Online access to catalogue search

jayne hill1

I have been using your catalogue for research in English parish records for a long time.

Last year, I found that records I had been using in Bedfordshire and parts of Warwickshire became unavailable, which is very disappointing.

I am currently trying to access the Bishops' Transcripts for Hunningham in Warwickshire- your catalogue shows online access with a magnifying glass, camera and key, which normally means one can browse the pages. It begins to load momentarily, then a message pops up saying 'unavailable, try again later', then a message telling me to visit your library, which I am unable to do.

Why is this happening? Why does your site come up saying access to these records when one 'googles' them, and then they cannot be seen?

Please help

Jayne

Julia Szent-Györgyi

Part of the problem is that the catalog hasn't been updated in nearly two years now.

The other part I don't know for certain, but suspect: a contract has probably expired. A lot of English records have been moving to one of the pay sites, lately.

jayne hill1

Thanks for that Julia. I think that is what happened about the Bedfordshire records. (Everything seems to be pay for view these days)

I've been looking for a way to check this out with a member of the fs team, and think I will try to book a 'chat'. I will then post what answer I receive.

Jayne

jayne hill1

I meant to say also, I do have premium Ancestry, but am a bit miffed that these things aren't on there with no explanation- why only partial parish records for any certain place?

Paul W

There appear to be some strange agreements operating at the moment - between FamilySearch and certain pay-to-view sites or record custodians.

A good example of the "partial access" problem is with the agreement with Find My Past over indexed England & Wales census collections. A large part of the 1871 collection disappeared some time ago and although some appear now to be available on FamilySearch there are still several millions that are not. No logical explanation for this whatsoever, as far as I can make out.

Actually, I'm sure many records (both images and indexed) have disappeared due to a simple misunderstanding (i.e., nothing contractual about it), but getting them restored to FamilySearch does not appear to be an easy task.

Adrian Bruce1

"I'm sure many records (both images and indexed) have disappeared due to a simple misunderstanding (i.e., nothing contractual about it), but getting them restored to FamilySearch does not appear to be an easy task."

I'm convinced you're right about that, @Paul W . Whatever agreements exist, I'm sure they're relatively simple so (e.g.) half a "collection" being accessible and half not, seems unlikely. However, persuading people to find those agreements and to check them against the actual configurations seems, err, hard work.

Áine Ní Donnghaile

And have you noticed, recently, that, instead of directing users to FindMyPast, the link now tells us that the record is only available on TNA? Of course, once we follow the URL, we're on FMP. That's probably contractual between FMP and TNA.

Paul W

@jayne hill1

The basic problem here is one not necessarily related to the "Catalog". Over the last couple of years the situation might have changed with regards to availability to view certain material, but what the Catalog says is not so important as one being (un)able to view the images once arriving on the relevant pages.

What is the real issue is how we get a suspected error corrected - e.g., where, "logically" the film should be open for unrestricted viewing - where other films that cover the same parish, for the periods immediately before and after the one in question, do not have the same restricted access.

The accepted way of reporting a suspected error in the "status" of the film is to report here. But what happens beyond that depends on the circumstances. Firstly, is a FamilySearch moderator willing to pass the matter to the "correct team"? Secondly, is there a specific team that handles such issues? Thirdly, does that team (or FamilySearch in general) have the resources to address the matter?

From previous reports made here, I'm sure there are many films which have been inadvertently classified with an incorrect viewing restriction. I would be interested in hearing of any FamilySearch user who has managed to get one of these examples corrected, so that (regardless of the "locked" Catalog's suggestion to the contrary) they find a film that previously had restricted access (for no apparent reason) now can be freely viewed.

Áine Ní Donnghaile

I've had success reporting factual catalog errors (records for a Nevada cemetery listed as records of a New York cemetery) to the email address books@familysearch.org.

You can also submit information based on this help article

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-request-a-correction-to-the-familysearch-catalog

You might also try flagging your own post to the attention of one of the mods to trigger them to see this thread and comment/escalate.