Berkshire Parish Registers Coming Online?

[ribbo39]

Hi hurworth,

I think we are getting away from the heading and suggest you may like to start a new thread.


In the meantime there are a few entries that you may be interested in (all Gt.Coxwell, Berks);

13-12-1840 Thomas Thrupp bapt.  (s/o John & Mary)

19-11-1864 Thomas Thrupp, fa, bach, labr, (s/o John, Labr)  to
Elizabeth Woodward, fa, sp, (d/o Darius, labr.)

5-5-1868 Elizabeth Thrupp bur. aged 37, of Gt.Coxwell.

28-10-1829 John Thrupp married Mary Robey

Hope these help.

Alan

[smudwhisk]

Hi hurworth,

I think we are getting away from the heading and suggest you may like to start a new thread.

ribbo, hurworth had posted about the fact that some of Familysearch's microfilms for Berkshire are available to view at FHCs which may be of interest to other RCers.  I offered to check that the marriage he was interested in was definitely in Shrivenham, you pipped me to it.  From reading the reply, hurworth I believe was just giving context to your response rather than asking for information from Great Coxwell.

My suggestion to hurworth about contacting Familysearch to see if we can get the digitised PR made available still stands though.  If more than one of us does this, perhaps they'll fix the problem sooner than later as I believe its an issue rather than restricted access for those registers as copies are held at places other than the SLC Library.

[newburychap]

I wanted to look at a Newbury PR while I was last at Kew - but it was not available via the normal LDS system. I enquired and one of their volunteers was able to call the film up on screen for me to look through - apparently it was not on the main system because it had not yet been indexed.

[smudwhisk]

Interesting NC, did it have a DGS number against it in the catalogue but with no camera icon? 

If that was the case, it seems some of the "staff" know how to access the films in different ways.  Mind you I think the volunteers at the FHC I go to aren't popular with the powers above as they have been trying to find out what is happening with those that have DGS numbers but aren't accessible, and now are getting ignored when they ask.  These are church members too.

[toby webb]

david64 needs to be re-read. So many of my contacts bemoan the lack of basic records of Berkshire on line. Australia is particularly vociferous. Is it the loss of revenue which prevents this leap forward? Surely it is because one has found something interesting in parish records that one makes the effort to visit the BRO and discover more. The major on line providers would be very supportive and regular income would follow. Please think again BRO. Toby.

[4b2]

It seems FindMyPast have finally added some Berkshire records:

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/new/berkshire-releases

But turns out they are indexes, apparently added to their current records from Berkshire FHS.

Not apparent where these records have come from.

[Sloe Gin]

These will be taken from the CDs produced and sold by Berkshire FHS.  Ongoing compilations of transcriptions that have been in progress for some years.  Berkshire Burials was the first to be tackled and is the nearest to completion.  Baptisms is the most recent and is still quite sparse.

The CDs do include full transcriptions of the PR entries (or should do - I know of one parish where marriage witnesses are omitted because an old transcription was used.  This will be amended in time.)

It's all done by volunteers so for obvious reasons there hasn't been much progress during the pandemic.  They are prioritising parishes in present-day Berks as the Old North Berks parishes are also covered by Oxfordshire FHS.

https://berksfhs.org/berkshire-burials-12th-edition-cd/
https://berksfhs.org/berkshire-marriages-4th-edition-cd/
https://berksfhs.org/berkshire-baptisms-3rd-edition/

[toby webb]

Disappointing that these are transcriptions and not up to the standard of Wiltshire on Ancestry where original pages can be seen.
The first go I had showed 2 entries for the same marriage with the bride's surname being spelt in 2 different ways - not good enough!
 T

[stevemiller]

They haven't added 2.1 million records this week.

That number is what the headline says is "now available". For context, the Berks FHS burials make up about 800,000 of that.

There is some new stuff, shown with a FindMyPast copyright.  The given source is "Berkshire Archives" (who they?), but they do include Berks Record Office references. There are also bishop transcripts from "Berkshire Archives" (and here's me thinking they are at Wiltshire & Swindon Archives).

There is new stuff. On just a quick look I found baptisms for Enborne, Shaw, Speen and Greenham which are not in Berks FHS 3rd edition (I'm a Newburian!). And I've found some extra details (witnesses, parish of residence) on marriages I know of, which don't appear in some of the older Berks FHS transcriptions.

I wonder if these updated transcripts come from a collaboration with FamilySearch? No doubt all will be revealed in due course.