I've also just come across something I find slightly concerning and am interested in others views. Am I just being too paranoid about these things? Ancestry have a searchable index for birth certificates from 1984 to 2004. I can find both my grandchildren in it, both born this century. Given that this gives their year of birth mothers maiden name and the area where registered (which is likely to be where they still live) this seems to me to breach generally recommended rules for both publishing information on children as well as family trees. It's a funny index as it doesn't seem appear in any list they databases but appears when you do a full search. Regards Peter Wharton

>>I've also just come across something I find slightly concerning and am interested in others views. Am I just being too paranoid about these things? Ancestry have a searchable index for birth certificates from 1984 to 2004. I can find both my grandchildren in it, both born this century. Given that this gives their year of birth mothers maiden name and the area where registered (which is likely to be where they still live) this seems to me to breach generally recommended rules for both publishing information on children as well as family trees. It's a funny index as it doesn't seem appear in any list they databases but appears when you do a full search. Regards Peter Wharton<<< Its been around a while, also on 1837 you can search very much up to date too! both are subscription sites so maybe its not too bad, in so much as its not open to unscrupulous people? Mellie How Come My Coat Of Arms Has Buckles At The Back?

This is slightly more direct than 1837 (or the equivalent Ancestry facility) in that the search result displays the actual information where as 1837 just aims you at possible images. I agree being a pay site does help stopping for example normal search engines finding the data, but as far as I know they don't vet anybody joining up. I may be being unduly sensitive about this but it seems to me that the aggregating of web base information from multiple sites is a potential concern in these days of identification theft and also given the recommended publication of information re children. I have for example just moved my family tree and some photos from being publicly available to needing a password on my family web site I think I may write to the Data Protection Office re this just to see how they respond. I do however agree with Yorkie as well and find the rest of ancestry extremely useful Cheers Peter

Now this will make everyone laugh A couple of years ago I went up to Dudley Reg Office for my gr? grandparents wedding cert ( now hold your breathes ) of 1843 I had the date , church year , but I wanted to know who my Thomas Rounds father was , I filled in the form paid my money over they checked to see if they had got it them I asked them if they would tell me what was the grooms fathers christen name , they turned round and told me that it was data protected and where not allowed to tell me till it was sent to me in the post I could hardly believe this , it took a week and half to come and I repeated phoned them about it not coming Cassy ----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Wharton" <peter@wharton-family.org> To: <ENG-BLACK-COUNTRY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 5:39 PM Subject: [B.C.] > I've also just come across something I find slightly concerning and am > interested in others views. Am I just being too paranoid about these > things? > > > > Ancestry have a searchable index for birth certificates from 1984 to 2004. > I can find both my grandchildren in it, both born this century. Given that > this gives their year of birth mothers maiden name and the area where > registered (which is likely to be where they still live) this seems to me > to > breach generally recommended rules for both publishing information on > children as well as family trees. It's a funny index as it doesn't seem > appear in any list they databases but appears when you do a full search. > > > > Regards > > > > Peter Wharton > > > > ==== ENG-BLACK-COUNTRY Mailing List ==== > The Assistant List Admins are Jean Morgan and Jan Ross > (Couldn't do it without those two great ladies) > > >