If you're keen to find out what's happening at The National Archives and to have your say, next Saturday sees one of the eight User Forum meetings at The National Archives. The Forums take place at The National Archives at Kew and last for approximately one to one and a half hours.
There's more information available (including a full meeting agenda) at The National Archives website or for more information please email [email protected]
Future meeting dates are:
Once you’ve found those precious records of ancestors, after often painstaking research, the next important task is to ensure they are stored and protected safely. Standard PVC sleeves can suffer from leaching of plasticizer which lifts print off pages and ruins those valuable certificates.
To ensure your collection of certificates and research documents are preserved in pristine condition, we’ve listed 5 tools that every family historian should have in their possession to guard against damage to those precious documents.
Certificate Binders
High-quality ring binders are available in standard A3 and A4 sizes, or the specially designed ‘Long Certificate’ binders (which can hold both the old ‘long’ style and the new style A4 certificates. A binder is essential to protect certificates or photos or any other memorabilia.
Springback Binders
Unlike ring binders, you don’t have to punch any holes in the paper- simply choose the sheets you want, fold the covers of the binder back, and place the paper into the spine. You can add or remove pages as many times as you like.
Storage Boxes
If you have objects or memorabilia that won’t fit into a binder, it’s worth looking at a special storage box, designed to protect your items from damage. Certain specialist boxes come lined with lignin-free paper and are designed to protect against acidity and sulphur in the air.
Acid free pens and paper
Another tip is to use acid free pens which can be used to write on most surfaces such as photographs, charts, paper or card without causing worry or damage.
Acid free photo tape and glue
If you need to stick or repair any documents, it is essential to use acid free tape to help preserve those documents. Ensure you use non-yellowing tape as this can really ruin the look of your old original and make it hard to read.
Brass Archival Paperclips (non rusting)
We all like to keep our documents and notes together. For particularly valuable and fragile documents, if you want to keep them together with paperclips, be sure to use archival paperclips which are non rusting and not liable to leave a mark on your research material!
Archival Cotton Gloves
Finally, to handle all those precious keepsakes and documents, it’s worth investing in a pair of archival quality protective gloves, avoiding any unnecessary damage caused by the natural acidity of bare skin.
S&N Genealogy Supplies provide a full range of archival supplies to help you protect your valuable research. Find out more at the S&N website.
Can you think of any other invaluable tools that can help family historians protect their documents and keepsakes? Let us know in the comments below!
Full range of archival storage products available from S&N Genealogy
If you're keen to combine your research with an energetic walk, the Society of Genealogists has organised a walk around Finchley to visit an ancient road which links two ancient villages. The walk will take in lands once owned by the Knights Templar and a former manor house which is haunted by a suspected lover of Anne Boleyn. The walk also takes in two famous murders and two uncrowned kings connected to the area.
The walk is on Saturday, 17 May from 11:00-12:30, with Paul Baker. The cost is £10.00/£8.00 SoG members. You must pre-book to attend and more details can be found on the Society of Genealogists website.
If you're looking for a bargain this weekend, it's worth checking out the 'Bargain Basket' section of the S&N Genealogy website. There's quite a few items at heavily reduced prices so it's well worth taking a look. There's CDs and books covering a variety of topics so if you fancy saving some money visit the S&N Genealogy Supplies website.
S&N Bargain Basket has a number of reduced price items for family historians
The National Archives have announced they will begin to archive tweets and You Tube videos previously published by UK central government departments.
According to TNA, the UK government social media archive contains over 7,000 videos that date from 2006 to early 2014 and over 65,000 tweets from 2008 to September 2013. It covers some major events in our recent history, including: The Queen's Diamond Jubilee, the London 2012 Olympic Games,Budget announcements and the formation of the Coalition government following the general election in 2010.
The aim is to permanently preserve them as official public records, for future generations to no doubt read what life was like, as we family historians do now! There's more information at The National Archives website.
Social media records of central government to be stored by The National Archives
Latest news from TheGenealogist is the addition of nearly 2,000 images to their special photo based 'Image Archive'. These new images show churches nationwide from 1870 - 1920, and are ideal for seeing where your ancestors may have been baptised, married, or buried.
These images are free to view, and all Diamond Personal Premium subscribers to TheGenealogist can view, save and print large high resolution images.
New parish church images now available on TheGenealogist
The National Archives have announced a new management appointment this week. Catherine Lee, Director General of Law and Access to Justice in the Ministry of Justice, has today announced that Jeff James has been appointed to the position of Chief Executive and Keeper, The National Archives.
Prior to his current role at the Chartered Institute of Housing, he was Director of Operations and Services at The National Archives for nearly six years. In this time he was responsible for leading the development and delivery of public services; overseeing The National Archives' estates and assets; managing customer relations and maintaining service excellence.
He will take up his new post on the 29 July. More information can be found at The National Archives website.
For those family historians always on the look out for more parish record information, the Somerset, Diocese of Bath & Wells, Bishops Transcripts are now available as a 'download' from S&N Genealogy. Originally published in 1922, the Bishops Transcripts are a great source of baptism, marriage and burial information as some of the original Parish Registers may have been lost or destroyed. Find out more at the S&N Genealogy website.
Tomorrow, Saturday 3rd May, sees a half day course entitled 'Poor Law Records & What it was like to be Poor'. It's presented by Celia Heritage and Michael Gandy from 2pm to 5pm at the Society of Genealogists in London and cost to attend is £20.
The talk looks at the records created by the parish poor law system and the post 1834 workhouse system (and wider records) to find information about our poorer ancestors.
More information and to book can be found on the Society of Genealogists website.
Sign up for a Diamond Annual Subscription for only £69.45/( $118*) for the first year, with their cashback offer
With the release of over 11 million Tithe Records, millions of parish records, the Image Archive, military records, occupational records and the International Headstone project, TheGenealogist is now offering family historians the opportunity to take a look at the useful resources now available on TheGenealogist at a special one-time reduced price.
With many genealogy sites struggling with implementing new features and layouts, TheGenealogist has maintained its popular user-friendly search tools that have helped enhance its growing reputation.
For those people that have never used TheGenealogist, the popular tools such as the keyword search, family forename search and address search are well worth taking a look at to help discover your ancestors. The new special offer gives you this opportunity with a £50 ($80*) cashback when you purchase a Diamond subscription, making it just £69.45 ($118*) for a year!
This will give you unlimited access to unique record sets and powerful tools, to help you with your research. You'll also get 12 free issues of Discover Your Ancestors Online Periodical worth £12 ($21*)!
Mark Bayley, Head of the Online Division comments: “There have been many reports in the media and social media recently, of users struggling with genealogy websites' new designs. We'd like to reassure you that we listen, respond and react quickly to our users' feedback.”
If you’re struggling with your current family history subscription, why not give TheGenealogist a try?
To claim your cash back, go to the special cashback page on TheGenealogist here.
Get access to the widest range of records including unique resources, such as Tithe Records, Non-Conformist & Non-Parochial Records, Parish Records, Will Records with images, Military collections, and more by going for a Diamond subscription.
The cash back offer is open to all new customers, world wide.
For more details on the new cashback offer from TheGenealogist visit thegenealogist.co.uk/contact/ or call +441722 717006.
*Dollar price for indication purposes only as currency rates may vary.
