Society of Genealogists

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2007 News Archive

NEWS RELEASE 29 November 2007

CIVIL SERVICE EVIDENCE OF AGE INDEX GOES LIVE AT FINDMYPAST.COM

New online resource helps family history enthusiasts find their elusive ancestors

The Society of Genealogists www.sog.org.uk today announced that its unique collection the Civil Service Evidence of Age index is launched on the UK family history website www.findmypast.com. This new online resource contains the dates of birth or baptism for some 64,300 people born between 1752 and 1948 many of whose births do not appear in the central birth registers for England and Wales.

The Society of Genealogists has been working in partnership with findmypast.com to publish online the index to this fascinating set of records held at the Society’s London headquarters. The records were created after 1855 when the Civil Service Commission came into being and required applicants to both the Civil Service entry examinations and its pension scheme to provide evidence of age. For those whose births had not been registered in England and Wales, declarations as to birth were submitted, often in the form of handwritten letters.

The records mainly relate to lower-ranking Civil Servants, including prison officers, postmen, museum workers, messengers and engineers. The collection covers both successful and unsuccessful applicants to the Civil Service who were otherwise unable to prove their date of birth. This was either because they were born before 1 July 1837 when Civil Registration began in England and Wales, or they were born overseas, or their birth was not registered. This new online resource will therefore enable many family historians to fill some longstanding gaps in their family tree.

Visitors to the findmypast website will be able to search the records by entering the name of their ancestor, which will produce a free list of results showing the name, year and place of birth or baptism. To view the full details, customers will need to register on the site and either purchase pay-per-view units or an Explorer subscription. Full details will provide the exact date of birth or baptism and the reference number to the original source documents for that person. They will then be able to contact the Society of Genealogists quoting that reference to order copies of the original documents for a fee of £14. On average the Society holds three pages for each person listed in the index.

Among the records can be found applicants to the Indian Civil Service, workers at the Australian Royal Mint and the Admiralty dockyard in Valletta, Malta. In total the Society of Genealogists is storing around 190,000 pages, filled with fascinating human interest stories.

A special offer is available to SoG members who wish to access this dataset and all the other data hosted by findmypast.com at home. Members will receive 20% extra pay-per-view units or 10% discount on subscriptions to findmypast.com by using the special members’ codes

Pay per View Units; 20% more units free: SOG637P
Subscription; 10% off any subscription package: SOG274S

Else Churchill, Genealogist at the Society of Genealogists said "The Society is delighted to make one of the Society’s largest special collections available to a much wider audience after so much time has been spent by our volunteers conserving, sorting and indexing the records"

Elaine Collins, Commercial Director at findmypast.com said "This is great news for anyone who has hit a brick wall in their family history research. All the people included in the index are there because their birth was not recorded centrally, making them near impossible to find until now. We’re particularly excited that our customers will have the option of ordering the original source material from the Society of Genealogists as these documents add colour to the lives of our ancestors and it is so rare to find examples of their handwriting."

ENDS

For further information, please contact:
Elaine Collins / Else Churchill
findmypast.com / sog.org.uk
020 7549 0956 / 020 7702 5488
elaine.collins@findmypast.com / genealogy@sog.org.uk

About findmypast.com

Findmypast.com (formerly 1837online.com) was the first company to make the complete birth, marriage and death indexes for England & Wales available online in April 2003.

Following the transcription, scanning and indexing of over two million images, the company launched the first website to allow the public easy and fast access to the complete indexes, which until then had only been available on microfiche film in specialist archives and libraries. The launch was instrumental in creating the widespread and growing interest in genealogy seen in the UK today.

Findmypast has subsequently digitised many more family history records and now offers access to over 500 million records dating as far back as 1664. This allows family historians and novice genealogists to search for their ancestors among comprehensive collections of military records, census, migration, occupation directories, and current electoral roll data, as well as the original comprehensive birth, marriage and death records.

As well as providing access to historical records, findmypast is also developing a range of online tools to help people discover and share their family history more easily, beginning with the launch of Family Tree Explorer in July 2007.

