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The Newsletter of the Family Records Centre (FRC)
Issue 24 Autumn 2003 (11th online edition)

Closure Dates

Wednesday 24 to Saturday 27 December (Christmas)
Thursday 1 January 2004 (New Year's Day)

Open Evening

The next FRC open evening will take place on Thursday 13 November. These events are held every six months and provide an opportunity to hear updates from management about the FRC and its services and to discuss any concerns you may have. The meeting will take place in the Meetings Room on the first floor from 17:30. Free refreshments will be available.

Customer Surveys and Feedback

The results of the Customer Survey which was carried out at the FRC in July are now available. We are delighted to report that 97% of visitors to the Centre rated the overall service as 'Good' or 'Excellent'. This is a figure that we are very proud of but it certainly doesn't mean that we will be resting on our laurels - we are continually looking at ways of improving our services and are always keen to hear your suggestions as to how we can do so.

There are a number of ways in which you can comment on our services:

• Speak to a member of staff
• Fill in a 'Your Views Matter To Us' form
• Take part in one of our Customer Surveys
• Come along to an Open Evening

Alternatively, you can visit the 'Your FRC' section of our website where you will also find the full results of the July survey.

Talks at the FRC

Following the success of this summer's round of Family History talks at the FRC, we have decided to start holding talks all year round. The talks will continue to be held on Tuesday afternoons and the full programme will be publicised in this newsletter, at the FRC and on our website.

We have already set the dates for six talks between now and the end of January 2004:

• 18 November - Tracing Your Ancestors at the FRC
• 25 November - Secrets of the FRC
• 2 December - Online Databases & The Invisible Web
• 13 January - Births, Marriages & Deaths at Sea
• 20 January - Hyde Park Family History Centre
• 27 January - Your Victorian Ancestors

Tickets are free and will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis from the New Customers Desk on the first floor on the day of the talk. All the talks will take place in the Meetings Room at 2pm and will last for approximately one hour. There is no advance booking.

Mrs Pankhurst at the FRC

A major new exhibition is now on at the FRC, featuring a range of documents relating to the suffragette leader, Emmeline Pankhurst. This free exhibition has been put together to commemorate the centenary of the founding of the Women's Social & Political Union by Mrs Pankhurst and her daughters, Christabel and Sylvia.

You can view the exhibition in the Display Area on the first floor until the end of the year and also online as part of this website.

The FRC's Reference Library

We have an ever-growing collection of reference books and magazines in our Library in the Reference Area on the first floor. New books are purchased regularly and recent accessions include:

• Tracing your Family History: Royal Navy
• Tracing your Family History: Merchant Navy
• My Ancestors were Inghamites
• The Genealogists Internet

We also have a number of new publications in the Alan Godfrey series of large scale London maps and we have recently acquired the latest edition of the invaluable Phillimore Atlas and Index to Parish Registers.

The FRC subscribes to a number of family and local history journals and magazines. The following titles are available in the general reference area:

• Ancestors
• Family Tree
• Your Family Tree
• Family History
• Practical Family History
• Computers in Genealogy
• Family History News & Digest
• Local Historian
• Local History News
• London Archive Users Forum Newsletter
• Family History (IHGS)

Census Surname Indexes on CD

A number of Family History Societies have published whole county census indexes on CD. We aim to acquire all of these and make them available to researchers via the Family History Database PCs.

Recent accessions are:

• 1851 Dorset, Radnor, Montgomery
• 1861 Radnor
• 1891 Dorset, Herefordshire

DocumentsOnline

The entire collection of Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) wills is now available on the DocumentsOnline website.

The wills, numbering more than one million, cover the years 1384 to 1858. Searching the index is free and it costs £3 to download a digital image of a will in PDF format.

The next major digitisation project will be the First World War Campaign Medal Index (WO 372). Including officers and soldiers, men and women, this is essentially the most complete list of those who fought in WW1. It is hoped that the results of this project will be online in the next few months. The index cards will be searchable by name, corps, rank and regimental number and will be released in alphabetical batches according to the surname of the individual.

1901 Census Online

An address search facility has been introduced on the 1901 census website which has received extensive use and positive press coverage. An image download feature using the industry standard Adobe PDF file format has also been introduced. Another batch of corrections has been loaded recently, taking the total number of amendments to more than 10,000.

As a reminder to customers, 1901 Census vouchers expire six months (185 days) after they are first used. The 1901 Census website can be accessed at the FRC and online.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve an emergency service will be available at the FRC between 10am and 3.30pm. Although the FRC will not be open, information will be posted on the door advising customers of what to do should they require a birth certificate urgently (e.g. for a passport application).

Lockers

In response to concerns regarding the lockers on the lower ground floor we have recently purchased new locks and replaced all the units with missing keys. Inspections will now be carried out each evening by security staff and items left in lockers will removed and placed in lost property.

News From The GRO, Southport

Certificate Customers Have Their Say

Certificate Services customers have reaped the rewards of providing their feedback and welcomed recent changes made to postal application forms.

The Postal Application Section (PAS) User Group, a forum comprising customers who order certificates by telephone, fax, post and online, was formed as part of the General Register Office's commitment to consulting with users to improve services.

