When I researched my English genealogy during the summers in the 1980s, part of my time was in St. Catherine's House paging thru birth, marriage, death indexes. Life goes on and I have read that records are now housed in a family center. If one wanted to see say a death certificate in the 80s, a person paid a couple of pounds, waited 20 minutes, an was handed an inked copy of the original. Seeing the original was impossible.
The history of viewing original Birth, Marriage and Death registers is interesting (to me) and a history of censorship and exploitation of the public.
It is actually split into two parts the first the transcripts or GRO Birth, Marriage and Death registers I will deal with here the second, original BMD registers I will deal with in a second posting.
Until1898, in recognition of the errors and omissions in the indexes the public were allowed to view and take notes from the registers. The Registrar General disallowed this public use of the registers in the GRO in 1898, without any change in the law.
Master Arthur Francis Ridsdale, who served in the Chancery Division of the High Court from 1912 until his death in 1935 stated in evidence to the Royal Commission in 1914 that prior to the year 1898 or thereabouts, it was usual to permit searchers, who were chiefly solicitors engaged in pedigree cases in Chancery, or professional record agents, to inspect the original registers, then at Somerset House.
He had been told that access to the registers, had been stopped, because the life insurance companies merely checked the cause of death and did not buy the certificates, and also because it was thought that the attendants might be bribed to alter a register.
In 2002 a White Paper ‘Civil Registration : Delivering Vital Change’ was published. This was to include ‘through life records’ which would have made family history research almost as easy as switching on a computer and typing ones name.
This project started with the digitisation of the Birth and Death registers by the awarding of a three year contract in 2005 to Siemens IT Solutions and Services to undertake this project: By 2008 the contract was not complete and both Siemens & the GRO decided not to extend the contract.
In 2010 the project to digitise records was resurrected with more Birth and Death registers digitised with digital records as we stand in 2017 now covering the years births 1836-1934 & deaths 1836-1957.
It should also be mentioned that modern BMDs plus civil partnerships are in digital format so they do not require digitising.
Three phases of trailing partial digital access to the above using human interface and email rather than direct computer access to the relevant scan has been completed but no indication to when or if computer access to the public will start has been given.
Cheers
Guy
