'Welcome to GOV.UK...simpler, clearer, faster' allegedly

OK, it's not GOV.UK's fault that I had finished checking a number of links to the old direct.gov.uk site on Tuesday last week, and then GOV.UK went live on Wednesday, so I have to do them all again.   This is part of a periodic review of online guides that I have to do as part of the day job - if only I'd left it to the last minute as usual I'd only have had to do it once!

Since this is the official government site for information on birth, marriage and death registration I thought it would be worth looking at in a little more detail. I was not a great fan of way this information was presented on the old direct.gov site (which you can still see on the Government Web Archive). This wasn't entirely due to the over-use of orange on its pages, but it certainly didn't help. The new site is at least a bit easier on the eye, with good-sized print and a decent amount of white space. The home page has a link 'Births, marriages, deaths and care - Includes civil partnerships and Lasting Power of Attorney' which leads to a page entitled 'Certification, register offices, changes of name or gender' consisting of a list of links, 5 of which are of interest to family historians.

The first link, Order a copy of a birth, marriage or death certificate is actually rather good, since it gives you essential information up front before directing you to the GRO online ordering system. It also includes other ways to apply if you don't want to do it online, and links to the General Register Offices in Scotland (GROS) and Northern Ireland (GRONI).

Unfortunately, the second link Register offices is very poor. It is subtitled 'Find a register office (registry office) - records of births, marriages, civil partnerships and deaths - you can register these or order certificates' but all it will allow you to do is search by postcode, and only a full postcode at that. I tested this by entering my own postcode, and then the postcode of my last address. They each returned a number of results, starting with the nearest. For my current address this is the Buckinghamshire Register Office in Aylesbury, which is the correct one for my address, although the weblink didn't work. For my last address it listed the offices in Harrow, Barnet and Brent, in that order. The correct one is actually Brent Register Office, and although the Harrow one appears to be nearer, this is because GOV.UK has the wrong postcode for Harrow Civic Centre, so the automated links on Google Maps, Bing Maps and Open Street Map all go to the wrong place. They seem to have used some sort of 'branch locator' software package, the kind of thing you might use to find your nearest Starbucks, but which is completely inappropriate for this purpose. The small print also asks you to 'enter a UK postcode', so naturally I couldn't resist putting in Scottish and Northern Irish ones, which directed me to Carlisle and Anglesey, respectively!

Much further down the page are links to contact details for the GRO and the National Records of Scotland, but not for GRONI, although there is a link to its contact details from the GRO contacts page. For some reason the numerous Contacts pages throughout the site give postal addresses, phone numbers and email addresses or online contact forms, but not links to official websites or key landing pages within them.

The final link on this page looks the most promising - Research your family history using the General Register Office and this is an improvement on the old site where information was duplicated on a number of pages and the arrangement was not very logical. For some reason GRO references are referred to as 'index numbers' but at least the link to FreeBMD is prominent, and the list of the 7 places holding full sets of the indexes on microfiche is just below. This is good, but it doesn't make it clear that these are the only complete sets, or that they are on microfiche, it just says 'Finding index numbers in person - you can also search for index numbers for free at:'  and then lists them, but without addresses or weblinks, other than a link to the online registration page for a British Library Reader Pass. This is followed by a downloadable pdf document 'Where you can view the GRO index numbers in your area'. This is supplied by the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) the parent department of the GRO, and is actually called 'Public holders of the General Register Office indexes'. This is much more helpful, with full addresses and details of the actual indexes held, and their coverage dates. They even include holdings outside England and Wales. It also lists the sites other than FreeBMD where the indexes can be found, referred to only as 'commercial companies' on the main page. You can also download the GRO's own list of its holdings. There are contact details for the Principal Registry of the Family Division for divorce records, but only a postal address and phone number, although there is a much better page Get a copy of a decree absolute elsewhere on the site.

The final section is 'Further information' which suggests you consult local archives or The National Archives to help research your family history. This is good advice, and the link to The National Archives is OK, but the Local archives link is just as bad as the Register Offices one - very handy if you happen to know the full postcode of the house where your ancestor lived in 1851, I'm sure! A link to ARCHON would have been much better.

The best part of the 'Certification, register offices, changes of name or gender' page is right at the end, a link to a downloadable pdf of the GRO's 24-page booklet Discover your family history which is excellent.

