Below is the final list of record offices and local history libraries that are authorised to share my database and a list of those which are not. I hope there is no confusion over the constantly changing details but some of the conditions of deposit have been found to be unacceptable.
These are the conditions of deposit, as I understand them, although human nature dictates that there will be regional variations. The rules listed here are all approved by me. The aim is to encourage genuine research and discourage any attempt to gather the whole database in one place.
The authorised record offices will assist people who visit them. As author I am entitled to limit the amount of photocopying to zero but I am allowing photocopies of pages to be made, under the supervision of the duty archivist, for the purpose of helping the researcher avoid transcription errors and to make efficient use of time.
The record office is not permitted to give, sell, lend or copy the complete database to anybody, including other record offices, which means that those depositories that are not participating should not hold a copy even though several of them have been in possession of one at some stage.
The database must not be indexed, turned into digitised images, or placed online except to notify the public of its existence and location. The record office administers, protects and preserves it for the benefit of its customers, subject to the relevant copyright legislation. The record office is entitled to make back-up copies of the database but only for the purpose of preserving its contents. Recent legislation has determined that the CD-ROM must be used on one particular computer under supervision. USB sticks are not permitted.
The database must not be transferred by any form of post. This rules out some people, especially those who live outside of the U.K., although there is a reason for it which is that I am moving overseas early next year where the same material will be divided into 9 equal parts, each just over 130 pages in length, which will be sold as printed books. The division is alphabetical and the titles will be:
1 of 9 Abbott to Boswell
2 of 9 Botton to Cooper
3 of 9 Coopling to Gray
4 of 9 Grayson to Keene
5 of 9 Keet to Loveridge
6 of 9 Lovett to Ponto
7 of 9 Poole to Smith (baptisms to Lancashire)
8 of 9 Smith (baptisms Leicestershire) to Swainson
9 of 9 Swales to Zachary
Since I went on my final trip after distributing the six regional databases they are all now slightly out of date although I cannot say that just a few changes have been made because I tend to gather a considerable amount of information. The work contains factual entries while additional remarks are placed within square brackets. All the entries are either gipsylike or known to be connected to travelling people. There are numerous instances of itinerants who may not have been gipsies but who had similar occupations.
This is the final list of 23 authorised record offices and local history libraries:
Eastern England & East Midlands Gipsy Index (EGI)
Bedford
Cambridge
Huntingdon
Matlock
Wigston Magna
Greater London Gipsy Index (GLGI)
Bexley Library
Bromley Library
Northern England Gipsy Index (NGI)
Doncaster
Durham
Northallerton
Newcastle
South East England Gipsy Index (SEGI)
Bexley Library
Bromley Library
Canterbury
Strood
South Central & South West Gipsy Index (SWGI)
Chippenham
Norton Fitzwarren
Oxford
Winchester *
Wales & West England Gipsy Index (WGI)
Aberystwyth (NLW)
Gloucester
Hawarden
Leckwith
Shropshire
Stafford
The following record offices and local history libraries will not be participating:
Aylesbury
Beverley
Birmingham
Bristol
Carlisle
Chester
Chichester
Dorchester
Hereford
Hertford
Heslington
Ilford
Kendal
Liverpool
London Metropolitan Archives
Maidstone
Reading
Sheffield
Sowton
Truro
Walthamstow
Woking
Woodhorn
Worcester
One record office, Warwick, is still being decided.
TL