Over 1.7 million people in the UK have researched their family trees and findmypast.com has over 800,000 active registered users, revealing the mass appeal of genealogy and findmypast.com’s position as the leading family history website based in the UK.

In April 2007 findmypast’s parent company Title Research Group received the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation 2007 in recognition of their achievement.

In November 2006 findmypast launched the ancestorsonboard.com microsite in association with The National Archives to publish outbound passenger lists for long-distance voyages departing all British ports between 1890 and 1960.

About The Society of Genealogists

The Society of Genealogists (SoG) is an educational charity the purpose of which is to "promote, encourage and foster the study, science and knowledge of genealogy". The Society’s premises in Central London house the largest family history research library in the UK. The Society of Genealogists’ Library is open to members and paying non-members.

Holdings include:

Unique research collections
Document Collection of manuscript family history research notes
Thousands of compiled family histories and biographies
Thousands of parish records
Boyd's Marriage Index covering some 2,600 parish registers with nearly seven million names
Nonconformist registers
Memorial inscriptions
Local histories, poll books and directories
Sources for apprenticeships, trades, professions and occupations
Published emigration records for the British overseas

Case Studies from the Civil Service Evidence of Age Records

Annie McCullough of Dublin, born 1835

An extract from a letter from a previous employer to support her statement of age:

"She while with them became attached to a young man, also in their employment, but being at the time a Presbyterian while the young man was a Roman Catholic, there was no prospect of their being married. To remove the barrier, she became a Roman Catholic but so inopportunely did she make the change that at the same time the gentleman became a Protestant, leaving the difficulty just as it was."

Alfred Joseph Lowe of Balham, Surrey born in 1847, Boulogne, France

An extract from a letter in Alfred’s own hand:

"I was born on or about the 15th day of May 1847 at Boulogne sur Mer in the Republic of France. That I have been informed repeatedly of this by my father and mother who are now both dead. At the time of my birth the country in which I was born was considerably disturbed by revolution and the deposition of the then King Louis Philippe and that no register was then kept of births at Boulogne sur Mer."

Else Churchill
Genealogist
Society of Genealogists
14 Charterhouse Buildings
Goswell RoadLondon EC1M 7BA
direct phone 020 7702 5488
visit the Society of Genealogists' Website

[29 November 2007]

NEED SOME HELP?

TRY THE SOCIETY OF GENEALOGISTS’ FAMILY HISTORY ADVICE SERVICE - ONLINE, FACE-TO-FACE OR BY PHONE!!!

Family History Phone In

Have you got a question about your family history research? Need some fresh ideas or places to look? The Society of Genealogists is just at the end of the phone. The Society is launching a trial period for specialist family history telephone advice sessions on Saturdays throughout December 2007.

Contact the SoG’s Family History Advice line on 020 7490 8911 between 11am-1pm and 2pm-4pm on Saturdays throughout December.

Family History Advice Sessions

The Society runs regular one-to-one advice half hour advice sessions with experts at the Society’s library on alternate Saturdays from 2pm. Note the Society also runs free morning tours of the library on the same Saturdays.

Telephone the library direct on 020 7702 5485 to book an advice session or library tour on the following Saturdays:

**Family History Advice Sessions in 2008**
19 January	26 July
2 February	23 August
16 February	6 September
1 March	20 September
15 March	4 October
29 March	9 August
12 April	18 October
26 April	1 November
17 May	8 November
31 May	22 November
14 June	6 December
28 June	20 December
12 July

Members Advice and Help List

SOG-UK-L@rootsweb.com

This online mailing list is open to all members of the Society. The aim of this list is to provide a forum for members to exchange opinions on genealogical matters and to help each other by sharing information and experience. More details about the SoG members mailing list.

To join the list for the first time send an email with the following information:

your name
your membership number
whether you wish to join the normal mail list [default], or the digest list.

You will receive an email from the list manager containing details of how to send and receive messages. Please read the Rules & Guidelines for list members.

[28 November 2007]

My Ancestor was an Agricultural Labourer

This much anticipated latest addition to the My Ancestors series by Ian Waller will be of interest to all genealogists and family historians. Most family trees contain an agricultural labourer somewhere and Ian Waller's book enables you to understand the social and economic context of their lives while outlining the various records available to research these ubiquitous ancestors. Buy at the Online.Shop

London Metropolitan Archive is closed until 21 January 2008
and forthcoming closures of The National Archives at Kew.