I would like to have seen some information about wills and probate on this page, but although there is some information about wills and probate in the Death and bereavement section of Births, deaths, marriages and care, there is no link that I have been able to find to the informative  Guide to obtaining copies of probate records pages on the Justice site.

No doubt the site will be developed and, hopefully, improved over time - it only went live a week ago, after all. For one thing it needs to learn that England and Wales has register offices, not registry offices. Overall it's an improvement on direct.gov, but those postcode searches really have to go!

 

Scotland's People -the first decade

General Register House, home of the ScotlandsPeople Centre

This month sees the tenth birthday of the ScotlandsPeople site, dear to the heart of Scots genealogists, especially those of us who don't live in Scotland any more. I think it's worth looking back over the last 10 years (and beyond) to see how much has changed in such a relatively short time. I also used the phrase 'and beyond' because it may be the 10th birthday of the ScotlandsPeople site that we know now, but the General Register Ofice for Scotland (GROS) had many of its records online before then with Scots Origins. It was in 2002 that the contract was awarded to Scotland Online, now brightsolid, who have done a great job, but we should recognise the pioneering work done by Scots Origins. This developed into the wider British Origins site, and still provides some useful resources for Scottish research.

Back in 2002 you could see online images from the Statutory Registers (births, marriages and deaths) back to 1855, the census of 1891 and then the newly-released 1901 census. A lot more records are available now, but that was pretty impressive back then, bearing in mind that for England and Wales the only online digitised resource was the 1901 census. The remainder of the holdings of GROS were added over the next few years: the censuses of 1841 to 1881  (and 1911 when it was released last year), the Old Parish Registers (OPRs) before 1855, and every year another year's worth of births, marriages and deaths. This is an important difference between GROS and the GRO for England and Wales, which only deals with births, marriages and deaths, and the closely-related records of stillbirths and adoptions. The official announcement from GROS on 18 September 2002 read:

Todays provision of birth and death registration images online, together with the earlier release of 1891 and 1901 census data, is part of the GROS's major Digital Imaging the Genealogical Records of the people of Scotland (DIGROS) project. This project will include the digital imaging of all the records held by the GROS including all open census records, statutory registers of births, marriages and deaths and parish registers of the Church of Scotland - some of which date from the 16th century. The project is due to be completed by the end of 2003 and will result in a uniquely comprehensive online resource, confirming the GROS's position as a leader in access to genealogical records wich began with the establishment of the Scots Origins website in 1998.

The next step was a significant development, the addition of records not held by the GROS but by the National Archives of Scotland (NAS).  Although NAS occupied the adjacent building, the two organisations were quite separate at the time, although they jointly set up the ScotlandsPeople Centre, and have since been combined to form the National Records of Scotland (NRS). These currently comprise Roman Catholic parish registers, valuation rolls for 1915 and wills and testaments up to 1901, with more in the pipeline. These records which are now so easily accessible are a genealogical goldmine for anyone researching Scottish ancestry.

A Scots wedding 1884

But there is more to ScotlandsPeople than just the facility to search and view core genealogical records. In conjunction with the Court of the Lord Lyon there is also the collection of coats of arms 1692-1908. I have yet to find anyone in my family, or connected with it, for whom this has any relevance, but you never know what might turn up one day. And for people with more illustrious ancestry this collection can be very valuable. There are also some additional features available when searching that many users may be unaware of. For census records there is the facility to use a full census reference instead of searching by name - you will find this within 'Advanced search'. You may have such a reference from a citation, or have found it in one of the street indexes on the site. These are quite well hidden. You need to go to the 'Search the Records' tab, then click on Census Records in the drop-down menu and select a census year. This takes you to useful background information about that census, including a link to PDF files of street indexes. There isn't a street index for every district in every year, but large towns are usually covered (only Glasgow and Edinburgh in 1841, but increasing numbers for later years). Search results are returned as a list, but there is a button at the bottom of each results page that allows you to see them plotted on a map. This is particularly handy if your knowledge of Scottish geography is a little shaky!

I wonder what the next ten years will bring?

Births, Marriage and Death Records: a guide for family historians

I promised/threatened some shameless self-promotion, and here it is. Our book, Birth, Marriage and Death Records is now on sale.

You can buy it in the shop here at The National Archives or order it online, using the link on the right.

That is all.

