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Charges at LDS centres

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Tudor

Tudor Report 21 Sep 2011 21:07

The hike in prices was Salt Lake City had been heavily subsidising films and fiche for a long time.
Hike in prices = drop in numbers using the centre = closure. Apparently one reason given was that most of the users were using it just for Irish ancestry, though why that should be relevant is beyond me.

Kim

Kim Report 21 Sep 2011 20:06

Hi Tudor
They've changed the system in the last couple of years. Films and fiches have to be ordered by creating an account at http://film.familysearch.org.
The cost of hiring films used to be £2.70 and it's now £7.50....a bit galling if you find your forebears have moved on to the next parish or if it's a really big register on scores of films! To be fair, it had been £2.70 for a very long time so I suppose that may not have been economical for them given the price of postage for filmsbut it is still a substantial price hike all in one go. Postage costs should not significantly affect the price of microfiche, however. One of the parishes I wanted was Apethorpe; it is on five fiches, which would have cost 75p under the old system. When I tried to order it today, the price shown was £12 because it is spread over four different reference numbers.

The numbers of folks using the centre in Hull has fallen dramatically since the prices went up: what a surprise! I buy quite a few parish register transcripts on CDs from family history societies now: I can use them at my leisure at home and most of them are very reasonably priced. Unfortunately, very few register transcripts are available for Northants.

Sorry about the closure of the Liverpool centre. I'm doing a tree for a friend with Liverpool roots and had a happy day ferreting about in the library last autumn....should have waited until Ancestry put its Liverpool collection online!

Best wishes

Kim in Hull

Tudor

Tudor Report 21 Sep 2011 19:08

I've used the LDS centre in Liverpool for many years (it's now closed, unfortunately). When we ordered fiche we did it through the centre - and we certainly didn't have to pay £3.00 per fiche. There was never any involvement with web sites. There is an LDS centre in Northampton (or was), have you tried asking them ?

Kim

Kim Report 21 Sep 2011 17:27

Hello all

Has anyone ordered in microfiches to view at LDS centres recently?

Last time I got any - about two years ago - I was charged 15p per fiche. When I enquired last week, I was told that I had to order through the website (and I can see the logic of that) and that there was a flat rate charge of £3, irrespective of the number I needed. I've just tried to order but the checkout is showing £3 per fiche....which, if correct, has completely priced me out of making any progress with my Northants ancestors.

I've emailed them asking what is going on but just wondered if others have recent experience. I can understand a price rise to cover costs but from 15p to £3 seems excessive, particularly as a lot of the pages for the period I'm interested in are illegible in whole or part. :-P

Thanks and best wishes

Kim in Hull