ERO going Pay-to-Browse for online PRs etc

[geno500]

Hi Ian I would get in touch with ERO  they may have made a mistake with those images, the only very small images I have come across on micro fiche/film were from  non conformist and this was because the records were kept in a small note book so the image was small but with this new digital image they should be able to make even a small image much larger,I have looked at the records for All Saints at Barking pre digital and there were no small records at that church.

[Aulus]

I just noticed that this has gone live.

But I have to admit I'm a bit confused by the site, which seems to changed very little, if at all, since before going pay-to-view.

I think for each church I've looked at (mainly West Ham & Stratford) virtually all the registers have been shown as "Microfiche" with just the occasional "Digital Image" - from memory, not really much change from before.  Does that mean those records aren't online? (yet?)  If that's the case, I'll probably hold off a bit longer.

[Scrabble]

Click on 'Images' before typing 'west ham register' into the search box and hit enter (or the search button) and it will bring up a list of the ones that are actually available online. You have to pay before you can look at the registers but you will get a list of the dates available and can click on them for more info e.g. church name and actual dates covered.

[Aulus]

Aha! Thanks a lot Scrabble. 

That produces much more useable results than the way they seem to want people to search (pick parish from dropdown, pick church etc).

Seems to be mainly pre-civil registration and mid 20th century.

Oddly, the search seems to have difficulty refreshing results when I change search terms, though that's more likely to be the caches through which I have to access the web than ERO.

[coombs]

At present I am trying to find the marriage of John Merritt to Sarah. They had a child Anna in 1769 in Eastwood and there was another John Merritt who had a Sarah as a wife having children in Romford 1760 to 1763. I am trying to see if it is the same couple. Eastwood is now in modern day Southend.

I still have not found a marriage and I am going in ever increasing circles around Eastwood and surrounds and also Romford and surrounds.

[geno500]

Hi there is nothing as bad as having some leads on your family line but have to jump from village to village trying to find there marriage,even with the records online it can take ages,I nearly always forget which ones I have looked up I would suggest you post a request for somebody who is going to the ERO to do a very quick look up for you,ERO have Boyds Marriage records and with the info you have it will narrow down to one book and take all of 30 secs to locate the marriage or not,also a look at the marriage licence may give you a lead this again is one book but if they are recorded the person will have to look at the original licence to find the place they got married,I will not be going to the records for at least 3 weeks,but if you want I will do this look up for you.I suspect that the ERO will one day put the marriage licence online ,it will be a big job as they have lots but it would make it much easier for people.

[coombs]

Yes it is a time consuming task as unfortunately Essex is poorly covered on the IGI.

I shall keep at it for now although thanks for the Boyds lookup. I shall let you know if I do find anything.

A John Merrit wed in 1755 to Ann Harvey in Romford and they had a child Elizabeth in 1756. I dont know if it is the John Merritt who wed Sarah and had kids in Romford and who may be my John Merritt.

I shall make the most of my months subscription as I have found lots of other stuff.

[smudwhisk]

For anyone who has checked Boyds when it was previously on origins.net and couldn't find a marriage, it's actually worth double checking it again now its on FindMyPast because I actually got lucky and found the marriage I was looking for last week when previously it never appeared, yet I know I tried the particular variation of the surname.   I'm just glad they didn't wed in the parish they were from because the marriage registers for there have a 50 year gap and therefore I'd never have found out the bride's maiden name.  Sadly though Boyds doesn't cover Essex very well either and we are still on the hunt around the county for some marriages.  It's possible they married out of county but without checking everywhere it won't really be possible to say and nothing comes up elsewhere either.   But that's the joy of genealogy, you never quite know what you'll find.  I'm certainly making good use of the online records and no doubt will for some time.

[Diblet]

I've already found 2 marriages that have eluded me for years and I did it by the process of elimination. 

I knew where the children of the marriages were baptized but had never been able to find the parents marriages.

I literally sat with my map of Essex parishes and a pencil and paper to make a note of what I'd looked at already.

Far from being boring, I thoroughly enjoyed trawling through the registers and discovered many other unknown entries too.

I'm really glad I took out my years subs. now. I can look at leisure and hopefully take several branches of my tree well back into the early 18th century.