I have 25% from my tree from Hungerford, Coleshill, Bisham, Tilehurst, Cookham, Reading (sts Mary, Giles, Lawrence, Greyfriars etc). Some of the Records are on the IGI e.g. St Mary but not St Lawrence and then only in their abbreviated form e.g. no occupations, father's and occupations, witnesses and virtually no burials.
It would be nice to buy CDs if available, but usually too expensive as most people only stayed in one parish for a couple of generations and then moved on, so that a personal search is the only viable solution.
However, as both the BRO and the FHS building are only open during the working week, I can never get there. Other offices such as Rotherham or Birmingham or Wiltshire or Oxfordshire can do it, so why not Berkshire? They do it by closing to the public on quiet days such as Monday or Tuesday. If I can't see data on the net or buy reasonably priced data discs or booklets, the information is effectively denied to me, which runs contrary to the spirit of Freedom of Information. Why should information only be limited to the retired, the student, the shift worker or the unemployed?
Presumably the BRO will quote lack of resources - it doesn't say much much for Berkshire's priorities and quoting back the comments about a lack of retired people, do we have then to think that the county is only populated by young money-grabbers who resent every penny of money spent on libraries but who will be save the county on free bus passes, social services and care home expenditure by emigrating when they retire? Aren't local government supposed to serve the populace that pay for them?
Annoyed,
