My understanding that it's 50p to see an entry in the index, which will only
give name and place (census place I think, not birth place), with no age
etc, so everyone will inevitably have to request several entries (with no
hope of being able to afford to find John Smith). I hope I have this wrong
or someone at the PRO has had second thoughts. The entries themselves will
be digitised copies of enumerators' pages available over the Internet at 80p
per entry (or page - not sure what happens if a household goes over to next
page) with £5 minimum. Payment by credit card. Bad enough for family
historians, but for local historians wanting a whole village, never mind a
town, very expensive. However, local record offices and libraries will be
allowed to buy the fiche for their county and we shall have to hope they
will - most local historians (unlike family historians) are interested in
the area where they live or close to them, so perhaps not too bad and
perhaps little different to system for, e.g., 1891. The other concern is the
people undertaking the task though, for what value is an incorrect index?
Enumerators' writing is not always easy to read and the transcibers and
indexers are being supplied by the Enterprise Supplies Agency, an agency of
the prison service. So will they be prisoners with no experience (perhaps a
short 'course' on Victorian palaeography) and no interest in what they are
doing?
Pam Fisher
Leicester
-----Original Message-----
From: David Gatley <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 31 January 2000 08:45
Subject: 1901 CEBs
>Dear All,
>
>I've had some muddled emails concerning the availability of
>the 1901 CEBs.
>
>Apparently, these are to be both microfilmed and scanned
>into digital form.
>
>However, my impression is that the digital version of the
>film will only be available for a charge of 80p per page,
>which I find outrageous. Most family historians like to
>place there own work into context i.e. they like to view
>their family in its wider local setting.
>
>I understand that special provisions are to be made for
>academics and that libraries and other bodies can still buy
>microfiche copies. But, they will NOT BE SOLD TO
>INDIVIDUALS and one wonders how many libraries will buy the
>CEBs on film?
>
>MY concern is that, LOCAL HISTORY IS A FIELD WHERE THE
>AMATEUR CAN DOES MAKE A VERY IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION. Such
>proposals will therefore be bad for those studying local
>history. I find the proposals, if true, to be intolerable.
>
>David Alan Gatley (Dr)
>
>
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