Essex Record Office collaboration with Ancestry

[Trevor Rix]

On 5th June 2019 the Ancestry card catalogue shows that Ancestry posted four huge datasets of indexes to Essex parish registers.

https://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com/2019/06/ancestry-adds-huge-essex-church-of.html

So, I can search a dataset, click View Record on a hit, click ". at Essex Archives Online", click Open Website, which takes me to

https://www.essexarchivesonline.co.uk

As I already have an annual subscription to Essex Archives Online (SEAX) and am logged in, how do I view the image without paying the £2.99?

The ERO terms and conditions include ...

"1.3 Online access to images of parish registers, wills, electoral registers and some other items is subject to a charge. All charged images can be viewed online by registering for an account and by taking out a timed subscription.

1.4 Within Essex Archives Online, wills are individually indexed but parish registers are identified only by parish, event (i.e. baptism, marriage or burial) and date range. Ancestry have created name indexes to the images of parish registers contained in Essex Archives Online. Users of Ancestry’s indexes may click through to Essex Archives Online and buy a copy of the indexed image. This service is accessible only through Ancestry’s indexes. The ERO does not guarantee the completeness or accuracy of these or any other indexes.

1.5 In some parishes, the images of baptisms and marriages available to subscribers to Essex Archives Online extend later than the dates indexed by Ancestry. The ERO does not maintain indexes to these later images and they are not available through this single-image service. The service covers only those images of parish registers indexed by Ancestry."

[Trevor Rix]

I now have the answer ...

"Thank you for getting in touch and for trying the new service.

The arrangement with Ancestry is quite independent of our subscription system.  It does not require users to subscribe – but on the other hand subscribers cannot view an indexed image automatically.  We can see that this might be a useful feature and we will consider it for future versions of the software.

In the meantime, you will have to treat Ancestry as an index only, noting the information including the parish name and the precise date of an image, which in most cases should allow you to find the same image via a login to your subscribed area.

Duty Archivist

Essex Record Office, Wharf Road, Chelmsford CM2 6YT
Essex County Council"

[coombs]

I found these indexes last night and I shall be a busy bee as most of my ancestors were from Essex. It has been a long time coming for a vast Essex database to come online.

[farmeroman]

Ititially I was excited by this development, but on closer inspection (having paid for a new Ancestry subscription and willling to pay for a new SEAX subscription), I found that the majority of hits are merely "name, father, mother" with no date or parish attached, which renders those hits no better than a random name generator.

So unless this is a work in progress and parishes and dates will be added to those later it is very disappointing and makes me wonder why they bothered.

[Trevor Rix]

You need to progress two more steps.

For those hits that do not show a parish etc. when clicking on View Record, click "View Record At Essex Archives Online", and click "Open Website". Then scroll down where you will see the information to enable you to eventually find the image via your SEAX subscription. You will be able to determine the parish and the dataset reference, but alas no indication as to the year.

I have asked the ERO for a solution.

[smudwhisk]

The arrangement with Ancestry is quite independent of our subscription system.  It does not require users to subscribe – but on the other hand subscribers cannot view an indexed image automatically.  We can see that this might be a useful feature and we will consider it for future versions of the software.

Well that response has saved me from moaning at them via email but it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect having access to the images from the thumbnails rather than having to go look for them.  Some of the parishes are large and some have records all over the place, especially in early registers, so it would really make life a lot easier.  That said, depending on the accuracy of Ancestry's indexing which can often leave something to be desired unfortunately, it is a definite improvement on what has been available up until now although not surprisingly I'm finding mistakes.

[farmeroman]

You need to progress two more steps.

For those hits that do not show a parish etc. when clicking on View Record, click "View Record At Essex Archives Online", and click "Open Website". Then scroll down where you will see the information to enable you to eventually find the image via your SEAX subscription. You will be able to determine the parish and the dataset reference, but alas no indication as to the year.

I have asked the ERO for a solution.

OK, thanks that's a help.

Unfortunately it doesn't help with date specific searches though; if I enter a date range it omits all of those hits and of course if I omit a date range I get loads of irrelevant hits. I have experimented with saving the small image and then zooming in an image viewer and can sometimes, but not always, read the date. Oh well, it's better than nothing, which is what we had before.

On the plus side I have now found the baptism record for one of my brick walls along with his parents marriage; I've been searching for him for years without success. It's a very unusal name so I'm sure he's the one and he hadn't travelled that far. Silver linings, etc.

I'm confident enough that there's sufficient new stuff there to sign up for a one month SEAX subscription, which should be enough if I put in the hours.

[Amanda G]

Delighted to see this news, I have also made a breakthrough due to these records and as it is another unusual name I am confident he's mine

I can see it being worth another sub this year for me.

Kind Regards
Amanda

[coombs]

I have been appreciating the new records, yes you still have to look at SEAX to see the images but the new records have helped me to break down some brickwalls and have been a valuable finding aid for SEAX. I bought a sub for SEAX yesterday due to the new records on Ancestry.

I think when you do type a date range, you get lots of name, spouse and children results but have to scroll further down to get the hits. Ancestry has been iffy for ages though.