Posts Tagged ‘British Library’

LONDON — A slower start to the day after a good night’s sleep was interrupted by some of the local nightlife. First order of business (after breakfast) was a trip to the Post Office to send my first package winging its way homeward. Yesterday, the plan was to now pick up my pre-paid rail ticket to Truro from the vending machine outside the Paddington ticket office, except that I forgot the plan.
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LONDON — Today I returned to the British Library. Now that I knew the date of Benjamin Coles’ death, I reasoned that I would be better able to select documents more likely to yield a positive result. I requested five and it was in the last that I viewed that I found what I was looking for. So after four hours of searching I put in a request to have a couple of pages scanned, and I now have to return on Monday afternoon to collect my copy.
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LONDON — My second full day in London was spent in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room of the British Library. The object of my search was my 5 × great grandfather Benjamin Coles. Various sources have listed his occupation as a labourer, warehouseman, porter, and clerk at the East India House. The British Library is the repository for the archives of the East India Company and I was hoping that there might be something in its miles of archives that would shed some light on Benjamin’s life and career.
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LONDON — I did manage to get some sleep during the flight to London but it wasn’t a lot, and not very high quality sleep either. Now when the lights go off you also have the glow from the LCD screens in the back of the seats to contend with as well.
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