Being a computer person I’ve done a lot of my family history research on the internet. But all the information on the internet has been transcribed from the original records and so mistakes can (and do) creep in. If you’ve looked at an original census record or a parish register you can see how easy it is for things to be copied incorrectly – the writing can be practically illegible, spellings are arbitrary and depend on the writer and the actual original may be in very poor condition, after all if could be 400 hundred years old if it’s an early record. So there came the time when I knew I had to be brave and go into unchartered territory and visit a records centre. It was very daunting at first as I didn’t know how to use a microfilm reader or how to find what film or fiche I needed but with the help of the very friendly and helpful staff I found at all the records centres I visited I survived my first few visits and now I really look forward to visiting one.

The most famous records centre for family history research has to be the Family Records Centre (FRC) in London. Here you can search birth, marriage and death indexes and census returns for the whole of England and Wales. Personally, I wouldn’t bother now with a trip to the FRC unless I wanted to search census records for relatives scattered around the country. I prefer to visit a Local Records Centre / Local Archives / Local Family History Centre – they all seem to be called something different they are all basically the same.

The advantage of visiting a local records centre is the breadth of information available for that particular area. As well as microfiche copies of birth, marriage and death indexes and local census data, they hold large collections of other historical records such as parish registers, electoral rolls, trade directories, wills, local history books, photographs, maps and much, much more.

In the last year, I’ve been to Wolverhampton, Shrewsbury, Birmingham, Gloucester, Surrey and Sussex records centres and have found all sorts of information that isn’t available on the internet (yet!). At Surrey records centre I discovered that my gt, gt, gt Grandmother Sarah Wheeler and my gt, gt grandfather Samuel Wheeler both died of cholera within a few days of each other along with 2 of Samuel’s children – what a terrible blow for Samuel’s wife, my gt, gt grandmother. At Gloucester records centre I found the will of my gt, gt, gt, gt grandfather Richard Burrows who died in 1835.