Why Aren't Parish Records Searchable?

[stanmapstone]

 I even found a summary of the population in 1802 for England, Wales and Scotland plus how many were in the army, navy, registered seamen and convicts on the hulks.  If I relied on someone's transcription of the records, would this have been included?  I think not.  Going to the records office is wonderful.  

BumbleB

These figures would be from the 1801 Census, printed 21st Dec 1801/9th June 1802, which you can see at
http://www.rootschat.com/links/07r0/
Stan

[stanmapstone]

Marriages were in pre-printed books from 1754.

Stan

[BumbleB]

Yes, you're right, those were the figures I found.  I liked the comment from the vicar at the end of 1803 "Through the ambition, insolence and enmity of the Ruler of France this country was again forced into a war to prosecute which, with spirit and vigor was sentiment of all parties, and nearly the unanimous voice of the whole kingdom."  Or for 1807 "Through the whole of this year war continued to rage with great animosity.  More ancient governments were overthrown and new ones established till the power of France prevailed with irresistible force over almost the whole of Europe; and Denmark, Turkey, Russia, Prussia and Austria were added to the enemies of Britain so that with the exception of Sweden she has to contend with all the continent of Europe."

BumbleB

[davidft]

Digitalising registers would be a walk in the park.

seems you know more than the GRO and Siemans  who gave up one attempt at digitalising BMD records after spending tens of millions on it.

Maybe its not as easy as you like to think ..........

[david64]

Thanks for the input.

Oh dear, you haven't got a soul, have you?  Half the fun of family history is looking at the records as they are written - not some transcription

No, that's still intact  

I'm still interested in getting the records. Just, I don't want to have to travel all over the place to get them, get home, find more on the internet, back to the records office... I just want to be able to get images of the hard copies of the internet. Like we can with the census and with Scottish records

I agree that there is fun to traveling round. I am looking forward to heading out to the graveyards and taking photos, but I don't want this to take me years and cost an arm and a leg. 1/4 of my ancestry is Armenian via India. In particular, I don't want to be coming back and forth to much with that Although, I can't see there being a rush to digitalise Armenian church records.

[david64]

seems you know more than the GRO and Siemans  who gave up one attempt at digitalising BMD records after spending tens of millions on it.

Maybe its not as easy as you like to think ..........

I was refering to the registers that are published by the FHSs. I'm not sure what the print coverage is for them, but my local society seem to have a very good coverage in machine-print. If you've got permission to digitalise that data, it would be very easy to get it into a database.

Digitalising the BMDs would be a different affair. However, I don't see why the GRO would fail where Scotland has succeeded. Seems from that article that lack of funds was the issue. Maybe Siemens weren't up to it or the budget wasn't enough. Looking at the revenues of the largest commercial digitalisation companies, it looks like something they could handle.

[acorngen]

Now I am going to take Umbrage and I feel an apology is needed.

Bumbleb said

Half the fun of family history is looking at the records as they are written - not some transcription by someone who has been paid to do it, and therefore doesn't take the same care as we would for ourselves (excluding FreeBMD where we are all volunteers).

I transcribe Parish registers for my CD's that I sell.  When I tell you I take care to make sure that my transcripts are error free I mean I take care.  I wont be naive to think that my transcriptions don't contain errors but after being checked 2 or three times prior to publication any that do exist will be down to the handwriting and not me.

Also what about the many FHS that do these.  None of their volunteers get paid to transcribe and some ar every bad whilst others are good.

Now what makes you as a FreeBMD transcriber (which isn't a parish register) any better or worse than someone who gets paid for their work?  Have you seen some of the glowing errors FreeBMD transcribers have handed in?

Stop being so elitist and accept that you are not the only person doing this sterling work.

Ok now to some general pointers.

Parish Registers are not and never have been copyright.  The crown as no hold over these either as they belong to the church and not the crown.  Except the marriage register which does belong to the crown.  Names cannot be copyrighted anyway only the way in which it is held.
Likewise the local incumbent can refuse access to a register but a quick letter to the Bishop will sort that out for you.  Also should the local archivs try to state their is copyright then its an easy argument to win with them as they seem to use a piece of the 1988 copyright act which actually doesn't relate to the majority of information held in the Archives.  The favourite being wills.  As a descendent of the deceased (assuming the death was under 75 years ago) I have the right to claim an interest in the estate and therefore the copyright...... but that is another argument and one that is way to big for this site and also runs off topic

[stanmapstone]

When you get the incumbent to show you the registers still held at the church do you pay the Parochial Fees laid down by The Archbishops' Council?

Stan

[dobfarm]

In answer to post topic  &  poster of only! not other posters!

As far as I know copyrights of most keepers of original PR's and owners of film fiche micro repo F/F  copies of PR's do not allow any copies of either to be put online!! but paper copies are only for private use offline.

This link will show what happened when they tried puting PR copies on this website! like this one (See the large yellow box 2/3's down the page in the link.)


http://www.wirksworth.org.uk/REGS-02.htm

Best option you have is to take this issue up with your MP as its a good time just before an election. Basic information as to parents name should be allow to be given over the telephone or a small charge (like PR copies ie 50p!)- from the register office or GRO without  having to buy a certificate. The larger charge was more for needing certificates for insurance claims etc not a hobby!

Dobby