Civil Court Orders from around 1945

[AntonyMMM]

Go back to the local newspapers as previously mentioned. Those available online tend to be mainly for years earlier before those you are interested in, but they are a only a fraction of those held in archives.

Major local libraries & county archives usually hold copies  (often full runs) of locally published papers, and they are also available through the British Library.

The downside is that they are not usually indexed in any way and searching through them (in binders or more often microfilm)  can be very time consuming.

[Blue70]

It looks like you've been unlucky in having to deal with an authority that enforces a very restrictive access policy. I've had similar experiences with the Isle of Man they even redacted names on health records from 130 years ago! If it helps you could quote that people are able to access affiliation registers in Liverpool up to 1964 and there are no redactions of names nor need to prove that those concerned are deceased.

The Liverpool records say this:-

"These records are deposits under section 4 of the Public Records Act 1958. The Public Records Act 1967 requires them to be closed for a minimum of thirty years."



Blue

[Blue70]

"The Data Protection Act states the commission of an offence by a named individual is sensitive personal data."

I don't think it's right they have cited this but I could be wrong. In this case no offence has been committed. It was a court hearing to determine whether or not a putative father was liable to support the child of the plaintiff.


Blue

[AntonyMMM]

The DPA is often used, and misused, as a reason for not giving access to all sorts of data, but essentially if it is personal data that relates to living individuals, and there is no statutory right of access (as with BMD certificates) then it may potentially be covered by the act. Hence the requirement to show that the person is deceased.

Archives all tend to interpret the rules in different ways and because the DPA and case law isn't that clear they tend to  err on the side of caution.  I have been to archives where they have allowed me  access to one entry in a document, under close supervision,  and covered up all the other items on the page.

[Blue70]

Just for info here are the two collections they mentioned as they appear in the online catalogue:-

http://www.catalogue.wyjs.org.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=A000242&pos=1

http://www.catalogue.wyjs.org.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=A000241&pos=2


Blue

[garbfink]

Thanks for the useful information.

My Father, who was the child in this instance is still alive. I have posed them the question that if he was to apply for the subject access request instead of myself, then would they be able to release a full unredacted copy of the proceedings. As it is a case that is specific to him and he is one of the data subjects in question.

It is also likely that the person in question, who I am trying to locate was born over one hundred years ago, my guess was that he was born c1910 - 1920. If the record contains the individuals date of birth (I don't know if it would or not) and it was pre 1917 if the DPA would then still apply.

I'll see what response I get from them.

This is a massive brickwall for me and I can almost smell the fact that I may be able to break through it at some point. If those two questions come back with a negative response I'll then try and argue the point of law etc as you have mentioned in the above posts.

The people who work at the archive have so far been very helpful so I would like to keep them on side as much as possible.

Thanks again.

Simon

[Blue70]

The Affiliation Register for 1934 I viewed in Liverpool only contained the defendant's name. Difficult if it turns out to be a common name like John Smith. In our case the name included a middle name and the name was not too common. I'm pretty sure I identified the right man.


Blue