At Work in The Camera Room

I thought you might like to see us in our camera room. JT takes digital pictures of very old books and loose papers that will then be made available for family research and genealogical work. I along with the other women look at those images on the computer screen to make sure they are clear and focused. We feel that we are part of an important work that links families together fulfilling the prophecy in the book of Malachi in the Old Testament telling us that the hearts of the children will be turned to the fathers.

One of the things we love about living in Edinburgh is the vitality of the city center. Of course it's an attractive tourist site, but it is also a place where locals shop, visit, eat and mingle. We love to see the crowds of people on the streets.

A few days ago our camera team was taken to the city center of Edinburgh by taxi to tour the General Register House, the main building of the three National Archives of Scotland sites. The building has been in use as a repository for government records since the 1700's. It was a good way for us to see how we fit in preserving of the Scottish records. We were impressed not only by the architecture of the building but it's many uses. One function is as a place where patrons can look at the books to find their ancestors or use the computers to search online for family. We enjoyed a lunch while there and were each given gifts to recognize our volunteer efforts on behalf of the Scottish people.

On the way to Preston we stopped along the way to view Hadrian's Roman Wall. It survives from before the tenth century. We saw little snowdrops a sign of spring.

We recently went to Preston, England for a seminar. We were there with another group of senior missionaries who do the same thing we do at the National Archives in London, England. We had five days together. While we were there we shared a little about ourselves, learned to do our job more efficiently, attended the temple and toured around Preston. It meant a lot to me to be there. Many of my ancestors on my mother's side came to America in 1856 from Preston and the Lancashire area.

The is the view from the front window of our flat.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Some of the books we image, our shelves fill and empty about every three days. These books have approximately 500 pages. Sometimes an entry in a will catches our eye and we stop to read about the teapot, the brooch, the table linens or the mustard pot and who they will go to. One woman had enough to offer her son a brand new Rolls Royce motor car at her death!

Monday through Friday

We go to work each morning at seven o'clock. The National Archives is just about five minutes from our flat. We work with four other couples and our supervisor in a digital camera room. The men generally work at the cameras taking up to five thousand images a day depending on the type of document. The women quality check the work and make sure it is focused and easy to read. We just finished a project of wills and testaments from the Sheriff Court of Edinburgh from the early 1900s.

Scotland Update

We have taken some fantastic day trips on our Saturdays away from the archives. We took a drive to the west coast of Scotland and stopped at Port Patrick to get a view of the Irish Sea and to take some shots of this great place.

Scotland Update