British Library

Arriving at the British Library at 10 30, it would have been earlier but half of the underground seems to be being dug up, the first thing that strikes you is the building itself. I had seen it from the outside numerous times from its initial conception and then seeing it built. It must have been a real culture shock to come to a modern spacious purpose built building after all those years of being sandwiched in beside the British Museum. The original domed library reading room is still there in all its Victorian splendour.

I headed to the registration and application room to apply and hopefully be issued with a reading card. At the last minute I had remembered to bring along the required ID but still you never know and I had feared being stuck here for hours. My fears were completely unfounded and within 20 minutes I had been photographed, debriefed and issued with my access card.

The information that I was after was all part of the India Office Records which are housed in the Asian Reading Room on the top floor. Again it was clearly marked and within a few minutes I was at the enquiry desk of the reading room explaining that this was my first time and could I be pointed in the right direction. The information that I was after was a combination of shipping records of the Prince of Wales which left England in 1796 with one of my ancestors (John Nagle) aboard. The rest of what I trying to confirm and investigate was around Birth, Marriage and Death Records and Army Muster Records.

The library works on a system of indexes which then refer to the position of the detailed records. I managed to find the Prince of Wales in the index of East India Company records and requested the only detailed record which was the ships log. I wasn’t sure what I would get back and was told that it would take 70 minutes to retrieve the requested source. When it arrived it really was the actual ships log, smelling of must and sea water with a grey moulding hard back cover. The recordings by hand in ink took some getting used to but eventually my eyes adapted to the handwriting and then it began to release it information. Most was very mundane and tedious as I imagine life aboard ship was. There were some useful references and snippets.

The rest of the records were held on microfilm which while being more user-friendly just doesn’t have the mystic of leafing through the original records. It does take a bit of getting used to and finding your way around. The most productive time was the final hour and a half before the library closed as by that time had really got my bearing. I was eventually checked out at five and aimed with a myriad of information I headed home.