With the consent of BC Rootsweb Admin I forward a message that I think concerns all of us. "Family History Online" has closed down. Pat > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "John Addis-Smith" <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Sunday, March 01, 2009 6:50 PM > Subject: [NTH] Loss of Online Records from Family History Online > > >> At 1pm BST tomorrow Monday 2 March 2009 the Federation of Family History >> Societies (FFHS) run web site Family History Online (FHOL) is closing >> down. Many of the millions of records on that site have been transferred >> to FindMyPast (FMP) - but millions have not! >> >> Those records that have not been transferred will usually still be >> available for searching from the original contributing Family History >> Society, but not as an online resource with all the advantages of >> being able to look at lists of search results from which to choose the >> most likely candidates, etc. The loss of the online census records >> will not be so bad as there are copies online elsewhere though >> probably not as accurate in many cases. The loss of millions of >> online burial, marriage and baptism index records is another matter >> entirely . . . Certainly there are some alternative online resources >> such as FreeReg, but for most counties this will not come close to the >> numbers of similar records that have been on FHOL. >> >> The list of all the FHOL databases, annotated to show those that are >> not being transferred, can be found at: >> http://www.familyhistoryonline.net/database/index.shtml >> >> Northamptonshire has not been affected but other counties such as >> Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire have. >> >> Unfortunately, after the initial announcement in 2007 of the transfer >> of records from FHOL to FMP, and of the batches of subsequent >> transfers to FMP, there has been no publicity outside of the FHOL web >> site, as far as I have found, about either the closure date or the >> loss of the many million online records that are NOT being >> transferred. >> >> I think that the FFHS has slipped up badly in not advising the public >> of the true state of the (non) data transfer between FHOL and FMP . . > >> Cheers, John > >