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Oh dear! Catherine's posting seems to bring bad news and herald the start of an unwelcome (and unhelpful, surely) turf war brought about by increased pressure to maximise income. The surprise, perhaps, is that this question has been so long in coming. As a former Diocesan Archivist and later Director of the Church of England Record Centre, I would say that there has always been an acknowledged anomaly here - but the position of the Church does need to be seen (legalistically if necessary) in the context of the Parochial Registers and Record Measure as well as the Marriage Act 1949. Three brief observations: 1. It seems vital to me that there is co-ordinated action here, by offices holding marriage registers acting together in harmony with the Churches (in Wales / of England etc) and the relevant central church bodies 2. There must be scope for seeing deposited marriage registers in the context of delegated responsibilities and rights from the Church - in very simple terms that repositories permit access and take fees on the same terms as if the records remained at the church (so the parishes assign rights to the repository and - crucially - there is no diversion of income from the registration service) 3. There needs to be a calculation of costs incurred by repositories in providing storage and access facilities for these records. Nobody - either the Registrar or the Church - should be allowed to think that repositories are reaping unwarranted benefits here. Hasty thoughts. But good luck to those who take up the cudgels on this. Users long accustomed to having access to church copies of the registers will, I'm sure, regard any tightening in established arrangements as an unwelcome and unacceptable change. -- Chris Pickford 4 Walmsley Court, High Street, Kinver, DY7 6HG Tel: 01384 878435 or (mobile) 07811 453525 E-mail: [log in to unmask] or (interchangeably) [log in to unmask] Contact the list owner for assistance at [log in to unmask] For information about joining, leaving and suspending mail (eg during a holiday) see the list website at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=archives-nra