Woodhorn Archives & Indexing on familysearch.org

[Cavanaghs]

I've just noticed that Woodhorn Archives has made available parish records to familysearch for indexing.

https://www.familysearch.org/indexing/projects/UK-England-NorthumberlandParish-Registers-17542012-Part-C?type=IDX#!/

Does anyone know if all or (which) part of the parish records at Woodhorn will be indexed?

If anyone is interested in helping with the project I have to say it seems very well managed. You generally only have to index small batches of records at a time (eg. 2 pages of modern baptisms = 16 entries) so you're never committed to much work at any one time.

[Millmoor]

Could it be  the Northumberland Parish Records set which was uploaded on 28 April and at the moment can be viewed at Familysearch centres? (In addition to these if you use the catalog and identify your parish of interest you can work out which parish records have been digitised from the camera icons - again these can be viewed at Familysearch centres). For example for the Parish of Haltwhistle in the "England, Northumberland,Parish Registers,  1538-1950" set only burials are showing as having been digitised - go to the catalog for Haltwhistle and births and marriages can also be identified.

William

[Cavanaghs]

Hi William and thank you for that information! I hadn't noticed that Woodhorn had made those records available at familysearch centres (not that I can access one where I live!).

Most of the indexing I have done is from parishes on the list of parishes uploaded on 28 April - St Andrew's, All Saints & Christ Church in Newcastle - but not all of them. eg. I indexed a parish close to Wallsend (Howden?) which isn't on that list. Perhaps they are adding to the list as more and more parishes are digitized and available for indexing. That might explain it. The list is missing various Northumberland parishes eg Ashington, that Woodhorn have and I would love to access at familysearch.

I realise now that many of the parishes Woodhorn have made available for indexing have already been indexed on familysearch using the Bishops Transcripts. I'm a bit disappointed that much work will be duplicated before getting to the parishes that so far haven't featured in familysearch.

From what you've said I presume that the public will have access to Woodhorn's indexed records on familysearch but will have to visit a familysearch centre personally to view the original records. What a pity!

[River Tyne Lass]

Thank you for this information.  This is good news!

[Gen List Lass]

There have been representatives of the Latter Day Saints at Woodhorn for several years. As far as I know many of the parish registers were scanned in high resolution. The only registers which  were digitised were those which had permission from the incumbents. Now documents are being photographed in high resolution.

LDS has stopped using filmed records and are moving to digital methods. I think sometime they will release all they have digitised globally, whether they will rent them out to a pay-to-view company , or whether they will be available free online that remains to be seen. Whether the LDS centres survive in their present form is also debatable, as at present they are places to order and view films, now redundant.

I suggest you look at the LDS latest newsletters, there might be more info there.

Also, many of the old films info has been taken from the BT's, and on comparison with the original registers, there are many discrepancies and omissions.

Gen in NBL England

[smudwhisk]

Whether the LDS centres survive in their present form is also debatable, as at present they are places to order and view films, now redundant.

I think you'll find all the centres have now been provided with a number of new computers in place of the film readers and faster internet access, so as to update the facilities.  I know the ones near me have and the new and increased number of PCs are a welcome improvement to the two very slow ones they had previously (they now have five) so I doubt they will become redundant any time soon other than through lack of use and available volunteers which has always been the case.

Its possible that the centres may be used more when people realise what is available to view and the fact you now don't have to pay the fees to hire in copies of films and fiche as per previously.  Personally although I have in the past used the local centres a lot, I hadn't realised just what Familysearch had copies of.

I doubt that Familysearch will be able to rent the images to any pay per view companies because of the licensing restrictions in their own agreements with the various Archives.  This is why so many are restricted to viewing at the centres, something that has obviously always been the case anyway with the films and fiche.  While Norfolk RO has obviously allowed Ancestry and FindMyPast to have copies of the digitised images for the county from Familysearch (they definitely look like the same images and not new ones and some on Ancestry link through to Familysearch rather than being hosted on Ancestry), this seems to be an exception to the rule. Of course other counties could go down that route but would no doubt have to initiate the agreements and not Familysearch as they are ultimately the copyright holder of the records, although the copyright in the images would be with Familysearch themselves.

[goldie61]

Whether the LDS centres survive in their present form is also debatable, as at present they are places to order and view films, now redundant.

I think you'll find all the centres have now been provided with a number of new computers in place of the film readers and faster internet access, so as to update the facilities.  I know the ones near me have and the new and increased number of PCs are a welcome improvement to the two very slow ones they had previously (they now have five) so I doubt they will become redundant any time soon other than through lack of use and available volunteers which has always been the case.

Its possible that the centres may be used more when people realise what is available to view and the fact you now don't have to pay the fees to hire in copies of films and fiche as per previously. 

I was just going to say the same thing. The two centers within my reach, (and not in the uk), both have several new computers on which you can view the images of films. It's been great! Especially for Scotland. I can now track my Scottish ancestors and their families all over Scotland without having to pay a fortune on Scotlandspeople! I see they also have digitised many Census films, and presumably will be putting more up - their goal is to have all the microfilms digitally on-line by 2020.
You can also view Ancestry, Findmypast, Newspaper sites and more for free from the centres on their  computers there too.

[Gen List Lass]

I'm delighted to hear the LDS centres have already implemented their digitalisation programmes.

No use to me as I'm a 70 mile round trip away from the Sunderland centre but only 8 miles from the Northumberland Archives where I do most of my research. There is an LDS church in Ashington but all it says on their website is "this family history center does not have microfilm circulation privileges". There are no contact details so I cannot ascertain whether they have computers or anything else for research.

If I lived nearer to Sunderland I would love to use their facilities which seem excellent.

Thank you for your up to date information about these centres.

Gen in NBL England