MI look-ups

[irenemac]

I have just been alerted to the use of family history society publications by members of this forum. As the publications convenor for the Dumfries and Galloway FHS may I point out that the books of Memorial Inscriptions are published by the FHS only because volunteers from the FHS have put their time and effort into producing them. We keep the cost as low as we can ...much less than a commercial organisation would charge. We sell the booklets to produce funds for the FHS which in turn keeps the cost of membership down. If the sales diminish where is the incentive for our volunteers to tramp round a graveyard, peering at gravestones in order to transcribe them? So while it may be very nice to get the information for nothing, bear in mind that, if our volunteers get discouraged and we stop producing any more collections of MIs, the cost of travelling to hunt for yourself might be a lot more than you are prepared to pay.

[purplekat]

Hi Irene

You raise an interesting point, I'm sure most people here would be in support of the efforts of volunteers and appreciate the low cost of the booklets.  Have you considered the possibility that using the publications on this forum could increase sales.  If I was told that my ancestors MI's were in a particular booklet I would still want to buy it despite being given the info for free.  Just a thought.   

[walterc]

Presumably that would apply to purchasers of CDs too.

I'm all for folk helping each other, but it would be nice to see added ... info obtained from such and such a source.

[Aonghus]

I disagree with purplekat and walterc.

If the information is anywhere for free, I'm not going to buy the publication.

As a matter of policy, I think the moderators should require everyone not to do lookups for people, and not to post anything out of other people's publications, and automatically block anyone that does, possibly even provide the publishers with the member's IP address and identity.

I've helped clean gravestones, record and transcribe inscriptions - it's time consuming, and hard back-breaking work, often in not very nice weather.

I wouldn't like to see my work stolen by someone who had bought the CD or book (often for as little as £20 or less) and published on the internet.

I would hate to see more societies stop transcribing cemeteries (some have already stopped, because their volunteers work has been ripped off); and I urge you not to do lookups for other people.

I've spent weeks searching in some cemeteries where I have ancestors, and the cost of a publication is often less than the cost of my travel there, let alone the cost of my valuable time.

[Ceeoh]

Don't you think if there were no more look-ups RC membership would drop drastically?

I for one living, 6000 miles away from the U.K. do not have access to purchasing these publications - time spent in ordering, organising payment (at an horrific exchange rate), waiting for the post - if it didn't go missing (and it does - frequently!).

Sorry, I do know folk put a lot of time, free and willingly into the publications, (cemetery transcription etc - I've done it many times myself) but to suggest putting a blanket stop on look-up requests, would penalise very many folk who do not have access to researching for themselves.

I agree that an acknowledgement of the source of data would be appreciated, I also agree were I to find an ancestor of mine in a publication I would be inclined to purchase it if I could.    This I do on my rare visits to the U.K.

Ceeoh

[purplekat]

If the information is anywhere for free, I'm not going to buy the publication

.
But wouldn't you want some backup on the information to verifiy it? 

The Dumfries and Galloway FHS does a great job and the booklets are very reasonably priced, the website is often recommended to others by rootschatters on this site.  As long as source of the data is acknowledged then it is a good advert for the service.   

[Aonghus]

Ceeoh,
Whether or not RootsChat membership would drop is irrelevant - since they're not governed by the number of members they have nor do they charge for membership.

Your distance from the UK is also more or less irrelevant - even though I could take the time off to go traipsing around the countryside, I couldn't afford the fares or the petrol or the accommodation away from home.

The other side of the coin to your argument that you're 6000 miles away, is that it would cost you much more to do the research yourself, therefore you ought to be delighted to be able to purchase the research for a tiny fraction of your travel costs.

I'm not convinced that you would buy publications since you complain about the cost in your 2nd para. If publications go missing complain to the sender or your Post Office.

Do you feel that the people who do buy publications should subsidise the people that want free lookups ?

[Aonghus]

I absolutely agree that Dumfries and Galloway FHS does a great job and the booklets are very reasonably priced, but an advert for their service brings them not one penny.

The Society must spend a lot of money to get a stock of books published, and if they don't sell will need to raise more income to offset the loss, either by increasing their subscription cost, or by increasing the cost of the publications.

Like many FHSes they are a charity, too.

Incidentally, I'm not one of their members.

[Aonghus]

You wouldn't steal books from the library, or electricity from the power company, so why would you steal from a charity ?

If you answer, it's not stealing if it's open view, I disagree; if you see a purse lying on the ground, do you pocket it and keep it ?