Yesterday I went to the record office for the afternoon. I'd been looking forward to this all week at work, as I can only go on Saturdays. I live about an hour's drive away and hadn't been able to get there since August so my research had come to a bit of a halt and I was getting withdrawal symptoms.
The office wasn't busy, and I had barely started work on the parish registers when two visitors on the opposite desk started chatting loudly about Christmas cards. Thankfully, after about half an hour, they both packed up and left. I worked on, but not long afterwards a couple arrived, with a child of about a year old in a pram. To get to the records office they would have had to have carried the pram up two flights of stairs ...
They wanted to look at Census records, and the wife was upset to find that they were on cards in the office, and not on the internet. Two assistants (including the Archivist) recommended that they should go to their County Records office which was nearer to them, and would have all the records they needed. But they decided to stay and look at some parish registers instead, although the assistant told them they really needed to have booked a machine first. One of the assistants found the right reel and set it up on a microfilm reader for them. They parked the pram right up against the cabinets which housed the microfilm reels, just behind their machine. After two or three requests from people for them to move it so that they could get to the cabinets, the wife eventually took the child out of the pram and gave it to her husband and then parked the pram by the lockers out of the way.
When the wife saw the microfilm, she said "Doesn't it have an index? It's going to take us forever to look through this".
With the child on his lap, husband began looking through the film and reading out the relevant entries to his wife who was writing them down with a ball point pen. After about ten minutes of this I had to ask him to be a bit quieter - it was difficult to concentrate on my Elizas, Emmas and Marys when he was talking about John, Henry and William about three feet away. Not long after this the baby began to cry, so the wife brought out a feeding bottle to keep it quiet.
It was only about half an hour to closing when her mobile phone rang. She switched it off, and then immediately picked up the message which had been left. Mercifully, it was nearly time to go but it had spoilt my afternoon which I had been looking forward to all week.
Do any Rootschatters have these problems or is it just me? This record office is not noted for its helpful staff, although there are one or two exceptions who are extremely nice and make up a bit for the others. Am I the only person who uses pencils and not pens as requested (I have seen people using ballpoints in other record offices even though there are large notices asking visitors to use pencils, and there are free pencils at reception). Am I the only person who doesn't chat all the time. (This is not the first time I've had to ask someone to be quieter - they were sitting under a sign asking visitors to maintain it as a "Quiet area"). Am I the only person not taking my lunch/drinks/sweets in with me to eat while I'm working? And does anyone know if babies and small children are generally allowed into archive rooms? Has anyone else been annoyed in any of these ways and if so, did you speak up or do anything about it?
If you think I am a sad person and a b.o.f. to follow the rules then that's what I am, but rules are there for sensible reasons and should be enforced by the assistants on duty. Otherwise don't have them at all!
I'm glad to have been able to let off steam in the appropriate place, whether you agree with me or not.
Honeybun