The forum presents an opportunity for members to provide independent feedback on their individual experience as a user and to seek ideas and suggestions for improving the literature and services that are provided.

Nine members of the forum attended the third annual meeting recently. They heard a number of presentations and were able to contribute feedback. The session on online ordering proved very popular with the group. After lunch, they were taken around the production area. Even those who have visited in the past said that there was always something new to learn each time they came. It was a lively and good humoured event with many questions being put to Certificate Services staff with the general feeling being that it was a useful and successful day.

Certificate Services Delivery Targets

The table below details Certificate Services performance for the first half of this financial year. A total of 529,221 certificate applications were handled between April and September 2003.

* % of applications processed within four working days.

Certificate Services have seen a 30% increase in applications on the same period in 2002/2003, with particularly high demand in September. The resulting volume of work has affected our postal turnaround times but in most cases this resulted in a delay of only one day. Overall 87.5% of certificate applications received were despatched within the target of four working days.

Certificates for Recent Events

In April's edition of the Family Record we included an article regarding obtaining certificates for recent events. We are pleased to announce that events registered up to and including March 2002 are now available.

CS Management Team - On the Road

Certificate Services Managers Sue Brown, Ray Proctor and David Burgess attended the September meeting of Keighley and District Family History Society. The purpose of their visit was to talk to members of the society about the work of Certificate Services. Ray gave some useful hints and tips on tracing entries in the indexes with particular emphasis on family history research.

The meeting was well attended with some 35 society members present, and the Certificate Services team received excellent feedback regarding the content of the talk. Similar presentations have been made to other societies including North Cheshire, Widnes, Warrington and Southport and Formby branches. Future events will include Newport Branch of Gwent FHS and Caerphilly.

GRO Customer Survey Results

A snap shot of the results from this year's GRO Customer Survey will be published in the January 2004 edition of the Family Record. Customers will also be able to pick up the full results from the Customer Services Desk at the FRC or access the information on the ONS website.

Certificate Services Income 2002/2003

Some of our customers have expressed an interest in the sales figures for Certificate Services. The table below gives a breakdown for certificate sales relating to the Family Records Centre and Southport office for the period 2002/2003.

Certificate fees are reviewed annually to ensure that the levels set only recover their production costs.

News From The National Archives, Kew

Relocation of Historical Manuscripts Commission from Central London to Kew

On 8 December 2003 the public services of the Historical Manuscripts Commission (HMC), currently located in central London, will open at The National Archives building at Kew. Prior to the move the HMC reading rooms in Quality Court, Chancery Lane will close on Friday 7 November at 5.00 pm, to allow staff to prepare for and carry out the move.

During the closure period there will be no access to the National Register of Archives (NRA) lists for researchers intending to visit in person. Although HMC will always try to acknowledge e-mails and letters during the closure period, they will not be able to provide a detailed response until the move is complete and they are settled in their new location. The online NRA system will remain in operation for the duration of the closure.

TNA Stocktaking Closure

The National Archives at Kew (including the HMC) will be closed for its annual stocktaking from 1 to 6 December inclusive and will reopen on Monday 8 December.

The National Archives Annual Report

The cover of the recently published Annual Report of The National Archives features a picture from the Charles Dickens event which took place at the FRC in February 2003. The full Report can be accessed on The National Archives website.

Events at Kew

TNA Salutes the Suffragettes

Exhibition: 6 October - 31 December. The March of the Women

The National Archives holds unique material relating to the early 20th century women's suffrage movement, including a moving selection of petitions, police files and private correspondence which demonstrate how deeply the issue of votes for women divided the nation. This fascinating exhibition examines the campaign from different perspectives.
Free

Conference: Saturday 22 November. Dare to be Free

The National Archives and the Women's Library present a conference to mark the anniversary of the founding of the Women's Social & Political Union and the Equal Franchise Act. Papers will address key issues of the campaigning culture and the interaction between women's movements and government. For more information about this event, please call 020 8392 5202.

Remembrance Day

Seminar and workshop: Saturday 8 November, 11:00am. Captives: British prisoners of World War One

During the First World War, approximately 190,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers were held as prisoners of war. Come and examine original service records and reports to find out more about the experiences of POWs from capture through life in the camps to escape and release. This event will last approximately 2 hours. Free - but booking is essential - please telephone 020 8392 5200 for tickets.

Costumed Performance: 11 November, 7:00pm. Across the Black Waters - Indian Voices from the Western Front

British Asian theatre company Man Mela presents a special event to commemorate the contribution of Indian soldiers who fought for Britain during the First World War, with readings from soldiers' letters and a short ceremony in English and Hindustani including the Last Post. This event will last approximately 90 minutes. Tickets: £5, Concessions £4

Further information

If you would like more information about any of the items in this newsletter please telephone us on 0845 603 7788 (GRO enquiries) or 0208 392 5300 (TNA enquiries) or visit our website at:

www.familyrecords.gov.uk/frc

To subscribe to the electronic version of the Family Record please send an email to:

FRC-Newsletter@nationalarchives.gov.uk

with the word 'Subscribe' in the subject heading.

The Family Record is jointly produced by the General Register Office (GRO) and The National Archives.