London Metropolitan Archives is currently closed to the public for major internal refurbishment until 9.30am Monday 21 January 2008. Our telephone and distance enquiry service, including our family history research service, will remain in operation during this closure except over the Christmas and New Year period. Visit the LMA building works page for the latest information.

Due to essential building work, the reading rooms and other public areas of The National Archives at Kew will be closed to visitors from:

1 to 16 December 2007 (inclusive)
21 to 27 January 2008 (inclusive)

All online services will be available as usual at

Please note that The National Archives at Kew will also be closed over the Christmas period as follows:

22 to 26 December 2007 (inclusive)
1 January 2008

Reading room services will also be affected by noise, disruption and reduced seating capacity from now until March 2008.

Please check for the latest information on our website before planning a visit to The National Archives at Kew. The National Archives will continue to display regular updates at Kew and at the Family Records Centre in Islington.

The General Register Office will become part of the Identity and Passport Service from April 2008.

10 October 2007

The Society of Genealogists welcomes news that the General Register Office (GRO) is to be part of the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) from April 2008. The Society hopes that this decision puts an end to any uncertainty about the registration service and that work on the digitisation of certificates (DOVE) and the enhanced online indexes to births, marriages and deaths (MAGPIE) will now go ahead.

Go to the Office of National Statistics’ website for a GRO press statement about the registration service transfer from the ONS.

Go the Identity and Passport Office’s website for a press statement about the new service.

It is interesting to note that IPS and GRO have been working to provide online access for IPS to GRO birth, marriage and death registers. The Society of Genealogists strongly urges Meg Hillier, Home Office Minister responsible for Identity (and presumably for the GRO) and IPS Chief Executive James Hall to enable the GRO to continue its work to create improved online public indexes to the records.

Family Historians are encouraged to contact their MPs, the Home Office Minister Meg Hillier and the Identity and Passport Service to express their concerns that that work on the improved online indexes is completed as soon as possible.

A new E-petition has been opened on the 10 Downing Street Website to ensure that the General Register Office completes ASAP, as promised, the digitisation of, and online index to, the national birth marriages and death indexes dating back to 1837 previously held in the Family Records Centre in London.

Go to the 10 Downing Street Website to support the petition.

Industrial Dispute UK Postal Services

Currently it is expected that UK Postal Services will be affected by an industrial dispute during the period 5 October to 9th October which will impact on our ability to dispatch orders from the OnlineShop including lecture tickets. Lecture tickets can be booked by email or phone. Any Orders placed will be dispatched as soon as possible.

Continue to the OnlineShop.

The National Archives offers a three month institutional access trial to their Documentsonline Service in the Society's Library.

The Society of Genealogists and The National Archives are delighted to announce the launch of a three-month trial offering institutional access to The National Archives’ DocumentsOnline service at its library at Charterhouse Buildings.

From 1st October to 24 December 2007, members and day searchers at the SoG will be able to search and download images such as PCC wills and WW1 Medal cards from DocumentsOnline free of charge. The downloaded images - which usually cost £3.50 each can be printed out at 20p per page.

The library at Charterhouse Buildings has a dozen Internet computers available for use in the Lower Library. Four of these can be pre-booked with the library for an hour. The remainder are available for use on a first come-first served basis. SoG library staff will be on hand to answer any queries.

During this trial period the SoG will ask for feedback and comments from users. This will enable The National Archives to assess and review the three-month trial for possible future partnerships.

Go to DocumentsOnline for a list of all the records available.

Society amalgamates stocktaking closures

Society will be closed the first week in January 2008 when for the first time stocktaking of the Bookshop and the Library will take place rather than a separate week’s closure for the Bookshop in January and for the Library in February.

Therefore the Society will close for New Year and Stocktaking at 6pm on Saturday 29 December and will re-open on Tuesday 8 January at 10am.

Please note that the Society will also be closed from 6pm on Saturday 22 December to 10am on Thursday 27 December.

