SoG and grog
I had thought that I would make yesterday a rest day but decided to join Bobbie Edes and Samantha John and visit the Society of Genealogists on their Open Day. I booked a tour of the premises for 11.15am and headed in on the tube. SoG is tucked away in a lane and is in the Charterhouse buildings, spread out over 4 floors. The entrance level has offices, a common room and the lecture theatre, the lower level is mainly computers and film/fiche readers with document collections (huge!!!) and the upper two floors are various collections. There were other GSQ people there doing the same tour with Bobbie and me – Jan Bimrose and David Fairbairn. Jan went to the SoG lecture after lunch – on Poor Law, given by Alec Tritton. He and Else Churchill, the genealogist at the Society, will be on the final Unlock the Past cruise next year.
We were all amazed at the resources and I ended up spending the rest of the day following the tour looking for info on my Phillips and Pillar families. I think I will be back to research following my week in Ireland.
I caught the tube back to the Customs House pub with Mia Bennett and Samantha – peak hour time so it took ages and the trains were packed. An Australian dinner had been organised by Jill Ball at the pub so the festivities were well underway when Samantha and I arrived. The pub was packed as the Canadians were also having dinner there. I think this place will do well over the next few days. I didn’t get to take any photos but Jill Ball did and she has generously allowed us to post them on our own blogs etc so this photo is one of hers.
My flat mate Paul Howes arrived during the evening and I decided that rather than walk, we would catch an Uber as Paul had a suitcase, my feet were killing me and it was raining on and off. Once in the apartment we chatted for a little while about the Guild of One Name Studies which I have recently joined – this is a project to keep me engaged once the thesis is finished.
Not a great night’s sleep – awake at 3am so decided to get up and write this post and make any changes to the presentation though I know I shouldn’t tinker with it too much. Today is the first day of RootsTech and registrations open at 8am. I have my name tag printed out ready to go and will see how long it takes me to walk across to to the venue – supposedly it is only about 15 minutes.
Make sure you “rest up” at some stage, big day tomorrow!