At 05:39 PM 8/18/99 +0800, you wrote: >G'day Marybeth, >No it's not available online. The Scottish Registrar General only granted me >copyright permission to publish it on microfiche. > I find it so amazing that they claim copyright in public records - the US doesn't which is why it is so much easier to get our census records. Such, information should be freely available to all. There was an interesting case in the US at the Federal Appellate level last year where the Court ruled that the British Crown's copyright in photos of paintings in the public domain had not enough originality to be entitled to copyright protection in the US - I wish I could remember the case in more detail but that was the gist of it. There's arguably more originality in a photograph than a stack of records over a hundred years old. It tempts me to publish the census records I have at my website. Anne Rendall