RootsChat.Com
England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Topic started by: sporran on Wednesday 11 April 07 10:48 BST (UK)
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Hello all,
The National Archives (TNA) has just announced that it has chosen ScotlandOnline as its partner in putting online the 1911 Census for England and Wales. ScotlandOnline is already the partner with GROS in ScotlandsPeople and we are already aware of the standard of their work and their responsiveness to problems.
The announcement from TNA is at:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/stories/156.htm?homepage=news
Regards,
John
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Thanks. However, you don't make it clear whether 'our 'experience of Scotalndspeople is positive, negative or other. I am totally happy, but it seems plenty of others are not. Having said that I think it possible that some of the 'problems' may be self inflicted.
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Hello Imber,
thanks for your reply, and I am pleased that you are 'totally happy' with ScotlandsPeople (SP). I chose my words carefully for two reasons:
firstly, I believe that it is up to each individual to form an opinion, but at least ScotlandOnline is a known quantity;
secondly, I am a member of ScotlandsPeople User Group, so I have regular meetings and correspondence with both GROS and ScotlandOnline. I have to represent users' views, so praise and brickbats from the users or me are dished out to SP when deserved.
Regards,
John
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I'm glad I picked my words carefully! The only thing I would mention is the number of people who say they have to use Ancestry to find a relative on a census by searching under birthplace. This is very helpful where a common name combination is involved. The facility is not available on SP and seems to upset a lot of our friends in the south. Not a problem for me, but worth mentioning.
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Hello Imber,
thanks for the reply. Just to clarify the process in case others are interested:
General Register Office - Scotland (GROS) decided on what information was to be extracted as the populated fields for a database. GROS chose a "thin" index that excluded the place of birth, and therefore it is not a searchable field, but the information is available on the image. The User Group pressed for a thick index but cost and time constraints were involved. GROS use the index on their internal system at New Register House and accessed from other locations such as Glasgow and Kew, and passed over the index and images to ScotlandOnline for loading on to the ScotlandsPeople internet site.
With its deeper pockets, Ancestry was able to specify a "thick" index, and I have to comment that some of its indexing is thick in another sense. GROS have not ruled out returning to the censuses and preparing thick indexes, but it is not likely to happen soon.
Sometimes the place of birth does not help. One of my relatives flitted between Scotland and England, and on Scottish censuses he was born in England, and vice versa. On the other hand, being able to look for all people named John born in Warmsworth (for example) has helped overcome some of the vagaries of the enumerators, handwriting, and indexing, so credit to Ancestry for that.
Regards,
John
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A thought...
I appreciate the rationale for having a "thin" rather than "thick" index. However it does worry me that the 1911 Index will exclude basic search criteria - eg birthplace - but present the census images on a pay-per-view basis. I can imagine a lot of people wasting valuable credits without such a facility.
Dave
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But still IRONIC that ScotlandsPeople are working on the early release of the English 1911 Census, when the Scottish 1911 census won't be released before the full 100 years!
Harvey L Kaplan
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Hello Harvey,
it is Scotland Online that will be working with TNA, not ScotlandsPeople. Although Scotland Online are part of the ScotlandsPeople partnership (with GROS), that is only part of their range of activities. Their web site is http://www.scotlandonline.co.uk .
Regards,
John
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thanks - I get confused! - especially when I had a frustrating email exchange on this subject with ScotlandsPeople, before they pointed me to the REgistrar General for Scotland.
Never used to be so complicated!
Harvey