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The Newsletter of the Family Records Centre (FRC)
Issue 23 Summer 2003 (10th online edition)

Closure Dates in 2003

Monday 25 August (August Bank Holiday)
Wednesday 24 to Saturday 27 December (Christmas)

Thursday 1 January 2004 (New Year's Day)

We're Talking To You!

We've been delighted with the attendance at this year's series of family history talks at the FRC. If you haven't been able to make it to any of the talks so far, there are still another four to come:

As in previous years, there is no advance booking for the talks. Tickets are free and will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis from the New Customers Desk on the first floor on the day of the talk. All the talks will take place in the Meetings Room on the first floor at 2pm and will last for approximately one hour.

It's Your FRC

A new section of the FRC website was launched in May this year. Entitled 'Your FRC', this section contains information about the Customer Surveys carried out at the FRC, provides links to the minutes of our regular User Group meetings and includes an online Feedback Form which allows you to let us know what you think about the services we offer, both onsite and online.

You can access these pages at:

www.familyrecords.gov.uk/frc/your_frc/your_frc_main.htm

Open Evening

An open evening was held in the ground floor refreshment area on Thursday 15 May. Updates were given by the Centre Management on various aspects of the service at the FRC, including options for improving the space around the indexes on the ground floor and developments in the 1901 onsite service. The presentations were followed by a question & answer session:

Q. What progress is being made on the TNA's microfilm programme?
A. The current microfilming programme targets the most popular records for microfilming and over the past 10 years nearly all of the 80% most popular records have been filmed.

Q. Will an alphabetical index of parents' names ever be produced?
A. There are no current plans for this.

Q. If errors are found in the GRO indexes are they corrected?
A. Yes they are, but it can be a lengthy process, as the error has to be checked and then both the Master and FRC copies corrected.

Q. Are the GRO indexes going to be re-indexed in the future?
A. No, due to the impact of the Registration Review there are no plans to amend the indexes.

Q. Why are records at the Register Offices more complete than GRO?
A. Register offices send copies of registrations to GRO and the indexes are formulated from these. If there are errors/omissions in the entries and they are identified then GRO will correct them.

Q. Because of noise levels and the difficulty in hearing would it be possible to find a different venue for future open evenings?
A. Apologies were given and it was agreed that a different venue would be sought in the future.

Coach Parties

The FRC welcomes coach parties and other large groups and we usually have no problems in accommodating them. But you can help us to make your visit successful by letting us know in advance if you are planning to bring a group. This will help to avoid the congestion caused by having several large parties trying to use our facilities at the same time. Details of forthcoming coach party visits are publicised at the FRC on a noticeboard in the lower ground floor and also on our website at:

www.familyrecords.gov.uk/frc/visits/coach_parties.htm

The electronic Family Record

This is the tenth edition of the FRC's quarterly newsletter to be available in electronic format. Over 3,000 subscribers to the Family Record now receive their copy by email rather than by post. This represents a significant saving to the FRC both in postage costs and in staff time - savings which can help us to improve our services in other areas.

If you are an existing postal subscriber and would like to receive future copies of the Family Record by email, simply send an email to:

FRC-Newsletter@nationalarchives.gov.uk

with the word 'Subscribe' in the subject heading.

Customer Surveys

A big thank you to all those who took part in our Customer Survey earlier this month. The results will be published in the next issue of the Family Record as well as in the 'Your FRC' section of our website.

Out and About

Staff from the FRC have already attended a number of Family History Fairs this year. If you haven't been able to come along to talk to us at any of these events there will be some more opportunities over the next few months.

The FRC will be at:

• The Great North Fair, Gateshead (Saturday 13 September)
• The National Archives Open Day, Kew (Saturday 20 September)
• The London Maze, Guildhall Art Gallery (Saturday 11 October)
• GRO Open Days, Southport (Saturday 15 & 22 November)

News From The GRO, Southport

Registration Review

The Government's consultation document Civil Registration: Delivering Vital Change was published on 10 July. This is the first step in the process necessary to change registration legislation. The framework for reform was outlined in the white paper Civil Registration: Vital Change published in January last year.

The legislative changes are to be made under the powers contained in the Regulatory Reform Act 2001. This requires the appropriate minister - in the case of ONS, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury - to consult with all interested parties about the proposals before presenting them to Parliament for detailed scrutiny.

The consultation paper proposes a wide range of changes including:

• enabling people to register births and deaths on-line and by telephone (subject to certain safeguards) as well as in person
• providing couples with greater choice of where and when they can marry
• providing new arrangements for collection of statistical information, and recording and accessing registration information.

Once the law is changed a central database will be created for new registrations of births, marriages and deaths. Existing records will, over time, be computerised and added to the database. The consultation paper also proposes that information from historic records - those relating to people born over 100 years ago - should be fully open to everyone. For computerised records of people born less than 100 years ago everyone would also be able to see most of the recorded information, with restrictions proposed on who may access information on address, occupation and cause of death.

For records of people born less than 100 years ago, restricting access to some information rather than the whole record is seen as the best way to balance the protection of personal information with the public interest in that information. The proposals allow open access to most of the information whilst restricting that which is considered more personal or which could cause embarrassment or distress to those named or their relatives.

