Subject:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brett Langston" <b.langston(a)zetnet.co.uk
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.britain
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2002 4:15 PM
Subject: Access to original BMD records at last! (?)
The UK Government has just published its White Paper on reform of
the
registration service, which proposes changes which will be of
great
interest to family historians. The most important of these
concerns
access to the 'historic' birth, marriage and death records:
"The Government has concluded that historic records should be
defined
as those relating to
people born over 100 years ago and that these should be made fully
available to the public ... As
records move to the over 100 year old category they would be
classed
as historic and as such
become open records."
(Note: It's interesting that this definition doesn't apply to the
date of the record, but to the date of birth of the person
concerned.
Will this mean that access to marriage and death records depends
on
how old the individuals were at the time?)
The report also suggests that scanned images of the BMD records
should be made available in electronic form, recognising that
'that
this would be of great value particularly to the genealogical
community as the current system only allows access to indexes that
are not widely available ... The Government would support
not-for-profit organisation(s)investing in introducing electronic
access to these records.'
Furthermore ...
'The original registers currently held at Register Offices are
important historic documents and will be transferred to the local
Record Office for preservation. The local Record Office will be
able
to offer access to the public ...'
And when will all this happen?
"The Government acknowledges that it is unrealistic to expect that
all records will be electronically available initially ... The
length
of this transitional period is hard to estimate.The Government
believes that it should not be longer than 5 years and, hopefully,
shorter. The computerisation of registration records has
significant
financial consequences,notably for local service providers'
[registrars?]. 'A clear implementation strategy with well
published
mile stones will greatly assist them in planning for the loss of
certificate revenue.'
There's lots more that's likely to have an impact on family
historians, including the creation of a national database of BMD
data
for people under 70 years old, and changes to the way that births,
marriages and deaths are recorded. The full report can be
downloaded
in Adobe Acrobat format from:
http://www.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm53/5355/cm5355.htm
Brett Langston
The Family History Society of Cheshire
http://www.fhsc.org.uk/