Parish Registers

[Peter Hyde]

Hi All:

On December 7th, 2005 the Berkshire County Archivist, Peter Durrant, wrote the following to FreeREG:

My discussions with various parties have very recently been concluded and I was on the point of writing to let you know the outcome, which is a decision that we intend to proceed in partnership with the Berkshire Family History Society in promoting access to records here. I shall therefore not be granting other permissions for the transcription of registers, nor shall I be authorising release of GSU (Genealogical Society of Utah) films for this purpose.

Yours sincerely

Peter Durrant

So Mr. Durrant and his Office are paying lip-service to their mandate "to preserve records relating to the county of Berkshire and its people, and to make them available for research to anyone who is interested in the county's past."  Yet they are not fulfilling their mandate, as it is almost impossible for me to access the records of my parish of interest.  He says he is "promoting access to records" - a blatant piece of misinformation.

It seems we have an unholy alliance between the Berkshire Record Office and the Berkshire Family History Society to withhold access to parish registers by the general public for as long as possible.  What arrogance.  Why is Mr.
Durrant allowing a small group of individuals to dictate who may access these records, where they may access them and how they may access them?

In 6 months transcribers of Norfolk parish registers have provided the public, through FreeREG, with transcriptions of 151 parishes.  In Berkshire, the FHS has transcribed and made available (for a price) a total of 22 parishes and this has taken several years.

What will the Berkshire RO or the Berkshire FHS do if I transcribe a film that I borrow through the Latter Day Saints and post the transcription on my personal website?  What is the difference between me doing that and FreeREG doing it, other than organisation and the scale of the project?  It has already happened in a number of counties that individuals' websites have become centres for parish register searches.

It seems that Berkshire Record Office and Berkshire FHS are joining forces with King Canute and the Luddites in their reaction to this.

Regards

Peter Hyde
Alberta, Canada

[Lesanne]

Have read this thread with interest Peter.
It would seem that our poor old 'Ag lab' Barkshire families are still being used as the 'dogs bodies' to make money for them in the big 'ouse.
Greed comes to mind.......... 

Lesanne.

[behindthefrogs]

Hi All:


In 6 months transcribers of Norfolk parish registers have provided the public, through FreeREG, with transcriptions of 151 parishes.  In Berkshire, the FHS has transcribed and made available (for a price) a total of 22 parishes and this has taken several years.

What will the Berkshire RO or the Berkshire FHS do if I transcribe a film that I borrow through the Latter Day Saints and post the transcription on my personal website?  What is the difference between me doing that and FreeREG doing it, other than organisation and the scale of the project?  It has already happened in a number of counties that individuals' websites have become centres for parish register searches.

It seems that Berkshire Record Office and Berkshire FHS are joining forces with King Canute and the Luddites in their reaction to this.

Regards

Peter Hyde
Alberta, Canada

Peter needs to be aware of a number of facts.

Firstly the rate at which family history societies transcribe records depends on the number of volunteers available to transcribe the records.  If you want the Berkshire records transcribed then volunteer to help.  You don't have to live locally to get involved in all the transcriptions that they are doing.

Berkshire is to a large extent a London commuter zone and that has three effects.  Lack of time for people to volunteer.  The elderly who have time move away when they retire to places like Norfolk.  The costs of running the FHS society are much higher than many other areas in terms of running the search rooms and booking halls for meetings. Are you suggesting that it should not subsidize these costs for the members who do the transcription by recovering the costs plus a small profit from the transcriptions?

In short if you don't like it: join the FHS, help with the transcriptions and have your vote as to how they are distributed. 

David

[Lesanne]

Hi David,
It seems I've got the wrong end... It came across as they were not letting anyone else transcribe the registers. Thus, only way to see info was to pay FHS's.

Lesanne.

[behindthefrogs]

Hi David,
It seems I've got the wrong end... It came across as they were not letting anyone else transcribe the registers. Thus, only way to see info was to pay FHS's.

Lesanne.

You are half right.  The issue as I understand it. and I am not directly involved, was the release of the registers and copies there of on film held at the record office for the purpose of transcription.  In most cases there is only a single copy.  This came down to two problems.

They either had to be withdrawn from general public access while the transcription took place or special copies made.  The possibilty of interrupting transcriptions for public access was not considered feasible.  It was also considered that these options would involve breaking the record office's terms of reference quoted above.

The solution was for the records to be made available to the FHS out of normal office hours to allow photocopies to be made and in difficult cases for making and checking the transcriptions.  Berks FHS has the advantage that its search room is on the same site as the record office.  All expenses to be carried by the FHS which recovers its costs by the sale of transcription copies.  A copy of the transcriptions would be made available for use in the record office.  They are also available in the FHS search room free to members and for the small day visit fee payed by visitors.

To duplicate these arrangements for other transcribers not located locally was considered too difficult if not impossible.

The above is hearsay but I believe essentially correct.

David

[Lesanne]

Will they be free, once all the expensive transcriptions have taken place?
  oooh, that didn't sound right but you know what I mean.. 

[newburychap]

This thread has generated some wonderful explanations but started with a false statement and has drifted off into wonderful speculation.

The situation is that the Berkshire Record Office in the person of the County Archivist, Dr Peter Durrant, has refused FreeReg permission to use (notably to digitise) LDS films for its purposes. Other archivists have decided differently, some have been selling PRs on fiche for years others have sanctioned LDS to release films to FreeReg.

In making his decision Dr Durrant (and other archivists who made the same decision) have earned the wrath of some wishing to see the PR data online for free.

The implication is that Berks FHS have in some way prevented the BRO from allowing FreeReg access - this is nonsense. Berks FHS may have some influence over Dr Durrant - as anyone representing a large group of BRO users would. However, anyone who has met the man will realise that he will not be swayed from a course of action that he believes to be in the best interests of the owners of the PRs (of whom he is the representative).

I am fairly sure that his issue is not with the desire of FreeReg to transcribe registers but with the possibilty that they would copy (especially digitise) PR films in order to give volunteers images to transcribe at home. As the representative of the copyright holder of the parish registers (he is also the Archivist for the Archdeaconry of Berkshire records) he believes that the uncontrolled release of digitised images is not in the best interests of the copyright owners. He is consistent in this and has also refused Berks FHS permission to digitise films for transcription purposes.

It is likely that there are other pressures on Dr Durrant that would help him decide they way he has (for instance he is likely to have targets set by his bosses for the number of visitors to the BRO each year - having all the PRs on line would reduce numbers). However, I don't think such pressures would have that much effect on him, in my opinion the key to this issue is control of copyright.

If FreeReg want to transcribe they can go to the BRO or any LDS Family History Centre and get on with it.

If anyone wants to see Dr Durrant change his mind then they need to get the owners of the PRs to tell him to act differently. It is about time that the Church Of England made a national decision about their parish records and took this decision away from local archivists. They should come out and say whether the PRs should be made available for free distribution (at no cost to the Church or ROs - the LDS have certainly considered putting all their films online for free) or they should make the PRs available for commercial exploitation by the likes of Ancestry or more likely by licencing them to all comers as the National Archives do with census films.

[Lesanne]

Does this help with searching for Berkshire records...

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hughwallis/IGIBatchNumbers/CountyBerkshire.htm#PageTitle

[behindthefrogs]

If FreeReg want to transcribe they can go to the BRO or any LDS Family History Centre and get on with it.

I am not sure that this statement is entirely correct.  As I stated previously I know that there is a problem with making material available for long periods for transcription and thus it not being available for general public use.

David