In parallel with the computerisation of registration information, it is likely that some local authorities will wish to move the original registers to record offices for storage. Although local authorities will have some flexibility in this respect it is widely acknowledged that the registers are an important source of historic and legal information and need to be preserved.

The closing date for responses is 24 October 2003. Full details of the proposed changes, together with information on how to respond, are set out in the consultation document, the full text of which can be found on the ONS website at:

www.statistics.gov.uk/registration

Printed copies are on sale at the FRC (price £10) or can be obtained by sending a cheque made payable to "ONS" to:

Civil Registration Review Consultation
General Register Office
Room 126, Smedley Hydro
Trafalgar Road
Southport
PR8 2HH

Payment by credit card is also available by telephoning 0151 471 4514.

The Civil Registration Review Team will be giving talks on the consultation document at the FRC. These will include a presentation on the main proposals and the legislative process that will be used to deliver the reform as well as a question and answer session.

The talks will take place at the FRC at 3.30pm on Thursday 11 and Thursday 18 September 2003. Each talk will last for approximately one and a half hours. Places are limited and an advanced booking system will be in operation. You will be able to book a place from 1 September 2003 by telephoning 020 7533 6457 between 9.30 and 12.30 on Mondays and Wednesdays only. Further information will be displayed at the FRC closer to the time.

The Review Team will also be giving a presentation at the Family History Conference, hosted by Essex Family History Society at the University of Essex on Sunday 31 August between 14.00 and 16.00. Further details can be found on the Essex Family History website at:

www.esfh.org.uk/Conference_2003/Conference%20Details.htm.

On Line Ordering of Certificates

GRO have recently developed a secure site for online ordering of birth, marriage and death certificates. This can be used to place orders using the GRO Index reference and for certificates in the twentieth century where the exact details are known. The site is currently available to UK only residents and will be opened up to international customers once further tests have been completed. For further information visit the National Statistics website at:

www.statistics.gov.uk/registration

Certificate Services Delivery Targets

Our performance is measured against a number of targets on a monthly basis. The following table details our performance for the period April to June 2003 in just some of the areas monitored.

* The target in each area is for 90% of applications to be processed within four working days.

An unprecedented increase in receipts in March 2003 led to applications being delayed in April. Although the percentage of applications despatched within the Certificate Services targets was low in this month, applications were, in the main, only one day behind target. Overall, 89.9% of certificate applications received were despatched within the set targets.

A total of 253,416 certificate applications were made to GRO in the quarter ending June 2003, representing an 18% increase on the figures for the same period in 2002/2003.

Southport Open Days

GRO Open Days are taking place on Saturday 15 and Saturday 22 November 2003 in Southport. The format will be similar to a Family History Fair - various branches will have stands providing useful literature and there will be an opportunity to talk to representatives from the Family Records Centre. There will also be guided tours around Certificate Services branch with working demonstrations of the certificate production process. Places are limited and must be booked in advance. Anyone interested in attending should phone Maddi Brammah or Honora Ormesher on 0151 471 4530/4419.

News From The National Archives, Kew

New in the Reading Rooms

WO 121: Royal Hospital, Chelsea: Discharge Documents of Pensioners, 1782-1887. These records are now all available in the microfilm reading room with the exception of pieces 184, 223 and 224, which will be added as soon as possible.

WO 121 contains certificates of service (pieces 1-136), arranged chronologically according to the date the pension was awarded. A name index has been created by the Friends of the PRO and this is now accessible through The National Archives online catalogue, PROCAT. The Friends will continue to index this material from piece WO 121/137-257 onwards (General Discharge Registers) and the resulting data will be uploaded into PROCAT over the next year.

New in the Bookshop

An updated and expanded edition of the bestselling guide The Genealogist's Internet will be published by The National Archives in early September.

Written by Peter Christian, one of the UK's foremost experts on online genealogy and editor of the Internet News pages in Ancestors magazine, this is the essential guide to making the most of the numerous resources available to family historians via the web. Designed primarily for UK researchers, The Genealogist's Internet explains how the Internet works for the beginner, and details the major sources of primary data available online. Use it to contact others with the same surname or to access the many forums, discussion groups, mailing lists and newsgroups focusing on genealogy.

This new revised edition, now expanded by over 35%, contains additional material on the developments in online services since 2001 in key areas such as censuses, wills, and birth, marriage and death records, as well as subjects such as historical maps, immigrant communities and standards for online purchasing.

Priced £10.99, The Genealogist's Internet will be available from September from all good bookshops, including the Family Records Centre and The National Archives at Kew, or by phoning Publications Marketing on 020 8392 5271.

Further information

If you would like more information about any of the items in this newsletter please telephone us on 0845 603 7788 (GRO enquiries) or 0208 392 5300 (TNA enquiries) or visit our website at:

www.familyrecords.gov.uk/frc

To subscribe to the electronic version of the Family Record please send an email to:

FRC-Newsletter@nationalarchives.gov.uk

with the word 'Subscribe' in the subject heading.

The Family Record is jointly produced by the General Register Office (GRO) and The National Archives