Suffolk parish registers to go online?

[Trevor Rix]

The last I heard three weeks ago is that Suffolk Record Office are in
talks with prospective commercial partners to make available online new
high quality digitised images of the original Suffolk parish registers
(baptisms marriages and burials). They may be in a position to announce
which commercial partner has been chosen towards the end of this year or
early next year. This I think is a very commendable route to go down,
and is an extremely exciting prospect. They will be new digitised images from the originals.

In the meantime Suffolk Record Office are making a start in bringing us
new digital images of original Suffolk wills on their own website on a
pay per view basis. Only a few will be released initially with more to
follow. I understand that the cost will be in the region of £6 per will
which in my opinion is unaffordable for those with lots of Suffolk
ancestry that need dozens or hundreds of these wills. A subscription
model, or preferably working with a commercial partner, would be much
better.

http://www.suffolkarchives.co.uk

Trevor Rix

[sharonmx5]

Thanks for that info. It's good to hear that digitisation will be from the originals.  I await further news with interest.

[coombs]

Cannot wait, no more traipsing off to record offices, well not as much anyway regarding my Suffolk lot.

[clairec666]

Thanks for the update, Trevor. Maybe if they do a deal with FindMyPast, the records might be available to browse first, before they're indexed....

[smudwhisk]

Thanks for the update, Trevor. Maybe if they do a deal with FindMyPast, the records might be available to browse first, before they're indexed....

FindMyPast rarely do that until after they've released all the records.  More chance that might happen on Ancestry but even they don't seem to release them as browse only to start with.

[clairec666]

Thanks for the update, Trevor. Maybe if they do a deal with FindMyPast, the records might be available to browse first, before they're indexed....

FindMyPast rarely do that until after they've released all the records.  More chance that might happen on Ancestry but even they don't seem to release them as browse only to start with.

I think FindMyPast released Canterbury and Lincolnshire parish records as "browse only" and the transcriptions appeared later. Then again, I don't think they've done it with other counties, so we can only speculate on what might happen!

[smudwhisk]

think FindMyPast released Canterbury and Lincolnshire parish records as "browse only" and the transcriptions appeared later. Then again, I don't think they've done it with other counties, so we can only speculate on what might happen!

Yes its speculation and yes Canterbury and Lincolnshire PRs were initially released by FindMyPast as browse only, but they were released under different circumstances to the rest of FindMyPast's PR collections.  Canterbury were released when the Canterbury Archives were closed, albeit not long before they reopened but I gather that was because FindMyPast took rather a long time in completing them.  Lincolnshire's indexing has only just been made available but the PRs have been on FindMyPast as browse only for several years, I believe that was the original agreement between the two and probably didn't include any indexing (in light of the fact a partial surname only index appeared after a while prior to full indexing).

Personally I hope that Suffolk aren't negotiating with FindMyPast because of the mess FindMyPast made with the Hertfordshire PRs and the delays on completing other PR collection releases on the site.  Don't get me wrong, there are issues with many of the Ancestry collections but they seem to manage to complete the task a lot faster than FindMyPast do.  This is possibly because unlike FindMyPast, they provide staff to do the digitisation process, while with FindMyPast the Archives I understand have to arrange it (I know this was the case with Hertfordshire).  I'm awaiting with some apprehension as to what the Leicestershire & Rutland PRs appear like when launched on FindMyPast I believe now from next Spring (originally they were due to start being released the end of this year) and just hope that its not a repeat of the fiasco with Hertfordshire.

At the end of the day, whichever site they appear on (and I do hope its not the Genealogist for other reasons), not everybody will be happy and there will most likely be issues.  However, with digital copies of the originals as opposed to the somewhat, at times, poor microfiche images, it will be a great step forward.  But as you say, its all speculation as to which company will be awarded the contract and only time will tell.

[clairec666]

Whatever happens, we know they'll be complaints about the quality of the transcriptions! I'm just pleased to have access to good-quality images, and it'll save me several trips to the record office. If it's FindMyPast or Ancestry, most libraries have access to both sites, so people who can't afford to subscribe to both won't miss out.

[coombs]

Whatever happens, we know they'll be complaints about the quality of the transcriptions! I'm just pleased to have access to good-quality images, and it'll save me several trips to the record office. If it's FindMyPast or Ancestry, most libraries have access to both sites, so people who can't afford to subscribe to both won't miss out.

I'd rather have a few garbled surnames than the records not being online. As said we can then go back further on our mutual ancestors the Otleys and Deeks and see if there is a link to Peggy Mitchell Barbara Windsor. Small chance but still a chance.