Week Number Three (man, time flies fast!)

Our Place of Service (where we film) The National Archives

Inside The National Archives - Post Box

Can't remember where we left off last week, but we'll start with Monday of this week.  We sent our first shuttle (that's the big hard drive that we put our images on).  We think that we'll soon hear from Salt Lake on how we did.  They check out all our work and tell us if we have our images in focus and report on how our filming is.  The problem with all this is that we have done a whole other weeks filming and may be doing it wrong, but we still don't know how we did with our first transmittal.

Monday night we went to family home evening with some single sisters in our ward.  They had a little lesson and some nice refreshments at the end of it.  We got there a little late so we don't really know how the lesson went.  Of course we have no car so we rode the bus.  We're getting pretty good at getting around using public transportation.  They have what is called an Oyster Card.  You pay for the first card and then you put an amount of money on it and you scan it each time you get on the bus or train.  When it gets down low you add more money to it.  They call that process "topping it off."  It's not just a way of paying your travel fees but it gives you about a 50% discount off the usual fare.



The Conference Center (Centre)

FamilySearch "Stand"  (notice helper at left of stand)

Most of the rest of the week was spent capturing digital images.  On Tuesday and Thursday The National Archives is open until 7 pm (otherwise it closes at 5 pm).  On those two nights we have been staying a little later trying to work a little on Annie's family history.  We keep trying to find the Ward family in the Kirkby Ravensworth records in northern Yorkshire.  Obviously on those days we get home fairly late at night. 

Starting Friday morning of the past week, we ventured into London.  They have a large meeting place, much like the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, where there was a huge genealogical conference.  Most of the major genealogical societies as well as the local county genealogical societies are in attendance.  There are several lectures and demonstrations as well as over a hundred booths (called stands in England).  Anyway we were recruited to help in the FamilySearch's booth.  Annie greeted visitors and helped with lots of general duties.  Paul was asked to help with the more difficult ancestral questions at the sit-down stations.

 

We spent all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday working at the stand.  Each day we would catch a bus into London (about a 35 minute trip each way).  We would spend from about 9 to 5:30 at the booth and then make our way back home.  It was particularly enjoyable for Paul since he was able to meet so many friends from the British family history scene.  He is really in his nitch when it comes to trying to help people with their genealogy, as well.  One of the high lights of the conference was when Paul helped a family with their Irish history on Friday and then ended up helping another family on Saturday that was working on the very same line.  When you take into consideration that there were between four and five thousand people a day that attended the conference and that there were 5 different people in the booth rotating every two or three hours that were assigned to help those attending, it is an absolute miracle that Paul ended up helping two totally different people working on the same lines.It was a thrill for Paul to be able to connect cousing together.  He had taken an email address from the first cousin to send them some further information.  He was able to give the email address to the second cousin.

Annie says that she really enjoyed her assignment to greet people.  She was really surprised at how much she has learned over the years and felt good about helping those she came in contact with.

We look forward this week to having a day off.  However we'll use most of it cleaning and getting ready for the week as well as an anticipated move.  We've been in our flat for most of February, but are supposed to be moving to a more permanent flat this coming Friday.

We want you all to know that we know this is Christ's church and we are happy to be able to serve the Lord in any capacity that we are asked.

Week Number Two

We are staring to adjust to our new schedule.  We leave our flat at about 7:45 each morning to walk to our "work"  We arrive on the job at about 8:15 a.m. ready to venture into the world of digital image capturing.  Our work stations are in the basement of The National Archives across the river from downtown London.  Many friends are concerned about us being shut into a dingy dungeon of a basement.  Not true!  The room is huge with very high ceilings. It is clean and full of lots of other people working there.  There are employees from Find My Past, Ancestry, The National Archives, and many many other groups filming old documents. We are there for FamilySearch.  Once we get to the archives we take off our missionary badges and put on FamilySearch badges.  As a missionary sister, it is suggested that I wear comfortable slacks, and Paul wears casual clothes as well. 

Annie the Digital Capturor

This week we have learned a lot about the computer camera program we are using.  Our supervisor left the country to visit family in Canada and so we learned by the harder, trial and error method to overcome challenges.  Paul's knowledge of computers has been our lifesaver.  We will send a "shuttle" to Salt Lake tomorrow with all of our work so far.  They will return the shuttle in about a week with an "acceptance" of our work or a "do it over".

Paul with old document to capture

We are enjoying the walk to and from work each day.  It gives us a built in exercise program.  When we move to our permanent flat in 2 weeks, the walk will only be 10 minutes each way.  I guess we will have to take advantage of the gym in our new apartment complex.

Since the Family History Centre (English spelling)  is up two floors from where we film, we usually spend time after "work" doing some genealogy.  You would have guessed this, being that I am married to Paul Smart.  He has got me looking up the Ward line in the Kirkby Ravensworth area of Yorkshire.  Lots of things are getting cleared up and accurately completed.  I hope to get a lot done in the next 18 months.

Staines Chapel

Staines Chapel Inside

The trip to church was a challenge this morning.  Our meeting in Staines starts at 10:00 a.m.  We left the flat at 8:30 a.m.  We first took a bus to the train station, only to find out the tracks to Staines were under repair.  We rode the train to Hounslow where they transferred us to a bus that finished the journey to Staines.  We arrived at exactly 10:00 a.m.  The church in Staines is a short 1/2 block from the train and bus station.  We were a little concerned about getting back after church.  We gratefully met a young couple that lives fairly close to us.  They offered us a ride home.  I guess Kew, where we live does not have many LDS people.  It was nice to meet someone from our neck of the woods.  We also met some sisters  who do a single adult family home evening on Mondays.  They invited us tomorrow, so we'll meet some more members.