Society of Genealogists makes prestige award to FreeBMD

The Society of Genealogists was delighted to make the presentation of the Prince Michael of Kent Award at its recent AGM to FreeBMD.

The award made for distinguished and outstanding services to Genealogy has only been made four times in its history. Previous recipients were The Family Record Centre, ABM Publishing and The Genealogical Society of Utah.

See further the details the Press Release

GRO chaos as local registrars are told to abandon computer system

Genealogists will be disappointed in the report in the Times Newspapers of Thursday 3 May of problems with the new electronic registration of births, marriages and deaths faced by local registrars as they try to implement the RON (Remote online records) system for General Registration.

Link to Full article at Times Online

It would seem that the computer system is not robust enough to cope with the number of registrations. Given that the Registration Service and its partners Siemens and Man Tech must have known the number of staff expected to be working on the system it is inconceivable that advance testing did not prepare the service for the problems. This situation is reminiscent of the problems faced by the National Archives with the 1901 census of which GRO was well aware.

Siemens are the General Register Office’s partners for the DOVE (Digitisation of Vital Events) process which is capturing the data from the Registrar General’s copies of certificates. The GRO is currently developing MAGPIE (Multiple Access to GRO published index of events) which will provide new and supposedly improved indexes to vital events that will be available online from 2008.The plan is that by March 2008 the infrastructure will be in place and GRO will publish online indexes to historic birth certificates and then add additional data incrementally. This system is intended to be in place by the time the General Register Office leaves the Family Record Centre in 2008.

The Society of Genealogists has previously questioned, on behalf of the genealogical community whether the GRO’s system would be robust enough to take over from the FRC closure. GRO responded that full testing would take place to ensure that the system could cope with the demand. The troubles faced by the local registration service do not support these reassurances.

The National Archives has announced its partner in digitizing the 1911 census

Link to TNA News Release

Scotland Online currently provides digital access to Scottish birth, marriage and death records, parish registers and censuses for the GRO Scotland. The National Archives assures the Society of Genealogists that it has learnt lessons from the launch of previous censuses and that with its track record Scotland Online will be able to avoid the technical problems that beset the launch of the 1901 census in 2002, and will ensure a service that will be robust and sufficient to meet demand.

The scanning of the enormous amount of 1911 census data will commence and from 2009 there will be a phased release of the images and indexes starting with major conurbations. The Society is gratified to hear this as this was what it advised when given the opportunity to comment on the required specification and search functionality for the 1911 census tenders. We hope the providers will take heed all comments from users. The National Archives has not said what its minimum specification for the index fields will be thus we assume it will be similar to that currently offered for Scottish censuses. The service from 2009 will redact (i.e. edit out) certain parts of the census images that contain sensitive information but the full returns will be available from 2012.

The Society of Genealogists looks forward to seeing the 1911 census returns made widely available on the Internet and wishes TNA and it partners success in their venture.

Gene Detectives

The following information provides some background to Gene Detectives which is shortly to be screened on BBC1 and which used the SoG as a location.

The series, presented by Melanie Sykes with Anthony Adolph as the 'Gene Detective', is starting on Monday 19 February on BBC1 and will run each morning at 9.15 for two weeks.

Filming only finished last week, and the transmission time was only announced a few weeks ago, so there was never any chance of getting any advance publicity into The Genealogist's Magazine, which is a real shame, but you may still consider it newsworthy. It is certainly a new venture in genealogy-related TV!

The show is about people seeking long-lost close relatives - brothers and sisters, parents and children and in one case a lady who has lost most of her family and who was seeking a first cousin who was the only survivor of her immediate family in the Blitz.

Melanie Sykes’s role was to accompany the seekers on their journey, visiting them at home before hand and sharing their emotional experiences on their day in the Gene Detectives studio. Anthony’s role was to trace the long-lost relatives in the first place using conventional genealogical means - General Registration, electoral registers, telephone directories and so on. When they got down to the last three, however, the researchers invited the three possible relatives to come to the studio for a series of tests, the results of which would be compared with those of tests conducted on the seekers themselves.

