Day 39 – Russian spy business

Today was the BIG day .. Tony and I went to the National Archives at Kew to seek information on our ancestor who was believed to be a spy in Russia during the early part of the 1900’s.  The trip was a good one and took just over 1 hour.  It is a massive place.  I had to register to be able to look at anything, this involved doing a computer test, then having to show my passport and drivers license.  I got a photo ID that was barcoded and enables me to order and look at any records that are available for public viewing.  The security is much higher here than in Adelaide.  Tony and I ordered our Foreign Office records we required, had a coffee whilst they were being retrieved.

At first it was a bit laborious then we hit the Jackpot!  Quite a bit of documentation was there about our ancestor Richard Bielby, we got quite excited to be able to find anything.  Then the biggest find we could have imagined possible, his written account of what happened.  I ended up taking 181 photos!  We left with big smiles on our faces.

Tony decided as we had a successful day we could go home via Salisbury to see Stonehenge.  We didn’t pay to get in, but looked at it through the fence, as you can see by the photos we had a good view AND the sky was blue!  Sally sent us on a shopping mission, so we went into Salisbury to get the goodies.  The Cathedral is huge, I didn’t get to have a close look, but it was good.  We got home a tad late, 7.30 actually, but Sally wasn’t too annoyed, well it didn’t show.  She cooked a magnificent risotto, washed down with pear cider.

Tony and I were to go through our finds today, but were so tired, we chose to wait till the morning.