Just received the below in the Essex RO monthly E-bulletin, which may be of interest: Pay-to-Browse Launch Essex Record Office will be launching Essex Ancestors on 30 August. This new service will offer unlimited pay-to-browse access to Essex parish registers and many wills, giving customers fuller and wider access to our holdings from the comfort of their homes. Parish register coverage will extend from at least 1538 to 1837 with the period 1837 to the present partly included at go-live date or planned imminently. Marriages within the last 50 years will be excluded, in compliance with government guidelines, however. Parish register and will images will become available for 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 6 months or 1 year according to the user's need or preference, but we are pleased to say that access to the images will be free in the ERO Searchroom. We look forward to your future comments (e mail: <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]) and hope that this new departure will help mitigate our savings in the new financial climate.

It certainly appears that more records are to be digitalised which will be good. The Newsletter said that the charges which will help mitigate ERO savings in the new financial climate. Firstly there is no indication of the prices- presumably if they are to be sufficient to mitigate ERO savings the charges will be more than tokens Secondly -At first glance it appears that from August there will be a charge to view the digital images of wills and parish registers that we currently enjoy free of charge. BUT It could mean that the records are being transcribed and so the transcribed records will be available on subscription and we will continue free access to the current digitalised BMD. It will be really sad to lose free access to these records. Will it also include the other digital items such as photos. Can anyone clarify what will be charged for and what will be free as there is nothing on the website yet. Other interesting things in the newsletter are that the Friends of Historic Essex have funded the purchase from the National Archives of a DVD of the pre-1937 Nonconformist records and registers for Essex. This DVD replaces the worn and damaged microfilms recently removed from the searchroom drawers. Please ask staff for access to the DVD and DVD drive. Jenny Butler, Principal Archivist, retired from Essex Record Office on 29 June, after 37 years service The Essex Sound and Video Archive has just received its 600^th accession * * >