Backward step for public service at Suffolk record offices

Suffolk record offices are bringing in a new policy on 1 Jan 2011 that anyone wanting original documents on Saturdays has to preorder them. There is also a limit of 12 documents.

Apart from the lack of notice or consultation with users, how does this provide good service? Especially for those who can't visit during a week day or live outside the county. Suffolk has the least amount of records out of all the East Anglian archives listed online so many references can only be found at the record office. This includes most of the church probate records for the Suffolk archdeaconries prior to 1858, the majority of which have are still listed on card indexes and have not been filmed.

Most researchers won't know if they need an original document until they are in a record office. I can see many unhappy users. Defintiely a minus for public service in every way.

General News

It’s been a massively busy few months. I’ve just completed teaching my first assessed course for the new intermediate certificate run online by Pharos Tutors and the Society of Genealogists. The next one is on poor law records starting in February 2011. www.pharostutors.com

Also starting in February will be my series of House History workshops run in Norwich on Saturday mornings in collaboration with Dr. Sarah Edwards. Contact me for more information. Contact me for details.

I’ve also finished teaching a face to face course in Reepham, and have given a number of talks to different groups across Norfolk in the last couple of months.

Essex Record Office has just reopened after its annual stock take. The Norfolk Record Office is closed for stocktaking this week and next, so I’m catching up with the writing on my guide to tracing the history of a house. Also work in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex. It would be helpful though if my car didn’t chose this moment to play up! It is incredibly difficult to get from Norwich to places like Bury St. Edmunds on public transport.

I’m really enjoying reading Trevor Yorke latest book. This one is on memorials, tombstones and burial practices throughout the centuries (Countryside Books, 2010). It’s definitely going on my reading list for my next course on burial and cemetery records with Pharos (Dead and Buried, But Not Forgotten).

Gill Blanchard
BA (Hons). MA. PGCE (PCE).
AGRA member.

Past Search Family, House & Local History Research & Tuition
84 Rupert Street, Norwich. NR2 2AT
gblanchard@pastsearch.co.uk
www.pastsearch.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GillBlanchard

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Author of Tracing Your East Anglian Ancestors (Pen & Sword, 2009)