Re Film Nos 103885123 and 90270
When I search thru "Catalogue" 103885123 is no longer available although I did find it some considerable time ago. Your "Support" section managed recently to find me a link and I was able to view the film again. The Title is shown as Uny Lelant Baptism and Burial records 1611- 1812 . Marriage records are also included in the film so you may wish to consider amending the title to reflect full content. Up to Image no 9 of the film seems to cover years 1610 - 20. Image 10 skips to1625 and image 11 appears to be 1628 and 13 is 1630. However my main concern is that page 15 jumps to1665 a gap of some 35 years. Further along image 21 deals with 1673 and 22 jumps to 1737 a gap of 64 years. Are these large blocks of missing records available elsewhere please? With regard to Film no 90270 Item 3 covering Bishops Transcripts Towednack 1676- 1805 it is locked and messaged that it is necessary to go to the Local Library to browse the film content. Over time I remember that other films were also locked although I do not have those details in front of me . I am currently employed acting as carer to my wife so going to the local Family Search centre to spend countless hours is not an option. Can 90270 be unlocked for browsing at home together with any other locked films around the Cornwall ,England area please?
Many thanks in anticipation of your assistance. Should you want it my Email address is (email removed)
Have a great day
Warren Uren.
Answers
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Re Lelant parish (aka Uny Lelant) (Please note I am not addressing 90270)
The explanation of what's going on with those records needs seriously specific knowledge. I suggest that your best course of action is to contact the "Cornwall Online Parish Clerks" - these are family historians who are (hopefully) experts in their allocated parishes. The C-OPC site is on https://www.opc-cornwall.org/index.php and the page for Lelant is on https://www.opc-cornwall.org/Par_new/l_m/lelant.php which gives you a contact for Lelant parish.
My knowledge of the West of England stops somewhere around the north-eastern corner of Devon, but it would seem a fairly safe bet that the missing years are down to one (or more!) of three potential issues:
- They aren't in the "original" (whatever that "original" document is);
- They are in the "original" but were missed in the filming (e.g. camera guy turned over 2 pages at once);
- They were filmed but have been lost in the digitisation process (I have no idea if this is possible).
It may be that, if the missing years aren't in the original, then the OPC for Lelant can explain this. I did try to work through the various catalogues but coverage for Lelant is less than obvious. The Cornwall OPC coverage records its Parish Register baptisms for Lelant as 1757-1901 and Lelant BT (Bishops Transcripts) baptisms as 1611-1861 - which does match the start date you mentioned. And when I worked out how to use the Cornwall OPC site, I see that (a) it has baptisms from 1611 to 1619 and then leaps to 1625 - like your stuff - and (b) the individual entries are marked up as being from Exeter BTs.
This makes me wonder if the source that you are looking at comes from the BTs?
I would say that BTs are notorious for gaps so the PRs may not survive and the BTs may have gaps - but contact the Lelant OPC, as I suggest.
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"Film" (or Image Group) 103885123 is accessible, should anyone need to find it, by using menu option Search / Images and searching for "Uny Lelant" (not just Lelant). It's not accessible via Search / Catalog, which seems odd to me.
It does look very much like a Bishop's Transcript to me.
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@Adrian Bruce1 Since the old main catalog has been locked and not updated for several years, I presume the access to the Devon County Council records is relatively new and might explain why 103885123 can be found in Images but not in the old main catalog.
It's also possible to search in Images using only the DGS number - no need for a place.
Some early BTs for Uny Lelant are listed here as accessible, but the earlier one (1596-1812) is not functioning today. May need to be escalated to staff for review if that does not resolve.
@WarrenUren 90270 is at least partially indexed and, therefore, searchable by name. I visit my local Affiliate Library regularly and would be happy to look up what you need from that film. It is unlikely that FamilySearch could make it accessible from home since the access status is part of their contract with the record holder.
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For 103885123, both the number of digits and its absence from the Catalog point to it being a new acquisition for FS. If you find the Images interface as objectionable as I do, you can view the image group using the Catalog's viewer: paste in the image group's number at the end of the film-number-based URL format (https://www.familysearch.org/search/film/103885123).
For 90270, the scenario of "used to be on FS, now has a camera-with-key" is usually due to contract changes caused by the records now being available on a paywalled site. I have no idea about this specific record set, but English parish registers have been going this route in large numbers in recent years.
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@Áine Ní Donnghaile - re "Since the old main catalog has been locked and not updated for several years, I presume the access to the [Cornwall, actually. AB] County Council records is relatively new and might explain why 103885123 can be found in Images but not in the old main catalog"
@Julia Szent-Györgyi - said similarly re "For 103885123, both the number of digits and its absence from the Catalog point to it being a new acquisition for FS"
Ah - good thinking. The number of digits did strike me as odd but I didn't think it through far enough. I still can't get used to the Catalog that isn't a Catalog.
Re "the scenario of 'used to be on FS, now has a camera-with-key' is usually due to contract changes caused by the records now being available on a paywalled site." Very possibly, but until we see an explicit statement such as "See FindMyPast", we are reduced to speculating about why the 4 items on film 90270, which are all Cornish Bishops' Transcripts from "original records at the District Probate Court, Bodmin, Cornwall" are locked while 90272 which includes Cornish Bishops' Transcripts from "original records at the District Probate Court, Bodmin, Cornwall" is unlocked. Without that explicit statement, the suspicion arises that one film is locked due to finger trouble. Or maybe it's one is unlocked due to finger trouble! I don't really care - I'd just like to know. (As would lots of enquirers about all sorts of films across the globe…)
Maybe the revised catalog will tell us!
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@Adrian Bruce1 The location may well be Cornwall but the banner credits Devon County Council.
This image courtesy of
Devon County Council
Devon County Council Topsham Road Exeter United Kingdom EX2 4QDTerms of use
For copies of these records contact Devon County Council.1 -
Oh dear - that illustrates "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing". I just read what I thought should be there and "corrected" you accordingly. Lelant is today in the Diocese of Truro, as I correctly thought. However, what I had missed was that Truro Diocese was only formed in 1876, and before that it was in the Archdeaconry of Cornwall, in the Diocese of Exeter. Lelant's Bishops' Transcripts would therefore have gone to Exeter and apparently stayed there. At least initially. (Which is not a given - after the Lancashire parishes had been split off from the Diocese of Chester, a big bundle of Lancashire stuff went from Chester to Lancashire.)
So, apologies for that. Although when I was attempting to navigate the catalogue for Cornwall Record Office, I'll swear I remember seeing Lelant BTs. Whether that reference was to microfilms of the BTs, or whether the physical BTs have indeed moved back but the control of the microfilms remains with Exeter or whether I simply misread the catalogue (it's not the usual software) I don't know... And it's not that important in the context of trying to understand what is on that film.
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No worries - just wanted to be sure we didn't lead the original poster astray.
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@Ashlee C. Could you please escalate my comment (above) regarding the DGS 5749771 that does not open? It's marked as free access, but it does not open from home or at my Affiliate Library. I tried it last month from home and today at my affiliate.
Thank you
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@Áine Ní Donnghaile I will make sure this gets to the right person. Thanks for bringing it to our attention again.
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Thanks, Ashlee.
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