Why no digitisation of birth, mariage and death vital records?

[BushInn1746]

Hello

Many of mine were ordered from Registry Offices back around 1999 and certified Copies, before they scanned them.

Fortunately signatures look to be accurately transcribed.

But an image with original signature/s has to be best!

However, my mystery George Hood original 1815 signatures (Marriage entry & Bond) and the original Cookin signature on the Marriage entry, have never been traced.

I don't think the old so and so ever went to a wedding or to church, probably why he went to the Quakers later in life, but was refused and never became one!

Some other Marriages from the GRO National Office seem to be scans with original signatures and also match church images appearing online and others not.

Mark

[CarolA3]

Your first post here on Rootschat in January 2017 was complaining in a similar vein-

Why so expensive for transcribed information? The whole lot should be online, and no more expensive than third party genealogy sites, who would be more than happy to undertake the digitisation work.

Well spotted Aghadowey

That earlier thread was about the then-recent introduction of the GRO's PDF system for birth and death records.  We can only hope that the poster is now aware that said PDFs are not 'transcribed information'.  They are scans of the copy certificates held by GRO, minus the printed officialese, and perfectly adequate for family history use.

Carol

[iantresman]

What exactly do you want to hand over?  Are you saying that the FreeBMD organisation has, or should have, privileged access to the GRO's register copies in order to scan them?  Are you aware that the work of FreeBMD is done by volunteers in their own homes?

I would hand over the management of the project, as FreeBMD has managed and produced a staggering large online resource.

I think that whoever was going to undertake such a project, could have privileged access to either GRO registers, or to those held at local registry offices.

Yes I am aware that the GRO work is done by volunteers; I'm not suggesting that the volunteers should be made to undertake a new project. Those that want to help, great. I think that volunteers help with FamilySearch records too.

I'm sure that when FreeBMD started, the thought of transcribing 370 million records was equally daunting, and others suggested it couldn't be done.

[BushInn1746]

Having done a small amount of transcribing for the LDS in the past, I am most appreciative of all those volunteers who have devoted their time to making information available to us. Not to mention all the volunteers on RC who also give so much freely. I have tried to repay in kind where I can but I am indebted to so many RootsChatters over the years.

Our hobby is probably in a better position now than it has ever been .

Mike.

Hello Mike

Thank you very much.

When unable to find a Census for a spurious reason (like use of intials only, instead of names), I have found it by playing around with a few search terms in Family Search first.

Then found it afterward on a commercial website and got the image.

Mark

[iantresman]

That earlier thread was about the then-recent introduction of the GRO's PDF system for birth and death records.  We can only hope that the poster is now aware that said PDFs are not 'transcribed information'.  They are scans of the copy certificates held by GRO, minus the printed officialise, and perfectly adequate for family history use.

Yes, I am aware that the PDFs are not transcribed information; I didn't know they were scans of the copy certificates. Aren't the copy certificates transcribed from the originals? My own certified copy of my birth certificate looks hand typed.

All I'm trying to do, is find a way to get the original information digitally, rather than use a system that is slow and requires a lot of manual intervention.

[BumbleB]

FreeBMD has taken 20 years to get where it is today - assuming that the copyright date is the same start date. 

[Mart 'n' Al]

I remember when I used to want to go and see the cave paintings of my ancestors, we used to have to get out of the lake at three o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, go to work at the mill every day for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would beat us around the head and neck with a broken bottle, if we were LUCKY!

Martin

[coombs]

If a marriage took place after civil reg begun, I have often obtained a copy of the marriage cert through the parish records as you get original signatures and the same amount of info as you would get if you ordered the cert from the GRO. If I suspect they married at the registry office, then I order from the GRO or my local registry office. You may find non conformist marriages in the parish records at the record office, but not registry office marriages.

[BushInn1746]

What exactly do you want to hand over?  Are you saying that the FreeBMD organisation has, or should have, privileged access to the GRO's register copies in order to scan them?  Are you aware that the work of FreeBMD is done by volunteers in their own homes?

I would hand over the management of the project, as FreeBMD has managed and produced a staggering large online resource.

I think that whoever was going to undertake such a project, could have privileged access to either GRO registers, or to those held at local registry offices.

Yes I am aware that the GRO work is done by volunteers; I'm not suggesting that the volunteers should be made to undertake a new project. Those that want to help, great. I think that volunteers help with FamilySearch records too.

I'm sure that when FreeBMD started, the thought of transcribing 370 million records was equally daunting, and others suggested it couldn't be done.

Hi

I feel that even if an organisation could get permission (which I doubt) to voluntarily transcribe every England and Wales GRO BMD Certificate, it would be a poor use of precious time. Virtually nearly every place has Census coverage and some other record during the Civil Registration period from 1837 to the current day.

I dabble in a bit of local history 1500 to 1840 and there are thousands of names tucked away hidden in a single Landowner, Manor or other Collections in UK Archives of which there are 1,000s of these Collections (of varying sizes) around the UK, plus crews in old shipping Musters etc., etc., some of whom will never appear in old Parish Registers. Nor will those names appear in Catholic and Nonconformist records, because many of which are missing records. Despite Hardwicke's Marriage Act, a few even refused to marry in church and therefore never formally married according to the Law.

Transcribing GRO BMD Certificates (*which are actually available by purchase) after searching two Indexes Free BMD and GRO Index and cross referencing with Census (Census almost complete) and all the other records like Directories, etc., etc., then transcribing the actual GRO Certificates is a massively bad use of precious time, when so many other older records of people, are hidden away undiscovered in Archives. -

That hidden Archive record of them 200 years ago or more, might now be the only proof they ever existed.

Mark

* Some Church Wedding Certificates and recently I noticed some of my family 19th Parish baptisms were available online since 1837 (not all were / are C of E or had children baptised).