On reflection maybe this is about not causing embarisment to people who might for example discover they are illegitimate or that their father was not their father.
David
----
Dr David Alan Gatley
Award Leader, Sociology
Faculty of Arts, Media and Design
Staffordshire University
College Road
Stoke-on-Trent
ST4 2DE
________________________________________
From: From: Local-History list [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Duncan Amos [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 22 April 2011 15:01
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [LOCAL-HISTORY] More government knee-jerk?
Hi All
Being back over from Spain for a couple of weeks researching I discovered yesterday that a whole heap of records that I wanted to access I now can't because of a paedophile in Wales having sparked a total blanket application of 100 year closure on school and other records.
Nobody at Surrey History Centre (Woking) was particularly clear on what was going on as they had only been told of it on Tuesday. Does anybody know what's actually happening and whether there is any way for legitimate research to continue?
I'm looking at a village that simply did not exist prior to 1846, gained its first school in 1862, acquired a boy's school in 1883 and had the girls and infants merged in with the boys in 1933. It moved the first class of children 'over the road' to the new school in 1962, closed the old school completely in the mid 80s and sprouted a completely new additional school at around the same time... The school records (scant as they are with the log books having been 'lost') are the only reliable names lists between the census dates. Those name lists show us an enormous amount about family life in the village, how far people moved, how other 'branches' of the family suddenly appear (often as a result of an elderly relative dying and leaving a property - the clue which we wouldn't obtain easily any other way) and things like that. Now we are faced with a 'cut-off' that makes no sense...
Having seen and photographed the Admissions register covering the years 1907 to 1924 and arranged with the school to jointly publish it as a faximile for the upcoming 150th anniversary of the first school, we now, presumably cannot do that. Am I in danger of being raided by the police because I have a copy? Is the school breaking the law by having a reproduction copy in their 'history box' (replacing the original) which the clildren refer to in their history lessons?
We had children evacuated to the village during both world wars and the school records are the only sensible method of noting their existence, approximately when they arrived to swell the village numbers, what sort of cultural influences they may have brought to our little bit of Surrey and when they left us - and yes, I'll admit, their names and ages. However a five year old in 1945 is now going to be 71 years old, so hardly prey for a paedophile!
It seems that legitimate research is being sacrificed on the altar of government over-reaction. Surely the fact that every item that I request at an archive is logged against my name, address, passport number, inside leg measurement and whatever data can be derived, should be sufficient to flag "this person has accessed sensitive information" and for the authorities to follow that up if necessary and take appropriate action if there is cause for concern. Far better, I would think, that we as legitimate historical researchers should have the odd contact from the 'department for political correctness' that have records denied to us on a blanket basis - records that may often be the only source of information.
It seems - by implication - that, as I understand it from what little I've been able to discover so far, it may now be illegal to print a school sports day programme containing childrens names as that would link them to the school and that local newspapers may be on dodgy ground if they print a list of the fancy dress winners at the local fete and show them in an age-related category - the list is endless...
Do we have to just sit back and take this or can we make our objections known somehow?
Duncan Amos
Oatlands Heritage Group
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