These tests covered physical characteristics (height, cholesterol levels, eyesight, blood pressure and and lung capacity, all of which - or the propensities to them - are genetically inherited), facial mapping - to see how people's features did or did not match up - and a 'deep ancestry' DNA test. They also asked everyone if they had any particular physical quirks, such as being able to roll their tongues, wiggle their ears or place one arm over one shoulder and the other under the other shoulder and touch their hands behind their backs.

The aim here was not only to come closer to working out who the real relative really was, but also to see to what extent close relatives really do (or don't) match each other in terms of some of those elements of ourselves that we inherit from our parents. Anthony tells us he found the results fascinating: in many cases, facial similarities, physical matches, DNA results and body quirks really did point towards who it was - but not always. Bizarrely (or not, as they are just as much indicators of genetic inheritance as anything else), the most consistent indicators of true family connections seemed to come through the body quirks!

It also gave the seeker themselves the opportunity of seeing whether they could work out who their long-lost relative really was before they met them. Many people who have never met close relatives think, or hope, that they will be able to recognise them instinctively and that close family connections produce an immediate gut reaction. In some cases, this proved not to be the case, but in some instances the gut reaction was astonishingly strong.

At the end of each program, after the tests have been completed and the necessary off-screen professional counselling has been undertaken, the long lost relatives are reunited with each other. It’s interesting in this context that just the other week the press reported that the novelist Ian McEwan discovered he had a long-lost half-brother, and met him. The Telegraph reported "They had been warned by the Salvation Army not to expect an emotional first meeting. ‘That only happens in films’, they were told. They exchanged an ‘awkward hug’ and sat down for a drink". It’s true that many such meetings can be anti-climaxes: besides actually finding the long-lost relatives for the ten seekers featured in the programs, Gene Detectives gave them genuinely emotional reunions, with the support of a professional councilor, and in a very supportive environment.

Else Churchill

Collected news archive on the planned closure of the family Records Centre in 2008

Early closure of FRC(GRO) further update

What can the genealogical community do now?

The Chancellor of the Exchequer determines the policy and financial framework within which the Office for National Statistics (ONS) operates. The Chancellor delegates this responsibility to another Treasury minister, currently the Financial Secretary, Jane Kennedy MP. The operational management of ONS is delegated to the director of ONS. This is currently Karen Dunnell, National Statistician and Registrar General for England and Wales.

The General Register Office has published a short note concerning the access to indexes and the closure on its website.

Anyone wishing to make comment on this issue might consider writing to

Public Relations Unit
Certificate Services Section
General Register Office
Trafalgar Road
Southport
PR8 2HH
Email: certificate.services@ons.gov.uk
(please enter GQ in the subject field to avoid receiving an auto response)
Fax: +44 (0) 1704 550013

In person

Complaints about the Family Records Centre (FRC) in London can also be made in person to the supervisor if it relates to certificates or to the manager regarding the general level of service at the FRC. The names of both the supervisor and manager are displayed in the Public Search Room at the FRC

Taking it further

While the Society of Genealogists has no wish to defend the GRO's management of the FRC project along with the various digitization initiatives, the problem would seem to lie at a higher level than GRO itself. The people who need to be made aware of the genealogical community's feelings are clearly the ministers and the National Statistician/Registrar General. The Society of Genealogists would encourage genealogists to make their feelings known directly to Jane Kennedy and Karen Dullen

The MP Jeremy Corbyn has issued an early day motion on 24 July 2007 which states the following:

"This House Deplores the decision by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to close the FRC in Islington in 2008, leaving England and Wales without a Public Search Room for the first time since 1836 and resulting in the compulsory redundancy of 20 members of staff; believes that the provision of service online and or microfiche is a completely inadequate substitute, especially for customers requiring documents urgently, for example in support of passport applications or benefit claims; and therefore believes that the ONS' decision represents a complete withdrawal of services that the Registrar General has a duty to provide to customers ranging from legal firms to genealogy societies"

Parliament goes into Summer Recess on 26 July and returns in October. However MPs are still active and take note of their constituent’s concerns.The Society of Genealogists encourages members of the public to lobby their MPs to support this motion. If you know the name of your MP the House of Commons website gives links to emails and website addresses.

