PROJECTS OVERVIEW

Hi there!

Hopefully you are reading this page because you are interested in family history - specifically in Cambridgeshire - and would like to give a little something back for all the hard work that has been put into preserving records in the past.

There is still a lot of work to do……

Accessibility, accessibility, accessibility…..

There is the matter of the original records – many of these are fragile and use of them needs to be kept to the absolute minimum. This is not to restrict individuals from following their hobby, but an attempt to make sure that the documents are preserved for the next thousand years or so…..

Then there is accessibility. Family historians live all over the world and many cannot afford to travel to Cambridgeshire for research, and if they can then time is generally limited.

Plus there are people even living within the county who are disabled or they have small children or they are without transport, or working at the times that the Record Offices are open.

Then there is the very important point that the Record Offices are under great pressure, and there just wouldn't be seats for everyone.…….

Plus transcribing and indexing records also increases the speed of access.

And there is accessibility in terms of experience – many registers, especially for the early years, are badly written, some are in secretary hand some in Latin. By transcribing and making as good a job as we can, we hope we are making documents accessible to all.

It does cost money to transcribe records. Once upon a time very skilled transcribers would sit in a Record Office and do all the work themselves at virtually no cost.

In Cambridgeshire we had a wonderful man named Peter Layng who transcribed dozens of registers, unfortunately Peter died some years ago. His daughter has very kindly given the Society permission to publish his work for the benefit of all.

Now most of those people work as professional genealogists, doing research for people all over the world, though we do have very good relationships with several professionals who are willing to do small pieces of work for us, for free.

So we have to rely on the members of our society to do the work. Those who are within regular travelling distance of Cambridge tend to do the organising, and the bulk of the work is sent out by post to volunteers all over the world.

Consequently our postage costs are astronomical!

We also have the photocopying costs, stationery and peoples expenses (although many people do not claim these).

In addition we have some larger expenses – we are currently working on computerising the indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths at Cambridge and Ely Registrar’s Offices and since the records cannot be taken away from the office, we have in each case provided a laptop for the work.

Since we are a Registered Charity, the committee decided that we should not expect the general membership to be paying for these costs, and that Projects should be self-financing – and so the transcriptions are sold on microfiche and increasingly on CD-Rom.

Having said that we do give hardcopies of all transcriptions to Cambridge Record Office, and to any other library or museum that requests them. (These Offices will do simple lookups for free – just write to them!)

Another long running discussion concerns the use of microfiche versus computer formats.

For those new to the hobby it may be difficult to understand the use of microforms, however fiche and film readers have been the accepted media for the hobby for many, many years, and many people now own the equipment.

We have been continuing with this trend and sales of fiche prove that many people are happy with it.

However researchers are increasingly asking for information on CD-Rom.

Our major problem has been and is the software format that could be used on the CD. Many people are used to the brilliance of the Viewers used by the LDS on the 1881 CDs, and we spent a lot of time talking to the LDS. At one time it seemed as if they would allow us to use their software and pay a royalty, but at the end of the day they said no!

Finally in the last few years software has become available, and along with it expertise, and we are steadily increasing the number of CDs available.

We do still choose to publish on microfiche first, there are two reasons for this at present – one is the backlog of material to be converted to a suitable format. The other is that we do like to put the material out for comment first, so that any mistakes can be corrected.

An allied subject to this is the question of copyright. This is a very complicated subject, and one it would take lawyers rich!! I should stress that it is British Copyright Law which we have to follow, and what is Law in other countries, may well not be valid for our publications.

The copyright of the transcriptions is the property of the CFHS – our volunteers did the work and signed all rights over to us. However a certain element still belongs to the Church from whom the registers came – and they have given us permission to transcribe and publish. In some cases the incumbents (ministers) have made stipulations – such as that the transcription should not be available on the Internet.

In addition there are some transcripts that were done by individuals who have themselves kept the copyright.

The transcriptions of censuses are the copyright of the society – there being no ownership issue with the original.

Firstly we have a team of people who are allowed to go to the Cambridge Record Office on alternate Mondays when it is closed to the public.

These people photocopy or copy from microfilm the material to be transcribed.

They also do various checking of difficult documents, and generally clear up any problems and queries we may have.

The material is then sent out to a variety of volunteers- most by post though some is delivered or collected from the Record Office. The volunteers might be typing from transcripts, transcribing from originals.

When this material is returned the files are printed for checking. This is possibly the most important process – ensuring the accuracy of our transcriptions.

When the document has been checked the whole lot is sent to yet another volunteer who compares the various copies of the document, changes the computer file and checks for compatibility. They also highlight any queries which will be taken back to the Record Office for checking.

