Joined: Wed May 28, 2008 1:18 pm
Location: London

Visiting the National Archives (TNA) at Kew - Lessons Learnt

Post by Beckenham1 » Wed Jul 02, 2008 2:03 pm

I intend to visit the the National Archives (TNA) at Kew. I've never been there before.
I will go by car and intend to park in their facility. I'm going to get there early on a Tuesday or Thursday as these have the longest opening times. I've already registered for a "Reader's Ticket" over the internet.
In order to make the most of the day; does anyone have any "lessons learnt" that they would be willing to share.

Thanks in advance, Jim
Last edited by Beckenham1 on Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

Chris Paton
Posts: 433
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2007 9:14 pm

Post by Chris Paton » Wed Jul 02, 2008 4:00 pm

Hi Jim,

I have not been since they've recently revamped the place, so all I would offer is to suggest that a) you make sure you have all the ID you need - see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/registration/ - and b) plan as much in advance as you can, using the catalaogue at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cata ... lt.asp?j=1.

It can be a bit daunting, but the staff are usually very helpful. You can order documents in advance of your visit, which might save time - in the past I have had to wait up to half an hour for a document to arrive, though it may well be faster now!

Bear in mind, that unlike the National Archives in Edinburgh, you can actually use a digital camera to photograph a great many of the documents held at Kew.

Have a great time! :)

Chris
Tha an lasair nad anam aig meadhan do bhith
Nas làidir 's nas motha na riaghaltas no rìgh.

Rach
Posts: 360
Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 6:25 pm
Location: Tweeddale

Post by Rach » Thu Jul 10, 2008 7:16 pm

Hi Jim,
Hope you had an interesting time at NA, Kew, that is if you have been yet.
We were in London a couple of weeks ago and decided to visit Kew Gardens. As we stepped off the train it looked as though it was about to pour. At the same time I saw the sign for the Kew archives. Jokingly I suggested to my husband that we could go there instead if it rained but he seemed to have humour failure! So, lucky you, and hope you found what you were looking for.
Rae
Names of interest: Perthshire- Taylor, McDonald, McRaw, Gould; Caithness- Cormack, Campbell, Sutherland; Berwickshire- Darling, Johnson, Whitlie, Forrest/Forrester/Foster, Barns/Barnes,Buglass/Bookless; Wilson, Thorburn, Cowe, Laing, Rae, Colven, Collin,

mean_genie
Posts: 25
Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2006 1:05 am
Location: Chesham, Buckinghamshire

Post by mean_genie » Tue Jul 15, 2008 10:00 pm

Jim

If you haven't been to Kew yet, I agree with Chris that you should do as much advance prep as possible. If you follow his link to the Catalogue page you will see a link near the top right-hand corner of the page to 'Research guides' which takes you to a list of about 300 of them, on some of the most popular subjects for research. That should keep you occupied for a while!

Good luck

Mean_genie