I see from the user group minutes that modern indexes are being put online. As a researcher, of course I think that would be great, but I also have some concerns about this. I always thought GROS took a sensible approach to the availability of indexes, even though it has sometimes frustrated my research.
I know the English indexes are available on-line, but (at least last time I looked) they weren't in a format that allowed too much misuse as you could only search by the first few letters of the surname.
The minutes state that "The mother’s maiden surname will be given to SoL but it will not be a searchable field." Can anyone clarify whether or not they will show up on search results?
And what on earth is a “soft launch” approach?
I'm not saying I'm against this move but for such a big policy change it would have been nice to have a fuller explanation as to why GROS feel there are "no real privacy issues to cause concern".
Just some thoughts!
Joyce
Modern Day Indexes
Moderator: Global Moderators
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sporran
- Posts: 496
- Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 11:40 pm
- Location: Leominster, Herefordshire, UK
Re: modern indexes
Hello Joyce,
previous minutes show that modern-day indexes have been under consideration for some months, and the privacy issues were to do with change of gender. However, since the indexes (and images) are available to anyone paying to enter New Register House, it was felt that they could be made available on line.
It is up to the web designers what they can fit on search results, but I would expect to see mother's maiden surname, again because the information is available in NRH. I think that it was 1935 when it was first recorded on the indexes.
For English records, it depends on the site, but you may have been thinking about 1837online for searches on first few letters. It was revamped, and searches can be made on the full name. However, 1837online is not a databse until 1984 records: before 1984 you will get a list of pages where the name could occur.
A "soft" launch is one done without fanfare or big press launch. It relies more on "word of mouth" and avoids big hits that paralyse the site (1901 English census, World Cup tickets, etc).
Regards,
John
previous minutes show that modern-day indexes have been under consideration for some months, and the privacy issues were to do with change of gender. However, since the indexes (and images) are available to anyone paying to enter New Register House, it was felt that they could be made available on line.
It is up to the web designers what they can fit on search results, but I would expect to see mother's maiden surname, again because the information is available in NRH. I think that it was 1935 when it was first recorded on the indexes.
For English records, it depends on the site, but you may have been thinking about 1837online for searches on first few letters. It was revamped, and searches can be made on the full name. However, 1837online is not a databse until 1984 records: before 1984 you will get a list of pages where the name could occur.
A "soft" launch is one done without fanfare or big press launch. It relies more on "word of mouth" and avoids big hits that paralyse the site (1901 English census, World Cup tickets, etc).
Regards,
John
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trish1
- Posts: 1320
- Joined: Mon Dec 26, 2005 3:38 am
- Location: australia
It is very welcome to have the recent indexes online, in Australia they are not online (in fact many states have NOTHING online) and recent indexes cannot be accessed AT ALL. This is listed as being because of "Privacy" - I believe it is the privacy of the govt officials rather than the people that is being protected & it continues to frustrate me every day.
In regard to the English registers - My knowledge is as follows - The official indexing of the English registers allows you to search sequentially through a series of pages, the top of these pages containing the start & end 3 letters on the page. Post 1984 a searchable index by name is available.
A number of indexes or scanned copies of the original index are online -FreeBDM(developed by volunteer labour) is searchable by full name, but is not complete, other sites which I won't list have indexes ranging from fully seachable through to access to images which MAY contain your name - most of these sites charge for their access. A number of counties are developing their own fully searchable indexes online.
What is different to SP is that the full certificate is not available online & my understanding from the minutes is that only the recent Scottish indexes are to be online, not necessarily the images - John can no doubt confirm/deny this.
Trish
In regard to the English registers - My knowledge is as follows - The official indexing of the English registers allows you to search sequentially through a series of pages, the top of these pages containing the start & end 3 letters on the page. Post 1984 a searchable index by name is available.
A number of indexes or scanned copies of the original index are online -FreeBDM(developed by volunteer labour) is searchable by full name, but is not complete, other sites which I won't list have indexes ranging from fully seachable through to access to images which MAY contain your name - most of these sites charge for their access. A number of counties are developing their own fully searchable indexes online.
What is different to SP is that the full certificate is not available online & my understanding from the minutes is that only the recent Scottish indexes are to be online, not necessarily the images - John can no doubt confirm/deny this.
Trish
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DavidWW
- Posts: 5057
- Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 9:47 pm
As far as the on-line images of the Scottish BMD registers are concerned, the closure periods will remain 100 years for births, 75 for marriages, and 50 for deaths.trish1 wrote:....snipped .........
What is different to SP is that the full certificate is not available online & my understanding from the minutes is that only the recent Scottish indexes are to be online, not necessarily the images - John can no doubt confirm/deny this.
Trish
Later images, as always, will be accessible at New Register House in Edinburgh, Park Circus in Glasgow, and an increasing number of other locations around Scotland which are being linked into DIGROS (anyone been at the Family History Centre in London who can advise on the status and nature of the link to GROS
)David