Suffolk parish registers to go online?

[Trevor Rix]

A Likely Game Changer

At the recent online Really Useful Show there was a presentation by Atlantic Geomatics that explained how, over the next seven years, as an agreement with the Church Of England, in collaboration with My Heritage and FamilySearch ...

"we will photograph all the memorials, scan all the parish registers and create a digital index of the records in the registers – baptisms, marriages and burials."

https://www.atlanticgeomatics.co.uk/burial-ground-management-system

Yes, you read that right. If the appropriate permissions are forthcoming FamilySearch will be scanning all Church Of England parish registers in England, including Suffolk, and make those high quality colour digital images available online. And indexed transcriptions too. It is not clear yet whether the images will be available on My Heritage or FamilySearch or both. My guess would be only on My Heritage?

https://03e2bd24-5ae4-4147-8ac5-31f897fe3108.filesusr.com/ugd/2feb15_1809007f529b4b96aa7a231c080aeef3.pdf

As the project progresses it may be the case that non-conformist registers might be included too.

Here is an example.

https://kirkburton.burialgrounds.co.uk/mapmanagement/#/memorialmanagement/5fd3ef07-82a4-4b64-baef-f86921f844d9/grave_slab/o/persons/5bb7c0ca-0b88-4509-88c5-5f4005e362a5/eedc3013-4bc9-4b4b-b8ac-7e4db7979121?tab=0

[ribbo39]

Hi CLP05893824,

Baptism records for Orford St.Bartholomew have been transcribed by the Suffolk FHS and are listed
in their CDs of Baptisms (1754 - 1812 & 1813 - 1900) for the deaneries of Loes, Orford).

I can see a baptisms for Hannah Hunt 13-10-1808 (Bn. 19-9) the Illeg d/o Hannah
also;
John Hunt 23-10-1810 (Bn. 12-11) s/o John & Jemima (late Ranaculs)
and
Hannah Hunt bapt. 25--12-1786 (Bn. 1-12-1784) d/o George & Hannah (late Howse)

Not sure if these help or not.

Alan

[CLP04893824]

Thank you for looking that up, Alan. A neat run with consistent parentage for Hannah, John and Marian would be too much to expect given they are not showing up elsewhere- though I live in hope(!).

However that one for John (mother Jemima) ties in with a marriage that I have found elsewhere - I shall follow that up.

The other explanation is that the parents were dissenters or chapel rather than church, in which case no baptisms here and very hard to link to any marriage.

[coombs]

Pre-1754 baptisms for Orford must still be awaiting transcription onto those Suffolk FHS CD's.

My Orford ancestor was William Beversham, (c1560-1606) a mayor and portman who had trade deals with the Mayor of Newcastle Upon Tyne.

[sharonmx5]

A Likely Game Changer

At the recent online Really Useful Show there was a presentation by Atlantic Geomatics that explained how, over the next seven years, as an agreement with the Church Of England, in collaboration with My Heritage and FamilySearch ...

"we will photograph all the memorials, scan all the parish registers and create a digital index of the records in the registers – baptisms, marriages and burials."

https://www.atlanticgeomatics.co.uk/burial-ground-management-system

Yes, you read that right. If the appropriate permissions are forthcoming FamilySearch will be scanning all Church Of England parish registers in England, including Suffolk, and make those high quality colour digital images available online. And indexed transcriptions too. It is not clear yet whether the images will be available on My Heritage or FamilySearch or both. My guess would be only on My Heritage?

https://03e2bd24-5ae4-4147-8ac5-31f897fe3108.filesusr.com/ugd/2feb15_1809007f529b4b96aa7a231c080aeef3.pdf

As the project progresses it may be the case that non-conformist registers might be included too.

Here is an example.

https://kirkburton.burialgrounds.co.uk/mapmanagement/#/memorialmanagement/5fd3ef07-82a4-4b64-baef-f86921f844d9/grave_slab/o/persons/5bb7c0ca-0b88-4509-88c5-5f4005e362a5/eedc3013-4bc9-4b4b-b8ac-7e4db7979121?tab=0

Thanks for this. Very interesting.

[coombs]

I think the pandemic has held up Suffolk FHS releasing any more new CD's as their latest release was a year ago. But so glad they are downloadable. And the Suffolk Archives website has digitised soem of their wills, probably more to come in the future.

[Trevor Rix]

From: Bobby Bennett (SCC Councillor) [mailto:Bobby.Bennett@suffolk.gov.uk]
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2022, 10:52 AM
To: trevor@trevorrix.co.uk; Andrew Reid (SCC Councillor); Richard Kemp (SCC Councillor)
Subject: Digitising Suffolk parish registers

Dear Mr Rix

I would like to introduce myself as the new Cabinet Member for Equality and Communities.  My portfolio has a wide remit including heritage and the Suffolk Archive Service.  I received an initial briefing about the digitisation of the parish registers, amongst other areas of the work of the service when I took on the portfolio.  The main priorities for the service continue to be to collect, preserve and make accessible Suffolk’s marvellous heritage; and concentrating on delivering the various elements of The Hold countywide transformational programme. This includes a wide range of events and activities to inspire, and engage new audiences and communities, with our collections in fresh, creative and innovative ways.

I assure you that the service is not blocking the digitisation of the parish registers and has tried to continue with its digitisation programme despite extensive demands across the service and dealing with the impact of Covid. The new website referred to by my colleague Councillor Andrew Reid went live on 8 December 2021 and includes a new exhibitions interface, upgraded map connections to a Georeferencer application with live tile layers, a facility to pin images etc, and a guest level shop. Digital catalogues, exhibitions and learning resources continue to be added to the website.  Preparatory conservation work and the digitisation of the smaller pre-1700 maps and enclosure maps has started. A specialist company is booked to digitise the larger maps. Suffolk Archive Service Managers have met with the Diocesan Registrar, Council Procurement and Legal Officers to restart the project to digitise the parish registers.  Discussions have been held with a specialist law firm to prepare a brief and engagement questions for the procurement of a company to digitise the parish registers.

No calculation of the loss of income from the delay in pursuing this project has been made.  You will appreciate that any potential loss of income is dependent upon a number of variables and I would rather that officers focussed their time on agreeing the contract and commencing. In fact, it could be argued that by not rushing into an agreement and learning from other earlier adopter record office services Suffolk will be able to reduce the risks and deliver greater long-term financial benefits.

I hope this helps to explain the current situation.  I will let you know when we have reached an agreement with a preferred supplier and have a firmer idea of the timeframe for the digital copies of the registers being available.

Kind regards

Bobby Bennett
Cabinet Member for Equality and Communities
County Councillor for Clare Division
07813551959

[Old Bristolian]

Thanks for posting this Trevor. At last the cogs may be turning,

Steve

[Trevor Rix]

Suffolk Archives Update 30 May 2022
https://www.suffolkarchives.co.uk/suffolk-archives-update