Quoting Lucille Hambling <l.hambling@ntlworld.com>: > I would like to ask purely out of curiosity (I promise no ulterior motives) > where do the scans come from and why don't they come through in ascending > order of year? Various sources! Marriages 1866-1900 largely from Darryl Bonk of Canada who scanned films held by his FHS Births/Deaths 1866-1900 films bought by FreeBMD and scanned by our contacts. 1837-1865, second hand films bought by Ancestry and Scanned by them. Many of the films in this range are poor quality and unsuitable for scanning. They will eventually be replaced by FreeBMD purchased films. Early films contain 40/80 names per page, as opposed to 325 for later years, which means that it cost a LOT more to buy them and longer to scan them. We are embarking on a project *NOW* to complete scanning in a logical order. We can do this now because we are in a sufficiently stable financial position to do so. The plan is; 1) Install additional hardware to handle the extra scans 2) Complete scanning of all years all events from 1910 to 1866 working backwards. 3) Complete scanning of all years marriages 1865 to 1837 marriages working backwards, including replacing scans of poor quality 4) Likewise for Births and Deaths 5) Start to work forwards from 1911. This may seem a slightly odd order, but it is designed to ensure that we keep a sufficient stock of scanned images on hand at all times. Timescales are always difficult, but current guess is; New hardware on-line by end October Source 1866-1910 on-hand by same time 1866-1910 scans available gradually from November to January 1837-1856 marriage source on hand by early January 1837-1856 scans available February - June 2004 Beyond that timescales are too vague to be useful. -- Dave Mayall ---------------------------------------------- This mail sent through http://www.ukonline.net

Thank you Dave for being kind enough to give such an in depth answer. I appreciate it. -------Original Message------- From: Dave Mayall Date: 11 September 2003 15:43:03 To: FREEBMD-DISCUSS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: SCANS Quoting Lucille Hambling <l.hambling@ntlworld.com>: > I would like to ask purely out of curiosity (I promise no ulterior motives) > where do the scans come from and why don't they come through in ascending > order of year? Various sources! Marriages 1866-1900 largely from Darryl Bonk of Canada who scanned films held by his FHS Births/Deaths 1866-1900 films bought by FreeBMD and scanned by our contacts. 1837-1865, second hand films bought by Ancestry and Scanned by them. Many of the films in this range are poor quality and unsuitable for scanning. They will eventually be replaced by FreeBMD purchased films. Early films contain 40/80 names per page, as opposed to 325 for later years, which means that it cost a LOT more to buy them and longer to scan them. We are embarking on a project *NOW* to complete scanning in a logical order. We can do this now because we are in a sufficiently stable financial position to do so. The plan is; 1) Install additional hardware to handle the extra scans 2) Complete scanning of all years all events from 1910 to 1866 working backwards. 3) Complete scanning of all years marriages 1865 to 1837 marriages working backwards, including replacing scans of poor quality 4) Likewise for Births and Deaths 5) Start to work forwards from 1911. This may seem a slightly odd order, but it is designed to ensure that we keep a sufficient stock of scanned images on hand at all times. Timescales are always difficult, but current guess is; New hardware on-line by end October Source 1866-1910 on-hand by same time 1866-1910 scans available gradually from November to January 1837-1856 marriage source on hand by early January 1837-1856 scans available February - June 2004 Beyond that timescales are too vague to be useful. -- Dave Mayall ---------------------------------------------- This mail sent through http://www.ukonline.net ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 .

Sorry Dave about my e-mail on 1851 marriage scans being available. I should have read ALL my mail before mouthing off. As ever you have answered the question admirably. But I am not going to give up the red wine. George -----Original Message----- From: Dave Mayall [mailto:david.mayall@ukonline.co.uk] Sent: 12 September 2003 00:42 To: FREEBMD-DISCUSS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: SCANS Quoting Lucille Hambling <l.hambling@ntlworld.com>: > I would like to ask purely out of curiosity (I promise no ulterior > motives) where do the scans come from and why don't they come through > in ascending order of year? Various sources! Marriages 1866-1900 largely from Darryl Bonk of Canada who scanned films held by his FHS Births/Deaths 1866-1900 films bought by FreeBMD and scanned by our contacts. 1837-1865, second hand films bought by Ancestry and Scanned by them. Many of the films in this range are poor quality and unsuitable for scanning. They will eventually be replaced by FreeBMD purchased films. Early films contain 40/80 names per page, as opposed to 325 for later years, which means that it cost a LOT more to buy them and longer to scan them. We are embarking on a project *NOW* to complete scanning in a logical order. We can do this now because we are in a sufficiently stable financial position to do so. The plan is; 1) Install additional hardware to handle the extra scans 2) Complete scanning of all years all events from 1910 to 1866 working backwards. 3) Complete scanning of all years marriages 1865 to 1837 marriages working backwards, including replacing scans of poor quality 4) Likewise for Births and Deaths 5) Start to work forwards from 1911. This may seem a slightly odd order, but it is designed to ensure that we keep a sufficient stock of scanned images on hand at all times. Timescales are always difficult, but current guess is; New hardware on-line by end October Source 1866-1910 on-hand by same time 1866-1910 scans available gradually from November to January 1837-1856 marriage source on hand by early January 1837-1856 scans available February - June 2004 Beyond that timescales are too vague to be useful. -- Dave Mayall - -------------------------------------------- This mail sent through http://www.ukonline.net ______________________________