Gareth, I am sure I am being thick and naturally senile but if I have access
to information, as an individual and you ask me 'can you find where Fred
lived in 1703 and you mail me that info. to my private address,
how ever you found the info ,in your knowledge ,asked Auntie Fanny or
published work you have bought or accessed in any way then it is no
different from sending it snail mail.or verbally by telephone .
I know there was discussion about it being valuable to see answers on screen
which is true . Could the way round this be ----private request as now via
L/Ex private reply followed **by - on list thanks +detail .ie "thanks Gareth
I was glad to find Fred Jones living in 21 Mill Street LLanrisant in
1703 -----if the name rings bells then interested parties can contact
recipient via thank you mail or you direct once a connection is realized.
Couple of lawyers in family can see no legal problem in this!Listers would
just have to remember to list thanks for the good of all. What am I
missing?? Cheers Sue in LLantrisant
susan.harvey(a)freeuk.com
*************************************************
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gareth" <Roots(a)johngareth.freeserve.co.uk>
To: <GLAMORGAN-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2003 6:45 PM
Subject: [GLA] The Glamorgan FHS and the Glamorgan Lookup Exchange
The Glamorgan Family History Society (GFHS) and the Glamorgan Lookup
Exchange (LE)
A 5 year success story.
Some history;
Just over 5 years ago I took over an embryo Glamorgan Lookup Exchange from
Huw Daniel. This coincided with net genealogy starting to really take off
and the Glamlist quickly became the established forum for all things
Glamorgan and provided me with a captive audience of potential new LE
volunteers.
In January 1998, I realised that I couldn't continue to expand the LE
without sounding out the GFHS Executive Committee(EC) on the use of its
published material for lookups.
This I did and in March of that year, after a cordial exchange with the
then
chair Peter Jarvis,
I received what amounted to their blessing.
It's worth recording two meaningful phrases used by Peter in his letter on
behalf of the EC;
"As a registered charity one of our objects is 'to promote the
preservation,
security and accessibility of archive material' - and your scheme
clearly
offers accessibility."
"....we recognise that you are providing a service to family history
researchers which makes use, in part, of the Society's publications. We
are
content with the way in which you acknowledge us as publishers and
refer
to
the Society's web page."
So, 5 years later, where are we at ?
Well, the GFHS has certainly gone from strength to strength and I'd be
surprised to hear of any other society that has published more material
or
has a more
thriving and involved membership - its strong balance sheet tells its own
story.
Maybe its exposure on the LE through multiple links to its web site and
near daily mentions on the Glamlist have also helped it get to where it is
now ?
And yes, of course the LE has most definitely greatly benefited, to
the extent that I'd be equally surprised if there is any other single
county
LE with a better a range of material on offer.
The ongoing relationship between the GFHS and the LE was slightly
'redefined' last year with Andy Boyt's arrival as the new GFHS Project
Co-ordinator
and a 6 week moratorium for lookups over newly published material to avoid
the potential
for CD sales being adversely affected was agreed between us - Andy also
went
on to refer
to the LE as the GFHS's 'preferred partner' for lookups which predictably
did not endear
him to some of the more 'independent minded' Glamlisters, but don't let's
go
there ....
A continuing success story then.
On behalf of all past and future beneficiaries of the GFHS's understanding
and co-operation via LE lookups I would like to offer it and its members
my
sincere thanks.
Likewise to the many LE volunteers, past and present, who have so
generously
given of their time and effort to help other researchers over the
last 5
years.
And the future ?
More of the same I hope.
But there are one or two clouds on the horizon, the first in the form of
other societies who have actively stopped LE lookups; and the second, the
certain
escalation of the Federation of Family History Society's Pay Per View
system(FFHS/PPV).
I have long thought and said that PPV was an inevitable and natural
progression away from traditional fiche/CD style publication.
What worries me is a possible associated banning of LE (and list based
lookups) on all (new or old) material taken into PPV - it obviously makes
less commercial sense to allow free lookups at one and the same time as
the
same material is being charged for on PPV.
My 5th anniversary wish therefore is that the EC of the GFHS do not
overlook the successful relationship of the last 5 years, and the
continued reliance of the LE on its goodwill, when considering their
approach to PPV in the future.
It is not my purpose for this message to generate a ton of commentary on
list - I am just acknowledging a mainly good news story with the hope that
it has a happy ending.
Gareth
List administrator for DYFED, CGN & PEM
Genuki Wales
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/
Lookup Exchange
http://home.clara.net/tirbach/lookup.html
Help Page
http://home.clara.net/tirbach/hicks.html
.
==== GLAMORGAN Mailing List ====
Many of the original parish registers for Glamorgan are transcribed. If
you
haven't a fiche reader, don't worry - your local library will probably
let you use theirs! See the FHS Website:-
http://www.rootsweb.com/~wlsglfhs/
Purchase the 1841;1851 census CDs & order 1861 due soon. Also as
fiche and
booklets from the Glamorgan FHS