Record Office - profiteering or discouraging business?

[MarieC]

A R/chatter on another board suggested to me that, judging by the IGI entries, some baptisms I was wondering about may be on a Dade register - worth getting, if so!  The person further suggested that I contact the relevant records office to see if they would do a quick lookup and email me the result.

No, they wouldn't.  They informed me that they would charge $35 Australian to lookup, copy and post it to me.

I think this is manifestly excessive, given that it may only be the standard one-line entry, no more info than is on the IGI.  I will certainly not be going down that track!

What do others think??

MarieC

[Paul E]

Hi Marie

A bit of a gamble, even at $2.5 AUD to the £.

I wouldn't, however, underestimate the work involved in trawling through microfiche looking for records.  Even someone who's doing it on a regular basis will struggle with some of the handwriting and legibility issues.  Then there's the time copying and posting to you.

I think an enquiry to establish whether your ancestors' records are likely to be in a 'Dade' format first of all (and if you know the dates and location they should at least be able to tell you that gratis) would be the best route.

If it turns out it is a Dade, then my advice would be to go for it.  You're likely to get a minimum of three (possibly four!) generations of data for about £12.

Of course, if you can find a handy Rootschatter who is visiting the same records office for their own purposes, I'm sure they can be persuaded to spend a little time on your behalf.

All the best

Paul

[Little Nell]

If the IGI have it as an extracted record, then it would be far cheaper (if you are able to do this) to order the film to view at your nearest LDS Family History Centre.  After all, they have already done the hard part! 

Nell

[Paul E]

(Unless your nearest LDS centre is less than 30 miles away)!
 

[Lemontree]

Hi

I would have thought that it was good value for money. The records have to be kept, that costs money, Then there is no such thing as a quick look-up!!! this may take some time, then the time spent transcribing the information - and you will want it to be as accurate as possible. This is going to take anywhere from 45 mins to and hour. So taking into account labour, electric, storage, etc, your request will probably be subsidized by taxes.

Record Offices are not in business, they are council departments and non profit making. They are funded by council tax payed by local inhabitants, and if lucky they may get other goverment grants.


Just my opinion

Lemon

[CU]

Marie what Record Office was it? May be one of us could help you.

[suttontrust]

I'm with Lemon.  There are still a few record offices around which will respond quickly and cheerfully to an email and only charge you if you want photocopies of documents.  Others simply don't have the personpower to do this.  They set up a formal search request system, for which you pay up front by the hour or half hour.  That covers the cost of the work time involved.  It can be very disappointing if they don't come up with the information you want, but they can't do a "no win, no fee" system.

[AnneMc]

what parish records are you looking for?  I have a list of parishes that have dade registrations.  Let me know where and I will have a look.

Cheers
Anne

[SooCatt]

I'm feeling dim.

What does Dade mean? I'm not sure I've ever come across it.