The Mary Celeste.....?

It felt like the Mary Celeste, often mistakenly refered to as the Marie Celeste, today. I managed to get in and out with out my pass okay. I'll make sure I have the pass tomorrow!

The front of the room.... no one here but the supervisor!!

The lights are on but no ones home...

Only managed 1850 images today - not bad considering that my book had lots of blank pages, light and dark pages, and the need to slip sheet every few images to block the page numbers from the next page!!!!!

All quiet at the archive front......

All the missionaries are attending a Zone Conference with Elder Hinkley today, so I'm left on my own like "Billy no mates"!! Seriously it's nice that they can take time out of the archives and meet with the other missionries and listen to visiting General Authorities.

I remember on my mission when we were visited by such people as Marvin J Ashton, Neal A Maxwell and Paul H Dunn, to drop a few names.......

Hopefully I'll get at lot of work done with every one gone.

Today is not the day to have left one's pass at home....... I'm sure it was in my pocket when I left home.......

The Traveller returns

With a bright and early start, I left Edinburgh behind for a day trip to Belfast. A cloudy overcast day turned into sunshine as the plane broke through the clouds. About 45 minutes later I landed at Belfast City Airport, to find no taxis and a long queue at the taxi rank! Finally I arrived at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

This is David Brown, the colleague I came to help. Spent the morning sorting out the problems and helped out in other areas. Hopefully I've done some good.

Belfast is the city where they made the Titanic - not the movie, the ship! Here are the cranes that mark the shipyard. I'm not sure if these cranes were there when the ship was made or not, but can you imagine the ship towering over the city?

Chris, having made sure that I had plenty of time to help David booked me on a late flight out of Belfast. That meant I had lots of time to watch the planes land and take off. The plane flew over Livingston and I could see the chapel from the air. It looked different. It was too dark to try and take a picture. When ever I fly over Livingston I try to see my house, but the flight path is directly over it. Never mind!

It's good to be home.

Farewells and Hellos

Welcome to my new Blog which I hope to use to keep every one who is interested up to date with the going ons at the archives. I hope to be able to add the History of the project too.

This is the group at the start of April, including the couples who are passing like ships in the night....

Left to right: Jimmy and Margaret Reid, Ray and Carol Westenskow, Ross and Dorothy Buckwalter, Ned and Linda Iverson, Allan and Cindy Lee, JT and Mary Jo O'Neal, and Mike Mitchell.

Work was progressing well at the start of 2010 and 10 million images was soon to be achieved, but in March there was a small disaster! We had become a victim of our own success with the new cameras helping us speed our way through the volumes so fast that before we knew it we had nothing to image except a few Kirk Sessions. This small hiccup lasted till mid April, but I'm happy to report that normal service has resumed.

April has seen more changes in FamilySearch staffing at the archives. Ray and Carol Westenskow left before the new books arrived but not before Carol had submitted an article for inclusion in the British Isle's insert of The Ensign. Just days before they left word was received that the article would be published in July. Unfortunately it had to be edited down to about 200 words, but I'll post the full article for you all to enjoy. Their replacements, after a few false starts, are Jimmy and Margaret Reid from Livingston. They are so excited to be on a mission. They have been called as Church Service Missionaries. Ross and Dorothy Buckwalter have had a special assignment from Chris Norton for the last few days of their mission - Chris asked they they travel the UK and give a presentation to the missionaries at TNA and the other employees of the department. They leave in a few days, going home via Paris so they can visit their son and his family who live there. Ross has set a record for the number of images one camera operator has achieved - 3/4 million images!! Those of you who in the past set records, please note that our new cameras can take pictures as quickly as you can hit the "F2" button!! It would be fun to get all of you together on the same cameras for a bit of friendly competition!

With Chris in Australia and New Zealand, I've been asked to go and help David Brown, one of the employees, in Belfast tomorrow. The team are concerned about how they'll manage with out me!! I have every faith in them.