The Changing Face of UK Family History Research
Over the past ten years the popularity of Family History Research has grown exponentionally in the UK and the US. When I started out, family history research was a case of travelling to busy records offices and poring through indexes, old books, dusty documents and microfiche readers. To get a UK birth certificate (etc.) a visit to St Catherines House was often required. This was the equivalent of a long workout at the gym! The enormous, heavy, quarterly index books were deftly pulled from the shelves behind the researchers and slammed down onto the long, lectern height desks. A quick ruffle through the pages to find the required name either resulted in a reference number being written down, or a swift return of the book to the shelf behind, trying not to hit the others waiting to look at the books. It was quite amusing sometimes to see a frail old lady, or a newcomer having problems coping with the massive books and being given dirty looks by those who were making a good income by ch...