Closure of the Family Records Centre, London, England

Many family historians and genealogists, including members of the international Federation of Family History Societies, continue to protest the planned closure of the Family Records Centre in London, England. The timetable for this closure was accelerated with little notice to users.

No longer will there be free access to the index books for birth, marriage and death registrations for England and Wales. The promised provision of a new on-line digitized index is still a long, long way away---the project is at least a year behind schedule--- and likely will involve a cost to researchers.

For genealogists and family historians overseas like myself who have English and Welsh ancestors this will be a blow, as it is to researchers in England and Wales.

I have been lucky enough to visit the Family Records Centre on my past travels; on these trips I've used other research institutions nearby too. This has always made my London visits 'genealogically worthwhile'. The London tourist trade will likely lose my custom in future, but there are other consequences for overseas researchers.

The much appreciated volunteers involved in the on-line FreeBMD project which most overseas researchers depend on relies on visits to the Family Records Centre to photograph the many unreadable handwritten registration index pages. These volunteers have been scrambling to photograph as much as possible before access is denied at the end of this week.

For more about this, see the Federation of Family History Societies website: http://www.ffhs.org.uk/archives/gro/civil-reg-0707.php

Parliamentary Review Needed: Canadian Census 'Informed Consent Clause'

Please ask your Canadian Members of Parliament and Senators to push for an early review of the current Census 'Informed Consent' clause.

The 2006 Canadian census contained, for the first time in history, an ‘informed consent’ clause that allowed respondents to prevent census information they provided from ever being released for public access. Genealogists and historians across Canada agreed not to oppose inclusion of this clause in order to expedite access after 92 years to post 1901 censuses. They were assured that Statistics Canada’s 2006 census publicity campaign would encourage Canadians to answer ‘Yes’ to the ‘informed consent’ clause. Statistics Canada failed to live up to that promise.

Past censuses have provided historians and genealogist with a rich and complete picture of Canada’s population, but Statistics Canada has now reported that less than 56% of Canadians answered ‘Yes’ to the 2006 consent clause. Over 12% did not answer the question at all, although many of these people gave their information directly to an enumerator. Effectively, this means that the value of the 2006 Canadian census for historical and genealogical research has been destroyed.

However, Bill S-18 which imposed the consent clause also included a provision for a review of the clause’s effect after the 2011 census is taken.

Please e-mail or write your Members of Parliament and Senators to seek their support for a review of the effect of the 'informed consent' question now, without waiting for the research value of another Census to be destroyed. You can use a link on Gordon Watt’s column (see below) to send an e-mail or you can mail a letter to your M.P. No stamp is necessary if sent to their Ottawa address.




Contact information

Members of Parliament: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Lists/Members.aspx

Senators: http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/senmemb/senate/isenator.asp?Language=E

The Honourable Maxime Bernier, Minister of Industry: minister.industry@ic.gc.ca

Ivan P. Fellegi, Chief Statistician of Canada: fellegi@statcan.ca

Ian E. Wilson, Librarian and Archivist of Canada: Ian.Wilson@lac-bac.gc.ca


For more information, see Gordon Watts Reports, April 24, 2007 on-line, “2006 Census response to Informed Consent” and “Where to now?”. A link is provided so you can easily forward by e-mail to others. Add your own comments and ask that both Gordon’s articles be read: http://globalgenealogy.com/globalgazette/gazgw/gazgw-0099.htm

Gordon Watts, Co-Chair of the Post 1901 Canadian Census campaign, would appreciate being copied on any response you might get from any of your parliamentary representatives: gordon_watts@telus.net

Footnote.com & GenealogyBank.com Discussion Links

This post shows links included in the handout, April 11, 2007 B.C.G.S. U.S. Special Interest session in which I compared my recent experiences with both Footnote.com & GenealogyBank.com in searching for MCKILLIP, MARTIN and SKYLES relatives in and near Altoona, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

GenealogyBank.com—currently all U.S. content; $ website
(many yearly offers e.g. $119.95 yr; or $19.95 monthly US$)

From NewsBank Inc., with co-operation from the American Antiquarian Society.
Historical newspapers, 1690-1977 (81.3 million articles), historical books, 1801-1900 (11,700--sermons, advertising cards, concert playbills) & historical documents, 1789-1980 (American State Papers, U.S. Serial Set), obituaries, 1977 on (23.6 million), Social Security Death Index, 1937 on (updated weekly)

Website: http://www.genealogybank.com





Footnote.com—currently all U. S. content; $ website
Some content free. ($99 per year or 9.99 per month; or $1.99 each premium image. US$)

With newly digitized original documents (over 4.5 million pages) from National Archives of the U.S.A. (viewable free at the Archives in Washington & regional centres); & an non-exclusive agreement. NARA will make images viewable free on-line in 5 years. Examples: Blue Book Project (U.F.O.s) & Pennsylvania Archives publications, free; Civil War Pension Index; Lincoln Assassination Papers; Naturalization indexes, Photos Fine Arts Commission (includes WW I & II cemeteries). Must be 13 years old; 13-18 year olds require parental consent.

Also user submitted content---comments, annotations, photographs, web pages

Website: http://www.footnote.com





Other resources:

Paper of Record: www.paperofrecord.com
21 million newspaper images, U.S., Canadian & worldwide newspapers. Free with registration (was a subscription site.)

New England Historic Genealogical Society: http://www.newenglandancestors.org
Membership resources include various early New England newspapers & other records. S.S.D.I. updated monthly free. (Most available at the B.C.G.S. Library free):

Godfrey Memorial Library: www.godfrey.org
Premium sites available to members include 19th Century U.S. newspapers (InfoTrac, Gale Research); NewspaperARCHIVE.com (Heritage Microfilm); Early American Newspapers 1690-1876 (Readex); Newsbank America’s Obituaries; Newsbank U.S. & World Newspapers (1980’s-current); Accessible Archives Inc. (18th, 19th century publications; various)
(Membership: $35 U.S.$ per year)

Google News Archive Search (Beta): http://news.google.com/archivesearch

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers from the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities, U.S.A. (Beta): http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica

Library of Congress, U.S.A.: http://www.loc.gov/index.html

American Memory, Library of Congress, U.S.A.: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

American Antiquarian Society: http://www.americanantiquarian.org

U.S.A. GenWeb Portal: http://www.usgenweb.org

U.S.A. GenWeb Search: http://www.usgenweb-search.us
Beta site; incomplete. States not yet included: CA, IL, IN, KY, OH, TN, WI, WV

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Diane’s ‘new’ surnames: MCKILLIP, SKYLES & variants, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Related surnames: HEELEY, MARTIN, WOOD & variants, Yorkshire, England to Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, U.S.A. 1850’s; some to Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada 1860’s.

Rootsweb Message Boards: MCKILLIP, MCKILLIPS, MCKILLOP & SKYLES

Rootsweb Mailing Lists: MCKILLOP, SKILES