You can discover the name of your MP and contact details from writetothem.com

An E-petition against the early closure has been created on the Downing Street Website

Else Churchill

ONS fails to deliver on its services for the genealogical community

The Society of Genealogists is extremely concerned that ONS is to close its services at the Family Record Centre early without putting into place the improved digitised indexes or any satisfactory service to replace what is currently available.

ONS announced at a meeting of the Family Record Centre Users Group on 25 July 2007 that the anticipated closure of its Public Search Room facilities at Myddelton Street, which was due to occur by the end of March 2008, will now actually occur some 5 months earlier. Due to the rationalisation of its services and the relocation of ONS staff from Drummond Gate, the ground floor GRO Public Search Room at the FRC will close at the beginning of November 2007. No certificate ordering or collection service will be put in its place and the paper indexes will be withdrawn. ONS maintains that the statutory provision for the GRO to maintain a public accessible index to births, marriages and deaths will be satisfied by the existing online images and indexes provided by commercial companies and the provision of microfiche copies of the indexes which can be found in some libraries, and for a short while, an unspecified number of sets of the microfiche indexes will be made available upstairs in the National Archives section of the FRC. The SoG does not believe these provisions satisfy the statutory requirements.

Of even more worry is the fact that the GRO’s Digitisation of Vital Events (DOVE) project is at least twelve months behind schedule and because of budgetary constraints and overspend on this and other IT projects the GRO is unlikely to find funding in the near future to create the improved online index search facility known as MAGPIE. The closure of the FRC was intended to go hand in hand with improved online indexes to birth, marriages and death records but this is no longer to be the case.

The Society of Genealogists has repeatedly said that the closure of the GRO’s London search room at the FRC is a regrettable withdrawal of services for the genealogical community. The possibility of new improved indexes which would make online searching easier and improve back office efficiency in Southport would seem to have been only a carrot dangled before the genealogical community. It is wholly unsatisfactory that GRO should close its services and make access to the existing indexes more restricted by withdrawing the paper indexes to Christchurch, Dorset without providing some means of improved index access for those who will be reliant on the only means of obtaining birth, marriages and death certificates namely online or postal ordering.

ONS has prepared a briefing paper (pdf) explaining the background to its decision.

The Office of National Statistics will move from the Family Records Centre in 2008

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has issued two News Releases.

Firstly, ONS intends to close its public search facility, currently located at the Family Records Centre (FRC) in Islington, and instead to make indexes available at The National Archives (TNA) in Kew. The relocation is expected to be complete by April 2008. The services currently provided by ONS in Islington will then cease. (When TNA announced earlier this year that it intended to relocate from the FRC 1st Floor to Kew, ONS said that it would be reviewing the services it offered at the FRC on the Ground Floor.)

The News Release can be read at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/frc0107.pdf

Readers may find the statement unclear and therefore we hare grateful to the Federation of Family History Societies for the following clarification:

“FFHS has contacted the Project Manager of the Digitisation of Vital Events (DoVE) team at Southport for clarification. The heading of the Release states "Births, marriages and deaths records to go on the Internet" and in its main body it states "This will enable researchers to access records yet to be digitised in paper or microfiche format."

What we have been told will be available at Kew are the indexes to Births, Marriages and Deaths, not the records themselves (i.e. full registration details will still only be obtainable by purchasing copy certificates).

Furthermore, the DoVE Project will not have been completed at the time the relocation takes place. For those records that have been digitised and re-indexed, the newly produced indexes will be accessible on computer screens at Kew. Where digitisation will not have been completed, it is the existing indexes that will be made accessible: we understand that ONS have not yet established with TNA whether these will be the binders currently in use at the FRC or whether, because of space constraints, they will need to be provided in microfiche format.”

The SoG is scheduled meet with the DoVE Team next week, and we will continue to keep readers updated with the latest information on the DoVE Project as soon as it is available.

The second announcement from ONS is that it also proposes closing its London headquarters at Drummond Gate, Pimlico, by 2010. Most of the 600 staff will move to Newport, South Wales, as part of a government programme to move jobs out of London, the ONS said. A small number of staff will go to Titchfield, in Hampshire, whilst the remainder numbering 100 or so will move to the FRC building.