Busy September

Apart from the extra traffic that reappears on the roads with the start of a new school term, I like September. The weather is usually better than August (but it's nice to see the autumn and winter collections in the shops too, just in case). It's also the time when new family history classes start up, and when many societies re-start their talks programmes after a summer break.

I also have a book coming out at the end of the month (in my last blog post I did warn you of the shameless self-promotion to come). In fact is is a joint project with my good friend and former colleague, Dave Annal of Lifelines Research. His name comes before mine for a number of reasons; Annal comes before Collins in the alphabet; he is an established author; and he did more than his fair share of the work! It is called 'Birth, marriage and Death Records, a guide for family historians' to be published on 30 September. If you are really keen you can follow the link and pre-order it from the Pen & Sword Books site for the bargain price of £10.39.

Oddly enough, no-one has written a book on this subject before. There are plenty of books on individual topics, such as civil registration or baptism records, and chapters on births, marriages and deaths in general family history books. But while there are numerous books on the census, or wills and probate, no-one has ever put together a whole book exclusively on birth, marriage and death records. We only wish we could have made it twice the length, there is so much wonderful material out there.

But before the book comes out I have two important speaking engagements, both at the Society of Genealogists. The first is a half-day course on Tracing Scottish Ancestors at The National Archives on Saturday 22 September. This is based on a talk that I first delivered three years ago, but which has now been updated and extended. There's a lot of material, so I am looking forward to having a double-length session this time. There is a podcast of the original version that I gave onsite at The National Archives in 2009.

Somerset House, birthplace of civil registration in England and Wales, in the 1830s

On the following Saturday, 29 September, I am back at the Society to deliver the opening sessions at their day conference celebrating 175 Years of Civil Registration. Hats off to the Society of Genealogists for being (as far as I am aware) the only organisation to mark this very significant anniversary. It seems to have passed entirely unnoticed as far as the General Register Office is concerned; they made a big deal of the 150th anniversary in 1987 and even commissioned a book, the excellent 'People Count' by Muriel Nissel. Perhaps they are saving themselves for the bicentenary in 2037.

You can book for both the Scottish Ancestry and 175 Years of Civil Registration on the Society's Events Calendar page. Maybe I'll see you there?

Welcome new editions of old(ish) books

I'm not in the habit of plugging books (apart from my own, which comes out next month - you'll see some shameless self-promotion then!). But there are some books where a new edition is worth shouting about, and this is one of them. There is a lot of interest in Caribbean family history, but there is relatively little in print, compared to other areas of research. It's quite some time since the last edition of Guy Grannum's Tracing your Caribbean Ancestors appeared, and it has been out of print for a while too, so the new edition is particularly welcome. If you are interested in the subject, Guy's website Caribbean Roots is also worth a look.  

This book is a National Archives Guide, from Bloomsbury Publishing, I knew that publication was imminent, so I was pleased to see a few days ago that it had arrived in The National Archives bookshop - I could hardly miss it, it's Publication of the Month. This means that you can buy it at a bargain price, £11.99 instead of £16.99, if you follow the link above. Like a number of other new publications it is also available as a e-book, which you can buy direct from Bloomsbury.

I also noticed a new edition of another established title that first appeared 25 years ago, Bound for Australia by David Hawkings. Most of the records he mentions are held in The National Archives, and David Hawkings is extremely good at finding relevant ones. Since the first edition appeared in 1987 he has discovered a victualling list for the First Fleet among Treasury records, which he reproduces in full in Chapter 1 (TNA ref T 46/22). This edition has 8 more chapters than the original 1987 work, with 22 appendices, a bibliography and separate indexes of personal names, place names and ships.

Although the title and the cover illustration suggest that this is a book about convicts, the subtitle 'A guide to the records of transported convicts and early settlers' shows that its scope is wider than that. One of the items that caught my eye on flicking through the book was an extract from 'A List of Free Passengers on board the Convict Ship Merchantman at Swan River on the 15th February 1863' (TNA Ref: MT 32/5). Among the Wives and Families of Pensioner Guard , the conduct on board of Mrs McCourt is described:

'A violent and most unmanageable woman. She was reported to me by her husband for keeping company with single men on board and refusing to come to bed at 10pm.'

Oh dear. So it wasn't just convicts who caused trouble.

Bound for Australia is published by The History Press and is also available from The National Archives bookshop, and although it isn't Publication of Month, it too is on sale at a bargain price if you buy it online.