Barriers To Genealogy In The Future

[Andrew Tarr]

That is a spin off from students here at Cape Town University about Rhodes' statue on the campus, the got it right to have it removed.  The student behind the protest in Oxford is on a Rhodes Scholarship, doesn't seem to bother him that his studies are being funded by the very man that he is protesting against...................

Yes.  I suspect the student in question is mainly trying to make a name for himself.  There have always been agitators, names like Tariq Ali and even Jack Straw come to mind ....  Blatant contradictions like the one you mention don't seem to bother them, nor the well-known idiocy of the Bolsheviks trying to make history disappear with an airbrush.

[DavidG02]

Getting back to the original post...

In some ways research in the future is going to be easier, as more older paper records get digitised, and newly created records that are digital from the start.  It will also probably a lot easier to build a picture of an our daily lives, as so much more of it is recorded in many different formats now. 

And just think, a lot of it will be more legible and no need for somebody to take a crack at deciphering somebodies chronic bad handwriting! 

But there will be other sources within families, stocks of pictures and video's that will depict daily lives, not just the odd snap shot that we often have now..

Good to see a post that has a positive vibe about the future. I hope you are right.

On the pictures, todays youth are reliant on sites such as Facebook and whatever the *** they are staying around. Before people say '' Facebook is too big to disappear'' may I mention Myspace

My concern with sites like FB et al is that the server space is finite and 'cloud storage' you are dependent on
1. Remembering passwords
2. The cloud supplier staying viable
3. The issue of inheritance - ie passwords of people who pass on.

While not advocating a return to files and files of paper and names , I will caution that technology leaps ahead of where we are now and continuing to update , as groom pointed out, needs to be done and at times at expense.

[Rosinish]

Before people say '' Facebook is too big to disappear'' may I mention Myspace

My concern with sites like FB et al is that the server space is finite and 'cloud storage' you are dependent on
1. Remembering passwords
2. The cloud supplier staying viable
3. The issue of inheritance - ie passwords of people who pass on.

While not advocating a return to files and files of paper and names , I will caution that technology leaps ahead of where we are now and continuing to update , as groom pointed out, needs to be done and at times at expense.

Some good points there for sure.

I have already had to move things from Floppy Disc, onto CD & USB Pen.
Not enough ports on laptops & have just put a new USB port into home comp as the previous ones were not enough.

Passwords for important things I've had to change so have different passwords for different sites, some secure & others just straight forward but I wouldn't use the same password for everything.

Everything eventually becomes obsolete.

Sites/Servers break down, info. is lost, nothing is 100% reliable in my view.

Genealogy is expensive enough without having to pay to store it elsewhere.

Annie

[pinefamily]

On a similar note to what David has said above, not only can changing technologies have an effect on future family history, but I have concerns about records being kept, and being accessible. Even now, archives and records depositories periodically clean out, or downsize their collections. What will happen with digital records? Once they are deemed no longer required by the government/other authority, will they be continue to be stored on their systems? Or will they be transferred to an archival network for posterity? Or will they be deleted, destroyed at the touch of a button? If they continue to be held by whoever requires these records, how are they to be accessible for research?

As Spike Milligan said, "Questions, quistions, quostions."

[majm]

I have spoken with various family members, my age and older, and with my younger set.  They agree that French Letters is the expression that was taught in secondary school classes in New South Wales, Australia when Sex Education classes commenced.  It was not considered slang at that time.  It was the expression that boys could use in open discussions with their Dad, Uncles, or male cousins who had served in the AIF and had therefore been issued with French Letters to avoid STDs.  (I have various living family members who served in WWII, Korea, Malaya, Vietnam and more recently Timor,)  I also asked when the word “Condom” became the usual word…. It seems to gain currency after the Grip Reaper advertisements of the 1990s focusing on AIDS and HIV.

I think it is important to remember that RootsChat is not publishing these threads just within Britain.  RootsChat, as an internet based organisation is published to the world.  The Common Room is not the exclusive domain of the English.   

I am half a world away, in Australia, and while I read English as my first language, it is becoming obvious that my Australian dictionary has differences in meaning from the English used by English born posters.    To me Andrews comment is suggestive of lack of morals by the female, but not the male yet both are actively involved in intercourse.  That to me is derogatory, and offensive and sexist.  Australian laws provide for redress.     Whereas, to me,  French Letters is standard language throughout my generation, it was (and in many instances still is) used by educators, the military , family members in front of young children, clergy, counsellors, medical practitioners, and even in newspapers as staid as the Canberra Times.       

Cheers,  JM. 

Apologies to all those who felt offended by my earlier remark.  It was not intended to offend - offence is a two-sided thing - and some take offence easily and perhaps assume that it was intended.  I originally wrote 'pregnant' but thought that sounded a bit clinical.

However, like it or not, the biological fact remains that the girls get 'up the spout' and the boys responsible often get away scot-free.  It's nothing to do with gender discrimination, and the boys should take the consequences.  I was alluding to all the stories so many contributors here enjoy (?) digging up from their own family histories.  No need for offence - it's a plain fact of life.  Are we back to discussing 'openness' and not using the carpet as a cover?

 

Yes, 3sd,  it is offensive.   

French letters have been around for centuries, both as a method of birth control for males, and as a barrier to sexually transmitted diseases.   

Cheers,  JM

Sorry but one could claim that to use the slang term French letters could be construed as derogatory as it insults the publication company French Letters (Les Lettres Françaises) which was formed in 1941 or  the song French Letters recorded in 1982 by the New Zealand band Herbs.

The term up the spout (and similar) has been used certainly since 1918 as slang for pregnant.

Perhaps we should not be too sensitive or judgemental when we read what others write.
Cheers
Guy


 

[jaybelnz]

There are many slang terms for being pregnant, just as there are many slang terms for condoms!

They are not all offensive!  IMO the term  "up the spout" is right up there with the worst!

The word condom was used in his Sex Education Classes when my son started at Secondary School in the early 1980's.

[landej]

Going back to the original question.......
Never mind destroying censuses, how about not taking any more!
Unless the govt has had a change of heart 2011 will be the last UK census. They said that all the information will be held by credit agencies, tax offices etc. How will genealogists be able to access that?

[majm]

On a similar note to what David has said above, not only can changing technologies have an effect on future family history, but I have concerns about records being kept, and being accessible. Even now, archives and records depositories periodically clean out, or downsize their collections. What will happen with digital records? Once they are deemed no longer required by the government/other authority, will they be continue to be stored on their systems? Or will they be transferred to an archival network for posterity? Or will they be deleted, destroyed at the touch of a button? If they continue to be held by whoever requires these records, how are they to be accessible for research?

As Spike Milligan said, "Questions, quistions, quostions."

Nothing matters but the writing. There has been nothing else worthwhile... a stain upon the silence.
Beckett.

The Archives of NSW has rules for the public records !   There's Acts of Parliament       

http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/recordkeeping/recordkeeping

http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/recordkeeping/advice/designing-implementing-and-managing-systems/managing-cad-files
 
http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/recordkeeping/advice/designing-implementing-and-managing-systems/Using%20cloud%20computing%20services

http://futureproof.records.nsw.gov.au/decommissioning-and-digital-archives-different-models/  (as recent as January 2016.  .... less than a month ago.   

Cheers, JM

[groom]

Unless the govt has had a change of heart 2011 will be the last UK census. They said that all the information will be held by credit agencies, tax offices etc. How will genealogists be able to access that?

Playing Devil's Advocate, a census isn't taken for the benefit of future genealogists and I suppose the arguement would be that it costs too much to commission a census that is only producing statistics that can be found elsewhere.