General Chat

I just checked Ancestry and so fa can't find a dickie-bird about it. I then ggogled Colin Jackson and BBC news and no luck there either.

Just off to check out ITV.

My OH heard the news item and was trying to tell me about it
He said it concerned birth certificates
No wonder I didnt understand him.It sounds as if the interview was most unclear

Hi all.
I also saw this interview and couldn't understand what was going on, I do hope you are all right in your assumptions and we get a lot more info before we decide to buy.
Gill

Rita
If that was the case, it would be really helpful, especially for the time between 1901 and 1911 when mother's maiden name was added to the index.
Invaluable help in fact for my JONES, DAVIES, JENKINS etc all living in a close area of Wales.

Gwyn

I would be very surprised if there were full details especially considering the government's disbanded DOVE project.

I listened intently to the report and honestly believed that all birth records would be available to view on line through ancestry.com revealing names of parents and the addresses. It mentioned data protection and I thought wow. I have just ordered umpteen birth certs from the records office at £7.00 a time and thought what a waste of money.
Lets keep our fingers crossed. Wouldn't it be great!!

BBC1 around about 8.00 a.m. which was why I was struggling to be alert with my cuppa and tv!

What channel was this please?
They might feature a similar item in another report.


Gwyn

Glad I'm not the only one confused!!!!!!!
I too saw this,and was given the impression, that birth certs would be available on line.
The newscasters mentioned data protection,saying that anyone could view this,also mentioned what was available to see,
e.g.
address,name of father,occupation.etc.
At no time was any cost mentioned,and gave the impression,that all one had to do was enter a name and hey presto.
The man from Ancestry said dates were available from 1837.

The interview was not at all clear,wish I could have asked him some questions during that interview.
I'm sure we would have had some straight answers,
or would we??

Interesting. I shall await further developments with interest :-)


The DOVE project was disbanded by the government:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/aug/16/genealogy.records

http://www.nwe.siemens.com/denmark/internet/dk/produkter/it/news/
Pages/business_services_signs_contract_to_digitize_
250_million_records_for_office_for_national_statistics.aspx

I know they have been putting the father's name on some of the birth indexes. also on some marriages, as one of my ancestors was married in 1888, and it has her husband's father and her father's name on it.

Mo

Hopefully it will be the actual certificates.

When the Family Records Office was closed we were promised that all the information there would eventually be put on line and we would be able to download birth, marriage and death certificates for a nominal fee.

The index books etc., were transferred to the National Archives at Kew with a further promise they would be available to search there.

I won't say they deliberately lied but let's say they were economical with the truth. The contract was given out to Siemens, I think, who set up facilities in India for the transcriptions to be done. This turned out to be a dismal failure and Siemens withdrew from the contract.

So here we are with no access to the Index Books. They have been all neatly stored away from public eyes. We are left with
access to the bmd's by fische at Kew and I believe that Westminster Archives also have them on fische as I expect a few local libraries do as well.

I think it is an absolute disgrace the way family historians have been treated.

Thank goodness for Ancestry says I :)

Jean.
.

from what I have seen on ancestry tonight they have completely transcribed the birth indexs not that I had much luck using it

Maybe we'd all have to watch the lunch-time news in the hope that there's a similar feature.

Gwyn

Hi I saw it as well, I thought they said that the actual certificates were going to be on line (similiar I presume to ScotlandsPeople) and they were talking about identity theft as well.
Not just me having a dream while awake!!
Mind you I can't find anything on Ancestry or on the BBC website about it.
Teresa

Colin Jackson appeared on the news this morning with the head of Ancestry who was broaddcasting the fact that the births reg. would now be on line I am confused - we have the index on line so although I listened intently I must have missed the point.

Anyone else know what is going on?