UK digital films not viewable in UK FHCs

WG01

There is a recent problem where almost all digital film records (particularly for parish registers of England and Scotland) are not viewable at Family History Centres in the UK. I have discussed this issue with an experienced volunteer at the London Family History Centre, who noted that the problem has been occurring for a couple of months, and is almost certainly unintentional. I was encouraged to leave this feedback.

With the original film collection no longer available in London, except where registers are available on Find My Past or Ancestry, researchers now need to visit individual County Record Offices around the UK to view many records, including parish registers, whose digital films would normally be available.

It would be very helpful for UK researchers if this issue could be rectified as soon as possible.

Áine Ní Donnghaile

It would be helpful if you could reference a particular record set and/or DGS numbers. It is possible that it is intentional, as a contract may have ended/changed.

DavidBeck1

@WG01

Yes, as @Áine Ní Donnghaile helpfully says, if you could provide particular record references, which we could checkout, this would help us greatly in trying to ascertain the films, which are presently unavailable.

So, please do respond and provide us with what information you have!

WG01

The problem was affecting the digitized films of all Church of England parish registers and Church of Scotland OPR when accessed through the FamilySearch catalog.

I understand that someone has been addressing the problem, which may by now have been fully resolved; so I will report further when I am next able to visit my local FHC. Many thanks.

A van Helsdingen

There will be some records that are not available at FHCs (now known as FamilySearch Centers). Instead these records may be microfilm-only or available only to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The 1841-1901 Scotland census indexes used to be available to users of all religions before being restricted to Latter Day Saints in ~ 2019.

In the UK, the record custodians, i.e. the county and national archives usually seek to make revenue from their records and therefore have the records behind paywalls at FMP and Ancestry.com. Making the records available through FS gives genealogists a way to avoid these fees and is thus very bad from the records custodian's perspective. You should make your views on this issue known to your county councillors and the relevant MPs and Ministers as access to public records is a political question.

I viewed Scottish OPRs a few weeks ago at an Affiliate Library in New Zealand. It is possible that there are different contractual restrictions in different countries.