Online viewing of Film # 2214331
Film # 2214331 is part of the catalog "Parish registers, Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk, Cape Town (Cape Province), 1695-1976".
Currently this film can only be viewed on microfilm according to the FamilySearch website. Several years ago, I was informed by FamilySearch Support that these records had already been digitized and that I should exercise some patience before they are available for online viewing. I understand that there may be restrictions due to contractual obligations. However, I doubt this is the case, bearing in mind that all other marriages for the period from 1665-1712 and from 1737 onwards are available online for browsing.
I should appreciate it if consideration could be given to enable online viewing of the images for film # 2214331, especially the marriages for the period 1713-1756.
Best Answer
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@Mike Ducray You are correct that the access rights seem to be inconsistently applied to these Cape Province records. Thank you for providing specific examples of similar records for the same place and same or more recent records that are accessible. We will send a query to the team who can look at the record contracts for us and determine if access rights need to be modified. Unfortunately, we cannot predict how long it will take before we have an answer.
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Answers
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The presence of marriages from 1970 is the most likely culprit for why this film cannot be published- many countries enforce a 70-80 privacy limit for marriage records. Unfortunately it is not possible at this time to split up the film into smaller sections and publish the sections with older records.
You may be able to get assistance from the FHL Lookup service: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/FHL_Lookup_Services
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Thank you. The description of this specific film is:
"(Cape Town) Memberships 1900-1901 -- (Robbeneiland) Memberships 1898-1930; Baptisms 1897-1930 -- (Cape Town) Memberships 1757-1842 -- Index to marriages 1825-1970 -- Marriages 1713-1756; Memberships 1713-1757"
The last year for any event in this film is in respect of marriages up to 1970. It should be noted that I can access marriage images for Cape Town up to 1971 in film # 8121887.
Furthermore, it should be noted that I can access images for marriage records at the nearby location of Stellenbosch all the way up to 2001 in film # 4178991.
I still have my doubts that the images are restricted due to contractual obligations / privacy.
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I think it would be helpful if a FS staff member responds and looks into this.
If the 1971 records from the same congregation at Cape Town are available online, then then should be no issue with publishing 1970 marriages. But it could be the 1930 membership records from Robbeneiland that are the issue- they are less than 100 years old.
FamilySearch must have permission to publish ALL of the 7 distinct parts of film 2214331. Even though the records from different churches are all stored at the Cape Dutch Reformed Archives, it's possible that legal ownership of the record still lies with the individual congregations and not with a central authority. I've seen this before with German Protestant records. Each congregation is likely to have different levels of concerns about privacy. It could be that Cape Town is very relaxed and has no objections to publishing records from 1971, whereas the Robben Island congregation objects to records from 1930 being published. Given the history of Robben Island with the prison, that would be understandable.
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