I am beginning to learn some of the local lingo....like "que"  means to line up.  "Mind the gap" is the common phrase for watch your step (there's usually a gap or space between the train station and the actual train).  "Give Way" is the yield sign over here.

We work hard and are more than ready for bed when the day is done.  Life is good!  We love the Lord and are happy to be doing his work here in the UK. 

Love to all who might read this,

Mom and Dad (Elder and Sister Smart) (Paul and Annie (Flora))

First Week in England

We arrived in England on Annie's birthday, Tuesday.  We had set and objective to deal with jetlag of staying awake just as long as we could.  The reason for this is that we arrived at 10 am London time.  However, it was 3 am Utah time.


Farewell at SLC airport

We didn't get too much sleep on the plane, but we sure could have had we been able to sleep.  The plane was only about 1/4 full in a 275 seat capacity plane.  We both had three seats apiece to lay down. 

We flew from SLC to Las Vegas via Delta and somehow ended up with first class seats.  We had no problems with the amout of luggage that we had packed and they checked it all the way through to London.  We didn't have to touch our checked luggage in Vegas.  We next flew by British Air direct to London Gatwick.  Flight was great and we were met by the mission president and his assistants. 

We went immediately to the mission home which is situated on the temple grounds.  It was a cool but sunshinny day.  Once we had taken care of some business we were turned loose to rest and relax.  We ate our first meal in the basement of the temple, attended a session of the temple and later had dinner with two missionary couples -- the Carpenters, from Draper and the Kearls from Alberta, Canada.  We should probably mention that the temple session consisted of three sisters and us.  We were blessed to be the witness couple.

 

Finally it was time to go to bed and check emails.  We were put up in temple housing at the temple.  In that housing they have almost everything including washing facilities and a small family history room with two computers -- that's how we checked for emails.

We should probably also add that our son-in-law helped us get our phone service going so we could call our kids and grandkids.  We shut off the "radio" portion of our cell phone and installed google voice and groveip lite.  That enabled us to make calls anytime we have an internet connection.  We can also receive calls, voicemails, and texts on our regurlar number.

Early on Wednesday we were met by Chris Norton, our local supervisor relative to our records preservation.  Chris was ever so helpful.  We stopped at The National Archives (hereafter TNA) to see our work area and to meet some of the TNA staff.  We did some paper work for our flats (we say flats because we have a temporary flat until March 1 and then we move into a more permanent one and one that is closer to our work).  We also went grocery shopping, a real experience in and off itsself.  We applied for senior passes to ride the buses and underground train -- free for seniors but takes two to three weeks to get.  Chris had dinner with us on our first night and then went off to his hotel.  Forgot to say that we are the most ID'd people on the earth.  Check out all of our badges.

We spent the next two days working and learning our jobs at the TNA with Chris.  He taught us how to film in color, whereas we had learned how to capture images in black and white while we were in Salt Lake learning at the Church Office Building. 

We all worked together until about noon on Friday when Chris left to return to his home in northern England.  We worked until about 5 pm and then found our way back to our flat by taking buses.  We obviously made it home.

Saturday was P day (not pay day but preparation day).  We slept in a little and cleaned a little.  Then, like dedicated genealogists we went back to TNA to use the local family history centre (it's actually housed in the TNA, as the Church leases an area there).  We were brave and thought that we might try to walk there.  It took us about 40 minutes but we managed.  Annie got some experience looking for records of the Ward family in the records that were held at the FHC.  Again we walked back home and thought, "we can do this if the weather is good." 

That brings us to today, Sunday.  We were up bright and early and took a bus and then a train to Church.  We are assigned to the Staines Ward.  The bishop seemed like a real nice guy.  We met lots of nice people.  We were asked to make visits to lots of the less active members.  We asked if they were aware that we had no car.  We probably burst the bishop's bubble because he had all these great ideas for us and instead we are assigned to preserve records and are on foot.  We think he may have thought we were there just to help him and that he could use us fully.  Made us aware of all the work that there is to do here and how few workers there really are.  Forgot to say that they asked us to bear our testimonies in Sacrament Meeting, which we considered a great privilege.

Tomorrow starts our first work week.  We look forward to the work.  We hope that all is well with those wonderful family members and friends that we have left behind.  Rest assured that we will do our best to serve faithfully and to not let any of you or the Lord down.

Mom and Dad

ps Hope you enjoy the attached pictures including those that follow - the flat.

Just sold the last of our cars. We are totally transportation deprived unless we decide to drive the riding lawnmower. Finished our last week of training at FamilySearch where we learned more about cameras than I ever thought was possible. Apparently we will be digitising records at the National Archives of Great  Britain just out side of London.  Once we get settled in our new flat (in early March) they tell us that we will have about a 7 or 8 minutes walk to our place of work.

Went to Church this morning and ever since have been packing and getting ready to unplug all the appliances and give back our cable, internet, phone, etc. equipment on the way to the airport.  Our daughter, Kathie, will be taking us to the airport.  We first fly to Las Vegas, Nevada (yes, that's kind of going the wrong direction), then from Las Vegas to London, England (about 10 hours on the plane).  We're supposed to be picked up at the airport and taken to the Mission Home. 

Then we'll be met and introduced to our work on Wednesday morning.  On Thursday, the record office is going to teach us how to handle the precious old documents.  Then each of us will operate a camera and try to capture a good quality image as fast as is reasonable. 

Our year and a half journey begins on Monday about noon.  Looking forward to a marvelous experience!!

The picture is one showing us operating a camera.