General Chat

We are hoping to go to the LMA on April 28th. Are arrangements similar to the FRO? Thought I saw somewhere about some building works. Am I right?

According to their website there are no major disruptions to service at the moment. I'm not sure what you mean about 'similar arrangements', but you need to sign in at the LMA and then go up stairs. There's a room with lockers and tables and (I think) a drinks machine, but I would advise taking your own refreshments. When you go into the main area on the right are a number of factsheets and then just to the left of them are shelves with search tools. The inquiry desk is just by the door. There are lots of bookshelves and filing cabinets with microfilms. There's a separate room with bound volumes of committee minutes, etc. I think that's where you order any documents you need from storage. nell

Thanks, Nell. That's about what I expected. We're mainly going to be looking at parish records.

Most (if not all) of the parish registers are on microfilm, on open access and you can take photocopies of whatever you need. If you have to order documents, they arrive fairly quickly. Lots of the catalogue is online, so you can note down some of your references in advance. It is worth browsing through the paper catalogues to get a feel for what other records may be available. They have good collections of trade directories on microfilm, but these seem to take ages to set up on the microfilms and browse through. Finally, do bear in mind that if you are trawling through parish registers for references, some of the London parishes are absolutely vast and there may be several St James or St Marys and you may be looking at the wrong one. Some of the descriptions used on the IGI are not those recognised at the LMA, so you need to check before you dive in. Happy hunting!

Brian, If you want to copy anything you find you'll need change for the machine - lots of silver if I remember rightly. Janice