Chat
|
Daily Search
|
My GenForum
|
Community Standards
|
Terms of Service
|
|
|
Dina:
You might not be aware of the following:
__________________________________________
Macclesfield Express, Wednesday 18th October 2000 - e-mail to: - macclesfieldexpress@gmwn.co.uk -
Family historians keen to trace their ancestors back through time can now take a computer short cut instead of wading through dusty records and registers. Millions of births, marriages and death records in Cheshire are being painstakingly transferred to computer by a team of dedicated volunteers - and can be checked out from anywhere in the world using the internet. The county is the first in Britain to update its records which will date as far back as 1837 - the year Queen Victoria took the throne - when registration became compulsory.
Much of the work has been done at the Alderley Edge offices of the Family History Society of Cheshire. Together with the South Cheshire Family History Society and Cheshire County Council's public records office the new computerised records mean it will take moments to track down the right documents to get certificates issued. One of the people behind the scheme is Philip Coops, a member of both societies, who is delighted with the work done. He said the first phase of more than 600,000 records is now on line with more hitting the computer databases all the time. Mr Coops said: "This is vital information for people not only doing family history but also local history."
Previously records staff had to trawl through different archives - often with different filing systems - to try and track down documents but now the computer will locate the right certificate in seconds. The project started four years ago and will continue for several more years, said Mr Coops, until all records up to 1950 are entered. Already there have been many hits at the website from Australia, Canada and the United States of America as keen genealogists trace their Anglo-Saxon roots. Family History Society of Cheshire committee member Brenda Smith said: "More and more records will go online as time allows them to be scanned into the computers but many documents will have to be hand typed."
Cheshire County Council's registration service manager Martin Smith said he is very pleased about the work done with the two organisations. One problem his staff used to have was people not have full details of the certificates they wanted copies of. "Now if they can find it themselves online they can be certain they are buying the right certificates." Many different offices in the County have kept records over the years since registration was made a requirement and their different systems have all had to be combined for the computer records. "Now we can use our staff more effectively for other work and we can provide a first rate service to customers. We are issuing more and more copies of certificates then ever before and aim to do them the same day."
The council department is obliged by law to charge £6.50 (just under U$10.00) for each copy of a certificate and issues 14,000 a year. Websites for the two Cheshire family history societies - with hotlinks to the births, marriages and deaths registers - can be found at:
- http://www.fhsc.org.uk -
- http://www.scfhs.org.uk -
Stapeley House in Nantwich in Cheshire used to belong to a Reverend Folliott (Follett) when it was first built in 1778. We are just beginning to research the history of the building and are looking for any information about him.
Stay in Cheshire for B & B accomodation and easy access to Manchester via Chester or Runcorn. The Parish of St. Mary is in the City of Birmingham. Original registers will be deposited in the Birmingham Reference Library.
__________________
Home Page for City of Birmingham is - http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/ - You will find plenty of information here including bed and breakfast accommodation. To go straight to the genealogy section, just add 'genealogy' to the end of the web page address.
Manchester is now Greater Manchester and Birmingham now is in East Midlands. They ceased to be parts of Lancs and Warks decades ago.
Followups:No followups yet |
| http://genforum.genealogy.com/alcock/messages/99.html | ||
 |
Agreement of Use Link to GenForum Add Forum |
|