This morning I visited the Burns Monument Centre (https://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/CouncilAndGovernment/BirthMarriageAndDeath/Scotlands-People/ScotlandsPeopleCentre.aspx) in Kilmarnock to carry out some genealogy research for a client. Located just six miles away from my home in Irvine, it was a blessed relief to be able to just drive up the road for ten minutes to gain access to the ScotlandsPeople system - rather than the two and a half hour drive to Hawick, or the two trains to Edinburgh that I have had to endure over the last few months!
And as it happened, today was a great day for a genie crisis! Upon switching on my laptop in the centre, the monitor lost the plot and would not come on correctly, meaning I had to dash back to Irvine quickly to borrow my son's laptop instead, and then dash back to Kilmarnock again to continue, with well over the three of the four hours booked still productively used. If that had happened on a trip to Hawick or Edinburgh, it would have been a lot of time and effort to get there for no reason! (And typically it was the one day I had run out of printer paper, meaning I could not print out my notes from the last trip as a back-up - lesson learned!).
When you arrive at the centre, you need to approach the left side entrance as you view the building from the car park, rather than the main entrance at the rear. There was no payment to be made upon arrival, as payment has to be made when you book, so it was straight to the terminals, and to work. It's a no frills service - no printouts for now, and just four hours per person per week, and bookings can only be made on Fridays for the next week (see http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2021/08/burns-monument-centre-to-offer-limited.html).
We're not out of the woods yet, but it is another step towards normality - and it was great to bump into genie pal Jack Davis, who I have not seen in a couple of years!
Chris
Just out, Sharing Your Family History Online is on sale at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is also out, as are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.
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