[Gllug] [OT] ripping us off with our data

[John Southern]

On Friday 27 July 2007 11:29, Chris Jones wrote:
> Alan Peery wrote:
> > You might get in contact with the Mormons.  They may have cloned all
> > this data into their databases....
>
> fwiw, their so-called database of familial histories is quite junkish.
> They like to compile them quickly and with lots of source data and not
> much careful alignment of records.
>
> You may find they tell you you are related to all sorts of people that
> you really aren't.

Genealogy sources onilne are varied and range from 
http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/ which lists the majority of Births, Marriages 
and Deaths, but this is only an index that you would then have to order and 
pay for the actual certificates.

Cenus information is either on http://www.ancestry.co.uk/ or 
http://www.findmypast.com (previously 1837online.com), both charge.

http://freecen.rootsweb.com/ has a minumal number of censuses, but not many 
yet.

Depending on where your ancestors are from, there is the 
http://www.genuki.org.uk/indexes/OPC.html which links local parish records.

http://www.a2a.org.uk/ is another index which could help find names, but you 
will still need to go physically look at the certificates.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ will give you the medal roles of WWI 
soldiers. The index is free, but again the certificates cost beer tokens. 
Also various wills index is free, but a cost for the actual wills.

http://www.origins.net/ is another pay per view site and has a different set 
of wills, marriage and burial records.

Mormons offer on the free site http://www.familysearch.org/, the IGI index, 
some of which is transcribed parish records, some of which is information 
from uploaded family trees. (Note no deaths and only christenings with 
occassional birth noted). 1881 census is available for free. The transcribed 
parish records are likely to be fairly accurate with limitations on there 
coverage. The uploaded family trees should be treated with care.

http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/ website is pay per view with other 
transcripts of some parish records and censuses with indexes.

Linux software again is varied but probably the commonest is Gramps 
http://www.gramps-project.org.

On the topic of freedom of the National Archives, you will find that the 
digital data seems to be owned by either S&N or SteppingStones (actually just 
been bought by S&N). They have paid for the digital scans and so copyright is 
theirs. Their disks are in PDF format, but the transcribed indexes which you 
can search for are done by people who have bought the disks, but the 
copyright is with S&N.
IANAL, but it does look as though a national resource is now owned by a 
company!

Looking at the pdf of the Philimores Cornish registers, each page appears to 
be made up of alternative thin stripes, so copying text is harder than it 
should be.

Both Ancestry and FindMyPast are free to access if you use the machines at the 
National Archives at Kew.

John

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