Availability of Parish Registers

[jaybelnz]

JM - if this was Facebook, I'd give you a like!  In fact, probably a couple!

This is my own " like" button.   👍👍

[majm]

Not sure why you're saying 'only recently'.  As I understand it, copies have been available to anyone who can pay the statutory fee since civil registration began in 1837.

Carol, I carefully said 'so easy for ...'.  It used to be quite a hassle, as I'm sure you know.  I suppose the change is a bit like our young generation spending half their lives plugged into Facebook or tablets?

The investment I referred to was the effort needed to transcribe and index everything, which must have cost, even if some of it was done in the sub-continent, I believe?

I am quite sure that back in the 1930s in NSW that a number of my family members along with many many others were all busy using their skills to transcribe the holdings of the NSW BDM to help prepare the indexes of the New South Wales BDM.    I am also sure that across the other states of Australia and in New Zealand in that era, other teams of volunteers were using their skills to read the long hand entries in the registers and prepare the manual system to produce the indexes available long before the WWII, long before  EDP systems, long before computerised spreadsheets.

Cheers,  JM

[majm]

JM - if this was Facebook, I'd give you a like!  In fact, probably a couple!

This is my own " like" button.   👍👍

Thanks,   Cheers,  JM

[Andrew Tarr]

Many people are still unwilling to reveal or discuss ancestral details, so probably don't like others ferreting even if they are legally permitted to.

Possibly, yours?  You can't have it all ways up!  Records are either public for all, or not!!  You can't pick and choose.  Either close them all down, from whenever - or allow access   I don't see any problem at all.  Perhaps the question might be - WHAT have you got to hide?

Sorry, BB, I'm trying to work out why you think I have a 'problem'.  I have searched the available records like anyone else, and I don't care who looks at what.  The OP (not me) raised the question.  But I do know some people feel uncomfortable about discussing their ancestry, and others worry that there might be crime or illegitimacy.  That's all.

[Andrew Tarr]

... of course it was pen & ink in the early days, but it has been indexed in large volumes from the start and these volumes have, as far as I know, been available to the public since their inception. It's surely wrong to suggest what was once public should now be closed because of technological advances.

Steve, I don't think I have ever suggested that - though earlier posts in this thread have had misgivings.  I have only said that some feel uncomfortable about others searching, and I understand why. And it would make no sense to delay indexing records which were needed for immediate use, obviously.

[BumbleB]

My apologies, Andrew, I obviously misunderstood your post. 

[Guy Etchells]

Carol, I carefully said 'so easy for ...'.  It used to be quite a hassle, as I'm sure you know.  I suppose the change is a bit like our young generation spending half their lives plugged into Facebook or tablets?

The investment I referred to was the effort needed to transcribe and index everything, which must have cost, even if some of it was done in the sub-continent, I believe?

The system of purchasing a certificate in England and Wales is basically the same as it has been since 1837; one writes to the Superintendent Registrar or the GRO with the details and makes the appropriate payment.
The differences today than those of the past are
1; it takes longer to receive the certificate.
2; access to physical copies of the GRO index is now restricted to a few locations.
3; Online access to a third party index of the GRO references is now available.
4; an unlawful restriction has been added to online applications of recent BMD events.

The investment in the GRO index comes from the UK taxpayer, the investment for the online third party index comes form the fund raising of the charity which hosts the data set.

Cheers
Guy

[Andrew Tarr]

Perhaps I tried to be too concise earlier, so let me step back and try again.  We are now well aware of Data Protection, and that may have made us circumspect about what we release about ourselves.  I was trying to imagine what 19th-C people thought (if they did) about who might read their BMD records - and of course many of them could not themselves read.  Even now, birth, marriage and death registers are actually seen by few people when the entries are made.

My presumption was that (if the thought arose) those 19th-C people assumed that the info went into the (church) register and only the officials ever saw it again.  If they were told (and believed) that the whole world would one day be able to view them on demand, they might have had some reservations (women could keep stumm about who their child's father was, and often did).  That was what I meant about levels of accessibility, even though the data was required, and 'public'.

From our standpoint as researchers, we must be grateful for later developments - but spare a thought for others who may feel that the original info was not provided on that basis.

[DavidG02]

I was trying to imagine what 19th-C people thought (if they did) about who might read their BMD records -


My presumption was that (if the thought arose) those 19th-C people assumed that the info went into the (church) register and only the officials ever saw it again.  If they were told (and believed) that the whole world would one day be able to view them on demand, they might have had some reservations (women could keep stumm about who their child's father was, and often did).

I still think you are looking for something that possibly wasn't there.

At the time baptisms were through the church. Birth records were of a civil nature and at times ignored. So baptisms were public events.

Marriages came with Banns attached which is the placing of notices on the parish church door - once again for all to see and object to if they so desire.

Death is the most public of all events with headstones proclaiming a life.

As to your point about women keeping quiet , I would suggest that would be a very small portion , and - letting my imagination run away with me - only when there was a power imbalance. Most women knew the deprivation that would follow a birth that wasn't acknowledged and did everything they could to ensure that the child had protection of the authorities.