Our first AGRA “Ask the Experts” session at the London Archives on Saturday 22 November was a great success. 

Thanks go to our volunteer experts: Hester Coley, Karen de Bruyne, Nick Dexter, Sharon Grant, Judy Lester, Jananne Rahman, Rachel Stakes, and Gill Thomas. 

We dealt with a range of research enquiries – from beginners to people with some quite esoteric requests.  Enquirers were asked to give notice of the questions, but we were also able to accommodate “walk-ups” on the day.  In all we saw about 20 people, all of whom left knowing more about there family/house history than when they arrived – there was also a whoop of joy for one person whose long-standing brick wall was broken through. 

TLA staff on duty were also clearly pleased that we were there. A great start to this initiative to build closer ties with TLA and with a view to helping to increase the footfall of visitors on Saturdays, and raise the profile of AGRA within TLA and with archive users. 

The next session will be on Saturday 14 February – contact nickdexter@icloud.com for further details.