ScotlandsPeople (New website now live).

[dowdstree]

Annie P -  If their system crashed they might have offered you something off your next visit
               I remember filling in the questionnaire and saying yes to a subscription but like
               you heard nothing more.

Sugarbakers  -  A subscription would be fantastic. Hopefully they might do this in the not too distant
                       future. Well one has to have hope.

Practically all my research is on SP and I must admit to being too busy (lazy) to go in person for the day so I do it online. Have spent a small fortune recently.

Please don't tell my O/H or he would have a hissy fit 

Dorrie

[anne_p]

Nope, no offer of reduced price for next visit.
Even worse... if they cannot provide a full day at £15 then the centre closes

Today, ( at 9.30am) they said that the server would probably be up and running in a couple of hours.
However, they cannot accept visitors at all today because they would still have to charge £15 for the day and that would cause problems.
Their "system" has no facility to reduce the daily rate accordingly?

I've never seen them use a "system". It's all done manually... on paper!



Shows how much I know..

I did know that SP was available at local centres in  Edinburgh, Glasgow and Kilmarnock but I have just looked closer at today's email and didn't even realise that there were centres in Alloa, Hawick and Inverness too

[pharmaT]

Anne's bad experience aside I have always found going to the SP centre a great experience and very cost effective, I have always found loads of information (even not what I originally thought I would) and viewed even more to find the right records.  I have always viewed more than £15 worth.  I have never seen them use a system either.  Anne I would try writing a letter see if you can get a voucher for next time, worth a try.

[anne_p]

Pharma,
I agree, it's well worth the £15
I have been many times to both Glasgow and Edinburgh and this is only the 2nd time that their system crashed.
It happened once before  in Glasgow and only lasted about 30 mins.
I'm not going to complain too much about it.

I much prefer Register House in Edinburgh but it's not always easy to get to from where I live.
They have longer opening hours 9-5 where Glasgow is 9.30-4.pm

Edinburgh has a facility to save docs to a USB  but Glasgow is hard copies only.
Edinburgh also has system where you can plug money into your acct and each print or saved doc is automatically deducted from the running total.
Being able to view docs  on the USB or hard copy immediately makes the next stage of searching so much easier but ... Glasgow asks to retain all your prints until the end of the session  !

[pharmaT]

I find for me the cost of getting to Edinburgh outweighs the benefit of saving to USB.  I am actually closer to Kilmarnock but prefer the Mitchell.  Kilmarnock don't let you bring a laptop or tablet whereas the Mitchell does and has wifi.  So I take my tablet and view the ancestry version of my tree to see what I have so far and saves me lugging lots of heavy folders about.  I finish up for annual leave tonight I hope to go up one day, hope the servers are working.

[carlineric]

Last time I was in (a couple of months ago) the USB saving had been suspended after the security problem. The price of a hard copy had been reduced to the same as the USB. Problem is with the 1911 census which is more like A3 than A4 and possibly the 1855 registers.

Eric

[Forfarian]

Wonder if there will be any changes 

The option of a subscription, please 

Yes, everyone would like that, and SP know that very well. But I gather that the charges are set by the Scottish Government, not by SP.

The changes in September will be to do with the change from Brightsolid to CACI.

I just hope that CACI's enthusiasm for pretty pictures and atmospheric photographs and funky graphics has been reined in. As a regular user, the last thing I want to see is unnecessary stuff that will slow down loading the actual information.

[Forfarian]

I much prefer Register House in Edinburgh .... They have longer opening hours 9-5 where Glasgow is 9.30-4.pm

Register House is open 09.00 to 16.30. Not 9 - 5

Edinburgh has a facility to save docs to a USB

Not any more. They reckon that last year's system crash (or was it earlier this year?) was caused by a virus getting in via someone's USB stick so they don't allow that any longer.

[Gadget]

I may be the last person with Scots ancestors to read the piece I quote below but it seems that the new site (post 12th September) might well include a subs option and 'praise be' the kirk sessions records online for all of us who live outwith Scotland:

Plans for wider online access

We plan to begin making church court records available online in 2017, following the re-launch of the ScotlandsPeople website in 2016. We anticipate that it will take a significant time to upload the full range of kirk session, presbytery, synod and General Assembly records for the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, which amount to more than 20,000 volumes. Researchers will have the choice of accessing the records free of charge in various Scottish archives, or using the subscription service.

http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/guides/church-court-records-online