Question re transcribing PR

[whoosh]

Hi,
I have been interested for sometime in transcribing Parish Registers for certain parishes that I have an interest in onto a database.
Can someone advise if their is any copyright that would prevent me from doing this.
When I ahve the time to do this I would be hoping to put it online for people to use.
This would be my contribution to the greatest adventure a person can have-genealogy.
Bye for now,
Darren M Flowers
Wyrallah NSW
Australia

[sillgen]

Hi again
Are you a member of the Lincolnshire family History Group?  They will be able to answer all these queries and will know whether various parishes have already been done.  http://www.lincolnshirefhs.org.uk/

Andrea

[Guy Etchells]

That is actually a grey area of the law and will only be resolved with a court case.

The old view was that Parish Registers were protected by perpetual copyright for a number of reasons - they were a work in progress created by a number of persons were never published.
The law that abolished perpetual copyright stated that the copyright on unpublished works would end 50 years after the Act came into effect. This was made law in 1989 therefore the protection would last until 2039.

However modern thinking takes the view that Parish Registers were never covered by perpetual copyright  and only the recent registers are covered by any copyright at all.

There is very little chance of actually being sued for breach of such copyright and it it would take a brave vicar to attempt to sue.

The correct course of action is to write to the vicar or incumbent of the parish concerned and get his/her permission to transcribe the registers. Most will readily agree especially if you offer a copy of the completed database to the church.

On a slightly different not it is possible to get fiche or film of parish registers on loan from the LDS provided you are willing to donate a copy of the transcripts to them.
Cheers
Guy