Unreliability of Burns Monument Centre continues

According to its website at https://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/CouncilAndGovernment/BirthMarriageAndDeath/Scotlands-People/ScotlandsPeopleCentre.aspx, there will be no ScotlandsPeople access at the Burns Monument Centre in September:

"Due to circumstances outwith our control the ScotlandsPeople Centre will be closed for the month of September."

Apparently this is due to, yup, you guessed it, "staffing issues". 

For some time the Burns Monument Centre has been jokingly informing folk via its website that it offers three days a week access to ScotlandsPeople - this is how it states it on the site:

"Opening hours are Tuesday to Thursday, 9am to 3:30pm (where available)." 

The "where available" caveat covers the fact that for many months the centre has been only open one day a week, and not necessarily the same day each week - and you can only find out when that day will be on the Friday before. The centre is only four miles from where I live, but it would make no difference if it was based on the moon - it is a completely unreliable set-up, so much so that I have reverted to using the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh again in recent weeks and months. Not only does the centre in Edinburgh have better screens, it also has longer opening hours, and a library of monumental inscriptions and other useful resources.

Coincidentally, there will be a new ScotlandsPeople platform launched on September 3rd (see https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2024/08/new-scotlandspeople-site-launch.html). I have heard that the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh has been informally advising folk to pehaps wait until the week after the launch to attend, in case there are any bugs to iron out. 

Hopefully all such issues should be resolved before staff in Kilmarnock can resume operations in October.

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Burns Monument Centre suspends ScotlandsPeople service

From East Ayrshire Council Registrars Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/EACRegistrars), news about a closure of the ScotlandsPeople service provision at the Burns Monument Centre:

*PLEASE NOTE*

Due to an increased number of death registrations it is with regret that we need to close our Scotland's People Centre until further notice.

Please follow our Facebook Page for further updates.

Thanks to a colleague on the Scottish Genealogy Network Facebook page, it seems to that the closure will be for at least another couple of weeks.

(With thanks to Catriona Haines)

 

Chris   

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Burns Monument Centre closed for another week due to Covid

From the registrars service at the Burns Monument Centre in Kilmarnock:

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances the ScotlandsPeople Centre at the Burns Monument Centre will be closed week beginning 28th March 2022.

Please call again on Friday 1st April 2022 for bookings week commencing 4th April 2022.

Comment: The centre was closed all last week and again this week, hopefully things will be back to normal again for the 4th, and that the staff are all well.

 

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Burns Monument Centre increases ScotlandsPeople access

I had another productive morning of research at the Burns Monument Centre in Kilmarnock, which has made some changes to its ScotlandsPeople service provision from this week (https://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/CouncilAndGovernment/BirthMarriageAndDeath/Scotlands-People/ScotlandsPeopleCentre.aspx). 

Since its re-opening following the Covid lockdowns, the centre's four terminals have been made available to customers with four hour slots that had to be booked in advance on Friday mornings for the following week. From this week going forward there are now eight terminals available, with each seat separated from the next by a perspex divider. The booking slots remain at four hours for now, and whilst they still must be reserved on Friday mornings for the following week, if any slots are going free during the week from cancellations, or from not having been booked in advance, these will be announced on the service's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Burns-Monument-Kilmarnock/135969349778491).

We're not quite back to normal yet, but this is going to provide a serious service improvement in the current circumstances. Note that although the slots are offically from 9am-1pm, the doors actually open at 8.50am, and the computers are automatically switched off at 12.50pm (you get a fifteen minute on-screen notification just prior to the terminals going off), and that access remains via the side entrance (pictured). Forewarned and all that..!

(With thanks to the Burns Monument Centre)

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

A visit to the Burns Monument Centre in Kilmarnock

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.