Changes made to search software at ScotlandsPeople Centre

[TAFKAM]

Unsure as to whether or not this is the correct forum to put this, so if Mods would like to move it, please feel free.

In the last week there have been three changes to the search software used in the ScotlandsPeople Centre (SPC).

These are

1. Addition of OPR Death and Burial records. Up until now these have not been available digitally in the search rooms at SPC, however they now are, in much the same way as they are available on the ScotlandsPeople PPV website.

2. Addition of "year up/year down" search functionality. Up until now, the software has required that you input a "year range" that you would like to search. This has included, if you wanted to search one year in particular, that you had to type in say 1925 to 1925. Now you can actually hit one button, and the software will go up or down the years individually - very like the old DIGROS system

3. Marriage search using both bride and groom details. As it says on the tin really - previously you could only search for a marriage using details of one person only - a nightmare if you are looking at a bride with the surname McDonald where the groom is Brown !


Very worthwhile changes I feel, for those lucky enough to be able to go this should make their visit a bit more profitable.

Cheers

T.

[AndrewP]

Thanks for that news TAFKAM.

I gather that access to the bmd microfiche has now been withdrawn at NRH. As they contained an index (from the year-end pages of each bmd register) not available elsewhere, is that index going to be made avilable onscreen? I believe that these pages have been digitised, just not accessed by the DIGROS or SPCentre software. These indexes are valuable if a name has been misindexed, missed off the index or is mis-spelled (on the register or the onscreen index).

All the best,

AndrewP