Genealogy Chat

On the Scotland's People (Government) website I am prohibited from viewing or downloading a birth, marriage or death Registrar's entry unless it is at least 100, 75 or 50 years old, respectively. This is supposedly under privacy laws / rules. Yet, if I pay a fee of £12 I can buy any Certificate which was registered TODAY. So, it begs the question - is this really privacy or profit? Any views?

In my opinion it's privacy

I wouldn't want anyone to look at my birth certificate online .not that it has anything to hide but on the basis my info is private to me and my family

To look at info on Scotlands people it's more that the people who you can download births etc are more than likely now passed away

On birth certs under 50 years old on the GRO site you have to have more info than just the GRO ref for privacy and for identity protection

Shirley, I can assure you all you need do to get a Certificate is hit the 'Order' button next to the Index entry and give your Bank Card details. Similarly, if the event was registered locally, you need only walk into the Reg. office and quote the reference.

Regards, Hugh.

Well yes you can order a cert the same as ordering from the GRO BUT only you see the details when the cert is sent. It's not online for everyone to see just by using some units .

It's no different than the GRO where you have to order a cert for its info

Scotlands people is better though for bmds over 100 years old because you can download the info rather than spend to buy a cert that may turn out to be the wrong one anyway

I would think the ScotlandsPeople, rather like the GRO here, although government department, are self funding.

No one ever said tge Famiky History lark would be cheap. I think we all get so much info for free, we want it all for nothing.

;-)

A certificate is a legal document which has to be correctly printed and carefully checked and signed. £12 is not unreasonable for that.

And despite that, they cannot in England or Wales be used for ID purposes, because they can be purchased by anyone. But are needed for so many reasons, not just genealogical. :-S

Scotland's People is a business like any other so of course there has to be an element of profit - on the bottom of their homepage it states "A partnership between the National Records of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon enabled by DC Thomson Family History." (so part of the same company that owns Genes Reunited and FindMyPast). Pretty similar to our National Archives hiving off records to Ancestry & FindMyPast in return for much needed funding.

It's still better value than GRO if you're searching older records.

I side with Privacy, there does need to be a cut off point where FULL information cannot be accessed / seen online, at the same time it wouldn't bother me whether the the GRO or Scotlandspeople were making a profit as well!

I think we Family researchers are VERY lucky to be able to access so many records,& more so nowadays when we can do so from the comfort of our homes, after all the various records were not put in place in the first place to accommodate our "hobby".
It costs a great deal of money to put Records out there & make them so easily accessable, as with ALL hobbies we have to spend money to be able to pursue them.

I don't believe there would be as many researching today IF they were still having to do it as in the "old" days when one had to actually travel to the various Record Offices to find what was required, OR pay RO staff or someone else to do it for you because you lived too far away from the place you needed to research!

Joan.

The National Archives has produced guidelines regarding the use of certificates.

http://tiny.cc/a7v11x

Thanks for all your comments. I'd just like to clarify that I'm not seeking to scrap the privacy rules or get access to the more recent records within my credits. My point is that if the principle is based solely on privacy then these records would not be available AT ALL even if you paid the £12 fee (except to immediate family members). There seems to be a double standard at play.

Hugh.

Because there are no actual privacy laws in this country, certain institutions apply their own 'rules' to cover their backsides.