Hi List This news was in my Southern Cross Genealogy newsletter. Should be of interest to all. Regards Cheryl 3. Victorian BDM Charges Family historians might be interested in a reply received by a subscriber here, to a query on the cost of using the Victorian Historical Index on line, considering that it was put together by volunteers). Here's an extract . make of it what you will . QUOTE Access to birth, death and marriage records in Australia has never been free of charge in 150 years. The historical index search service on maxi is now giving access to these indexes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, extending their availability to a much wider clientele than previously and it is cheaper than any other method of access. A major effort has been put in to quality assurance of these indexes with the result that they are recognised by genealogical experts as the most reliable and comprehensive family history indexes in Australasia. As an example of the difference, New South Wales indexes lack the mother's maiden name, a vital search field for tracing births. The cost of producing these indexes includes the development and maintenance of software, the cost of commercial data entry to supplement volunteer effort, and the ongoing cost of using the maxi site. The revenue earned is used, inter alia, for both core business improvements and the imaging of historic records. As a result of using this income to improve services, it has been possible to abolish priority fees for certificates and reduce certificate fees across the board to a flat $17.00, the cheapest in Australia by a substantial margin. Providing such services free of charge would simply mean that they could not have been developed in the first place, and new services could not be provided in the future. As far as we can ascertain, the New South Wales Registry is the only one that is currently providing a free family history service on the Internet. The search facility is free for a trial period only, as advised on the site, to gauge public opinion on its value and I understand a fee based system is proposed in the future. I hope this goes some way towards helping you understand the need to charge for this service. UNQUOTE Mmmmmmmmmm . ? What do you think ? Cheryl Hower Mandurah WA Australia researching** Hauer/Hower**Burgess**Teare**Beecken**Farr**Castle**Schocroft**O'Meara**