Hi: I'm seeking advice, wearing my hat as Chairman of the GENUKI Trustees. When we are offered parish register transcriptions to place in GENUKI concerning events up to recent times, what cut off dates should we apply, so as to avoid providing information that is too close to the present day? (In the particular case that has prompted this question, a burials register covering up to 1970, the church authorities have given permission for the transcription to be made available online.) One rule of thumb I seem to recall is that we should not provide information from events within the last hundred years. And if so should this apply even to burial registers? David Hawgood, who checked the Data Protection Act, reported: "I think this means that a parish or a diocesan record office is exempt from data protection provisions on baptism and marriage register information. I don't think it means that others (such as ourselves) are exempt." Does the SoG (or perhaps the FFHS) have any advice or guidelines on this matter? Are there any official government rules? Cheers Brian Randell -- School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK EMAIL = Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 222 7923 FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/

Since details of wills are published soon after death for anyone to read, sometimes containing personal information about both testators and beneficiaries, it makes little sense to keep burials &c confidential. Such events do not take place behind closed doors. Stephen Little ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brian Randell" <Brian.Randell@newcastle.ac.uk> To: <SOG-UK-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 2:31 PM Subject: [SoG] Modern PR transcriptions > Hi: > > I'm seeking advice, wearing my hat as Chairman of the GENUKI Trustees. > > When we are offered parish register transcriptions to place in GENUKI > concerning events up to recent times, what cut off dates should we > apply, so as to avoid providing information that is too close to the > present day? (In the particular case that has prompted this question, > a burials register covering up to 1970, the church authorities have > given permission for the transcription to be made available online.) > > One rule of thumb I seem to recall is that we should not provide > information from events within the last hundred years. And if so > should this apply even to burial registers? > > David Hawgood, who checked the Data Protection Act, reported: "I > think this means that a parish or a diocesan record office is exempt > from data protection provisions on baptism and marriage register > information. I don't think it means that others (such as ourselves) > are exempt." > > Does the SoG (or perhaps the FFHS) have any advice or guidelines on > this matter? Are there any official government rules? > > Cheers > > Brian Randell > > -- > School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, > NE1 7RU, UK > EMAIL = Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 222 7923 > FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/ > >

In message of 22 Nov, Brian Randell <Brian.Randell@newcastle.ac.uk> wrote: > Hi: > > I'm seeking advice, wearing my hat as Chairman of the GENUKI Trustees. > > When we are offered parish register transcriptions to place in GENUKI > concerning events up to recent times, what cut off dates should we > apply, so as to avoid providing information that is too close to the > present day? (In the particular case that has prompted this question, > a burials register covering up to 1970, the church authorities have > given permission for the transcription to be made available online.) > > One rule of thumb I seem to recall is that we should not provide > information from events within the last hundred years. And if so > should this apply even to burial registers? > > David Hawgood, who checked the Data Protection Act, reported: "I > think this means that a parish or a diocesan record office is exempt > from data protection provisions on baptism and marriage register > information. I don't think it means that others (such as ourselves) > are exempt." > > Does the SoG (or perhaps the FFHS) have any advice or guidelines on > this matter? Are there any official government rules? The likes of 1837 online have indexes to GRO records up to the present times. So there can be nothing wrong in princple with making such records available. I think FreeBMD only operates its 100 year rule because of some copyright from the GRO. So the only problem is that of copyright and if the owners of the data have given it to you, then that's fine. And I think the Data Protection Act only applies to records of living people. -- Tim Powys-Lybbe                                          tim@powys.org              For a miscellany of bygones: http://powys.org

There are a number of local authorities who make their burial registers available online right up to the current date, so there cannot be any legal restriction on doing so! As others have said, the information from the probate indexes is freely available and often gives more personal information than is available in the burial registers. I cannot see any point in placing this restriction on GENUKI transcriptions. Regards, Peter Armstrong ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brian Randell" <Brian.Randell@newcastle.ac.uk> To: <SOG-UK-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 2:31 PM Subject: [SoG] Modern PR transcriptions > Hi: > > I'm seeking advice, wearing my hat as Chairman of the GENUKI Trustees. > > When we are offered parish register transcriptions to place in GENUKI > concerning events up to recent times, what cut off dates should we > apply, so as to avoid providing information that is too close to the > present day? (In the particular case that has prompted this question, > a burials register covering up to 1970, the church authorities have > given permission for the transcription to be made available online.) > > One rule of thumb I seem to recall is that we should not provide > information from events within the last hundred years. And if so > should this apply even to burial registers? > > David Hawgood, who checked the Data Protection Act, reported: "I > think this means that a parish or a diocesan record office is exempt > from data protection provisions on baptism and marriage register > information. I don't think it means that others (such as ourselves) > are exempt." > > Does the SoG (or perhaps the FFHS) have any advice or guidelines on > this matter? Are there any official government rules? > > Cheers > > Brian Randell > > -- > School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, > NE1 7RU, UK > EMAIL = Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 222 7923 > FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/ > > > ______________________________________________ > This email has been scanned by Netintelligence > http://www.netintelligence.com/email > >