The next 10 years

[Nick29]

I think that over the next 10 years, more old newspapers will come on line, especially some of the long lost off our streets,  more Parish Records will be available on line and my big wish that the GRO will find some way around the law and issue certs. on line.

More of the records held in county archives become available online, and the LMA releases more of its extensive collections online.

Although I sincerely hope that you are right, I wouldn't like to take a bet on it 

When you are in a library, you can whizz through microfilms to find what you want, but you can't do that on a computer online.  To be able to access stuff online, it has to be digitised, indexed, transcribed, and stored, and all these things cost money.  The records on the LMA pre-1813 are very difficult to photograph and transcribe, because of the condition of the originals.  I'd love to see local newspapers online, but unfortunately these would also need to be digitised, transcribed, and cross-referenced, which again would be time-consuming and costly.

I'm not sure which elements of Plummiegirl's predictions you are dubious about - but:

Many more newspapers will appear (Brightsolid have already signed up to digitise the BL collection), the BL is desparate for this to happen because it will make the closure of Colindale more acceptable and raise some much needed funds;

Many more parish records will appear online (the LDS are already putting up digitised PRs and many, many more will follow);

Record offices are less likely to do so much as they are facing massive funding cuts - but they might find a way to raise some funds through putting records online;

The GRO may well follow the GROS in making register info available online, but the future of Civil Registration records is up in the air at present, the last government wanted to make historical registers public (local registers transferring to county record offices or similar to enable public access),  who knows what the present lot will do?

My main doubts surround the fact that we are in the middle of a deep financial recession, and companies are (and will continue to be) reluctant to invest money, unless they can be sure of a good financial return, and although amateur genealogy is very popular, it is not a huge money-spinner.  With the 1911 census, Brightsolid had a very good idea of the returns that they could get, before they embarked upon it, but the same cannot be said for all documents.

I'm not sure how you can assert that register offices and the GRO will 'make info available online' when much of it is not in a format which makes it readily adaptable to online access ? 

As for the LDS Church, yes they are making progress in certain areas, but again much of this work is being done by volunteers, so don't expect much to happen very quickly.

[johnxyz]

One aspect no-one has commented on is the nature of the internet itself. The profusion of data has in many cases made it hard to sort the nuggets from the dross. Search engine technology is improving, but it can seem increasingly difficult to find hard information tied to definitive sources. That's a general comment - not restricted to genealogy or family history.

In the more specific context, many "volunteers" are choosing to publish directly. There are many small- or medium-scale indexes or transcriptions of parish records. I see that trend continuing. But it brings with it the cataloguing problem raised elsewhere in this thread. So I can only thank and  encourage those who maintain the "resources" sections, and particularly the on-line resources,  for each county within this forum. I suspect your efforts are going to become more and more important.

[LizzieW]

*sigh!*

... I'd really ... REALLY ... like to see The National Archives website turn into something I can actually find my way around!  And maybe they'd organise things so that I can find information online ....

Amen to that, it completely baffles me that site!

I don't know what they've done to it.  I used to be able to find my way around the site (I did a course on just that) now it's all changed again and I can't find anything.

[coombs]

I want more historical electoral registers to come online.

The pilot site has release many new parish records.

[Rhonddagirl]

I would like to see the online records for England and Wales to rise to the standard of Scotland's online service.

(And the abolition of Ancestry)

What's that about?  Ancestry is an amazing service and would recommend to any one interested in geneology.  Why did you say that?

[Redroger]

With you on the National Archives Website, it is completely opaque to me, and has been described by a regular as "Not user friendly" However, I think we should grin and bear it, if we complain it will get closed "to save money"

[coombs]

I disagree with the abolition of Ancestry.

[johnxyz]

Are the problems with The National Archive the website as a whole or the Catalogue?

I'm lucky in that I have from Kew a 25 page printed document on Catalogue search tips, dated Sep 2008. Much of its content is in the on-line search tips, but I do find the printed document easier to use.

The biggest hurdle I found when I started using the catalogue is that the search "word or phrase" box does not work like a standard search engine. The notes at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help/catalogue/basicsearch.htm#searchtips explain some of this, but they are heavy going.  The bullets about word order are particularly significant

The other slight oddity is the need to click through to the Catalogue page for a link to the research guides. 

[Plummiegirl]

Oh Deb D - how I agree with you, the National Archives website leaves me cold, I know there is information there that would be useful to me, but finding it is just so complicated (or is it just me being a bit older and not understanding!!!)

I have even gone so far as to phone them & ask if there was anywhere I could go for simple & easy to understand instructions on how to use their site but they were unable to help me.