I am amazed at the work some of you put in to help others like myself who do not have the time or understanding of the record series and origins. We are constantly told that we should go to the original source for confirmation of the indexes etc., and when there is no information about where the particular site gleaned the records that rule becomes a bit of a joke. Having said that, we must be thankful that the records are available online - or some anyway ! My grateful thanks to you all. Diane On Sun, Jan 31, 2016 at 11:46 AM, Keith Drage via <norfolk@rootsweb.com> wrote: > Looks to me like nobody has answered the original posters question, > possibly because > - to be accurate one has to go down to the parish level. > - the commercial organisations are very sparse on identifying the > original source of their information, and on whether a new index has > been created or they have just imported an existing index from elsewhere. > > I did find the following blog page that attempted to do some of this: > > http://elizabethwalne.co.uk/blog/2015/8/2/norfolk-parish-registers-online > > You will note that it is virtually impossible to tabulate the new > Freereg2 in the same manner as the other sources without accessing a > significant number of pages for each parish. > > The answers will also be different, dependent on whether you want access > to the original register pages, or whether you are only interested in > index coverage (and will worry about getting the register pages later). > > What follows are some general statements, which could be wrong, and > certainly not complete, and will most certainly be wrong in future as > the situation is changing all the time. > > As far as I am aware, Norfolk Record Office (which holds the majority of > the Norfolk parish registers which are not still held by the parishes > themselves) has not made direct deals with any of the commercial > companies, so what is available has come from other sources. > > There appears to have been exchange of the family search material (both > unindexed original scans and indexes they have compiled) with both find > my past and ancestry. > > Indexes created by the Mid-Norfolk Family History Society do seem to be > on find my past, as do various country wide indexes created by the > Society of Genealogists. > > Norfolk Family history society has not released any of their data to the > commercial organisations. > > What was on the Master Genealogist seemed to be largely an indexed > version of the Phillimore marriage publications, although they have > recently advertised that they are adding other Norfolk parish records > (the source of which is unclear and may well be the Family Search > material yet again). > > I am not aware of any Freereg indexes being exchanged with any of the > commercial services (although the original indexers may have submitted > material that has appeared on the commercial sites via other routes). > > In the blog site identified above is accurate, Find my Past have another > unknown source of input that in some cases goes later than the NRO > holdings. > > Many sites do carry indexes of the non-conformist registers that were > collected by the Registrar General in 1837 and for which the originals > are held at The National Archives. > > regards > > Keith Drage > Swindon UK > > On 30/01/2016 19:15, Nivard Ovington via wrote: > > Hi David > > > > On the surviving PRs subject > > > > I think the worst I heard was a local butcher using pages from the > > parish register to wrap his meat in, paper was hard to come by and > > expensive > > > > As you say its a wonder anything survived > > > > Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) > > > > On 30/01/2016 19:12, DavidTennant wrote: > >> Nivard > >> Thanks for your comments . I totally agree re the cost aspect. In fact I > >> , being extremely mean, rarely if ever pay for information except as a > >> last resort. > >> The online availability, both free and otherwise, has increased > >> enormously over the last few years. In the early to mid nineties when I > >> started my research the LDS was one of the few online sources available > >> and I used this almost exclusively to get started supplemented by trips > >> to the local LDS offices to read microfiches . Thankfully they were only > >> a 20 minute drive away. Thankfully also, in Canada dialup was not > >> subject to telephone charges. > >> If I was starting today however, I think I would subscribe to one of > >> the commercial outlets and amass as much info in as short a time as > >> possible. > >> Re quality of PRs. Some I have seen are incredibly difficult to > >> decipher. Having been composed with quill pens, likely by candlelight > >> and then kept in damp surroundings it's a wonder that any of the early > >> ones survived at all. Seen plenty where the mice have had a field day! > >> David > > --- > > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > > https://www.avast.com/antivirus > > > > > > ------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NORFOLK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NORFOLK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >