Hallo Ann I am sure we are all very grateful to Sir Humphrey for his careful explanation...... Many thanks for passing this on.  I wonder if this means that the petition had some effect and whether this project will see the light of day, given that the time scale for the next stage is the fourth quarter of 2010, ie after the general election. Let's hope so. Hilary > Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 07:41:34 -0000 > From: "Ann Sargeant" <ann.sargeant@ntlworld.com> > Subject: [SRY] GRO Digitisation Project > To: "Eng-Surrey@rootsweb.com" > <ENG-SURREY@rootsweb.com> > Message-ID: > <1EDB9F53C3CE4A329FB94DE83C497AEE@HomePC> > Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; > charset="iso-8859-1"; >     reply-type=response > >  This news will doubtless be of interest to Surrey > researchers. > >  The General Register Office has just announced that the > digitisation of > GRO's >  births, marriages and deaths records is moving forward and > a new project, >  called the Digitisation and Indexing (D&I) Project, > has been initiated. > >  The new project covers the digitisation of the records > themselves together >  with indexing and upgrading the online certificate > ordering process. The >  digitisation page on the IPS corporate website has been > updated and further >  details including a Q & A can be accessed via >  http://www.ips.gov.uk/cps/rde/xchg/ips_live/hs.xsl/1090.htm > >  Ann > Surrey Admin >