Note that most volunteers work on parts of a document, not the whole thing, so the various computer files have to be reconciled.

We then check for other copies of the register or relevant allied documents – Bishop’s Transcripts, Phillimore’s Indexes etc. This information is compared and incorporated into the transcription.

The queries are then dealt with, the whole checked again, especially for omissions, and final layout and indexing done.

The document is then produced on microfiche for our Bookstall to sell. The records are also (eventually) added to our Baptism, Marriage and Burial Indexes, the National Burial Index and to the Family History Online site.

Local Record Offices and libraries receive free copies in whatever format they request – either hardcopy or microfiche. Copies are also sent to the parish.

Eventually everything we produce will also be produced on CD-Rom – please note that EVENTUALLY!

Many other societies both at home and abroad have standing orders with our bookstall to purchase anything we publish.

Parish Registers

This is and will be an ongoing job. A majority of parishes in the county have had some transcription done, but generally only to the early 1800s. The majority typewritten.

So we have a variety of tasks here –

The transcription of the as yet untouched parishes. They are still waiting generally for a reason – that they are very difficult, very large, parts are missing or the books are still with the church. We have some very experienced transcribers working on the early parts of these parishes, or any parts with difficult handwriting.

"Filling in" – transcribing the missing 19th and 20th century material. This is generally fairly easy handwriting and laid out in printed books. We are taking the line that we will transcribe everything that is available, but at this time we will publish up to 1950. (There are Data Protection Act and ethical issues to be considered here).

Inputting to computer the typewritten transcriptions. For inclusion in the Indexes, the National Burial Index, Family History Online, CD-Roms and for any future use the society may have for them.

Experienced volunteers may request specific parishes to work on, but it is really a matter of luck whether the work is available, or has already been completed, or is too difficult for the individual’s ability.

Registrar’s Project

We are helping the Registrar’s at Cambridge & Ely to input their indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths onto computer.

These are slightly different to the GRO indexes – although compiled from the same information they are two separate, originally hand-written indexes.

The website went online in 2001 and anyone is able to search the material so far input, this will automatically fill in your order form and take your money – certificates should be despatched within one working day!

Work on this project needs to be done at the Registrar’s Office in either Cambridge or Ely. The work is on a laptop, keying into a simple Excel program.

Non Conformist Registers

We are aiming to transcribe all the extant registers of non-conformist churches and chapels in Cambridgeshire, or which have Cambridgeshire people in them. (For example Haverhill Old Meeting, Mildenhall Method Circuit).

One collection of registers is already available on fiche, and more will follow.

Baptist records are a particular problem as most of the records are still with the churches. At some point we will need to address that question.

Monumental Inscriptions.

There has been an extensive program of work over many years, and a very impressive amount of work has been completed.

Almost all of this is typewritten and needs to be computerized.

We also hope to review what cemeteries and graveyards remain unrecorded and instigate a plan for completing the exercise.

A co-ordinator is required for this work.

National Burial Index

A large quantity of material is available on the current CD, and will be continuously added to as work is completed.

Census

Now that the 1841, 1851 & 1861 censuses transcriptions are complete and are available on searchable CDRoms, as well as by individual parish on microfiche.

In addition various parts of the 1871, 1891 and 1901 have been transcribed and are available on microfiche. This work is on going.

• For anyone who can get to Cambridge or Ely on a regular or semi-regular basis – work on computerising the Births in Cambridge and Ely Registrar’s Offices. There will need to be a rota, as obviously only one person can work at each place at a time. This will involve typing records from the index books into Excel on our laptop computers. The information will go online shortly, when the website has been finished by the County Council people…..

• People with database expertise

• Anyone with knowledge and expertise in the area of old handwriting (especially pre 1800) and/or secretary hand is worth their weight in diamonds! Work both transcribing and checking.

• Typing from hand-written or ordinary typed documents - not strictly transcribing, although some of the handwriting is not too good. A specialist (but simple!) computer program is used for this work.

• Checking, proof reading, checking - whatever you would like to call it… Possibly the most important job of all!!

• Some work scanning

• Finishing off – doing minute checking, altering computer files, preparing layouts etc.

• Monumental Inscriptions – a co-ordinator is needed to plan the completion of county coverage of graveyards, cemeteries etc.

• Committee jobs. We always welcome new committee members - not necessarily to take on a specific job in the first instance. More important is finding some people who can attend meetings near Cambridge.

• Ideas for new projects are always welcome – though you may be expected to organise at least some part of it!!