As many of you already know I am a great supporter of the UKBMD sites, having transcribed for both CHS and LAN, plus done other work for YKS. Some of you may be aware that CHS has recently reorganised their registration districts and this week Bob Kirk (whose permission I have to forward his email) has been alerted that one of the registrars wishes for some information to be removed from the CHS BMD website. I urge all list members to follow Bob's advice and email the registrar concerned and also, if a UK resident to send your local MP a copy. Hopefully if enough of us rally and MPs become involved the registrar in question will be forced to rethink his decision. I have emailed the same message to both the email addresses given below and am happy to share (privately) my email for anyone who might want a model-but mine is VERY forceful and does NOT mince words so be warned :-) Thanks for your anticipated support at keeping our records in the public domain. Best wishes Sherry Landa (in sunny-yes sunny, Oxford, UK) Bob's message: Basically the Registrar responsible for the New administrative area of East Cheshire (formerly Macclesfield) has asked that ALL the Maiden Names and Ages at Death be removed from the CheshireBMD web site for those areas for which he has now taken over.  This data has been collated by a team of volunteers working in the Register Office who have been able to check it against the original registers. It is a worrying precedent that this Registrar is trying to establish.  Much of the information is already in the Public Domain and published by the General Records Office in their indexes.  In the case of deaths, the age at death is given post March 1866 and for Births the maiden names appears post September 1911.  However he has asked that ALL this data be removed thus reducing the usefulness of the CheshireBMD index and there is always the possibility that other Registrars might follow his lead. Can I suggest that anyone who feels sufficiently strong over this matter or would like to add wait to our argument, emails the Register Offices in question and complains over the removal of this data.  If they get sufficient complaints they might just change their minds.  If you know the address of your local Cheshire councillor it might help to drop them a line also. The two email addresses are: CREWEREGISTEROFFICE@cheshireeast.gov.uk MacclesfieldRegisterOffice@cheshire.gov.uk Thanks for your support. Bob Kirk Dukinfield Cheshire