Fuller details can be viewed at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6267087.stm

2006 News Archive

The Freedom of Information Commissioner has decided that Limited Access can be made to Information from the 1911 Census

The National Archives(TNA) released the following press release
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/13dec2006.pdf

The Society of Genealogists met with TNA on 13 December and was delighted to learn that the effect of the decision means that The National Archives must supply SOME information from the 1911 in response to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. Family Historians and other searchers will be able, from 17 January 2007, to pay for searches in the census from the TNA paid research service at a cost of £45 per address search. Sensitive information will be redacted (i.e. blacked out) from the census information given to the recipient.

Note that until the census is fully digitised searches can only be made using addresses and not surnames. Hence searches must be made using the special online census search request forms that will be made available on TNA’s web site in January.

See the 1911 FAQ http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help/1911census/faq-foi.htm for more information on making a search request. The Census will not be made available in microform nor will public access be allowed to the original returns.

TNA is developing a digitised online 1911service and is speeding up the process. It hopes that a limited online search facility will be ready in 2009 with some key sensitive information (such as infirmity or mental condition) withheld until the release of the full census in 2012.

Genealogists will no doubt find the online search facility quicker, cheaper and easier to use than the paid search requests and will probably wait until the full index is available in 2009.

Further notes on access to the census are available on TNA’s web site http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/1911census/?homepage=news

The Information Commissioners decision is available online at http://www.ico.gov.uk/tools_and_resources/decision_notices/2006_12.aspx

Else Churchill
Genealogy Officer
13 December 2006

Society of Genealogists' Family History Show to join forces with Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE

The Society of Genealogists Family History Show will take place on 5-7 May 2007 at as part of the Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE History Show at Olympia.

The hugely popular BBC TV series, renowned for taking celebrities on a journey to discover their ancestral roots, is branching out into the event field to create Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE. The Society is delighted with this opportunity to bring the Society of Genealogists' Family History Show to a bigger audience. An expanded show will enable the genealogical community, local societies, record holders and exhibitors to reach the wider family history interest. The Society of Genealogists, along with its show sponsor Findmypast.com, looks forward to working with our exhibitors to make this 15th Family History Show the best ever.

The Event will take place at the National Hall, Olympia, London from 5-7 May 2007 and will incorporate the Society of Genealogists' Family History Show. And with an expected audience of around 15,000 visitors it will be the biggest event of its kind by far.

More...

Index to the Surname Document Collection published

The Surname Document Collection is arranged A-Z by surname and consists of:

Original documents such as birth, marriage and death certificates, deeds, wills, marriage licences and settlements, apprenticeship indentures, letters etc
Manuscript and typescript transcripts of wills, parish register entries etc, family trees and other research notes

This index lists all of the surnames that are included in the Surname Document Collection. Cross references to alternative spellings may have been included but these are not necessarily complete.

Material may be photocopied (at the Librarian's discretion) but is not available for loan, nor, due to limited staff time, can it usually be searched for named individuals. Enquiries should be made using the link to the Limited search & copy service.

This index was compiled from a physical examination of the contents of the boxes forming the Collection. It is now regularly updated by volunteers and further help in this task is always welcome. Please contact the Librarian if you would like to volunteer.

Additions to the document collection

Any new material for the Society's Document Collection such as birth, marriage and death certificates, copies of wills (especially un-probated ones), family trees etc are always welcome. Please give any items to the staff in the Middle Library or send it to the Society care of the Librarian. Donations are noted in the Genealogist's Magazine and any "new" surnames are added to the index.

Society of Genealogists - Index to the Surname Document Collection

Hidden House History

The History Channel will be continuing their ten part series, Hidden House History, in September 2006 which should be of interest to genealogists. This is a project which shows people how to unlock the real stories within their homes and discover how to unearth documents, find architectural evidence and follow the clues. The programmes are presented by Nick Barratt and Jonathan Foyle.

The programmes can be seen on Sky Digital (channels 529 & 530), NTL (channels 504 & 138) and Telewest (channel 234).

Further details at the History Channel.