Hello all Despite all of the reassurances forthcoming yesterday seemingly from people at the SoG and FFHS amongst others , we still have serious doubts about this site. As we stated a couple of days ago, we have been in touch directly with the Family Record Centre (which is a place and not an organisation) jointly operated by the Public Record Office and the Office for National Statistics (the latter amongst other things maintain the GRO index). Having spoken again to the Management at the Family Record Centre this morning, the official stance is that they know nothing about the site, the digitisation or publication of the GRO index. They are "investigating" and are "concerned" - which is a direct quote from the FRC on the 28 November. The FRC have not authorised the digitisation of the index and indeed are not aware of the technology to do so - there is apparently a cd version of the index available for purchase (but not advertised) and it is probably the case that something has been created from that. The issues over the validity or security of the web site are not concerns for the FRC but whilst many are saying that Title Research are a reputable company (which we are sure they are), the domain name www.1837online.com is registered to a separate company Trace 2 Ltd which operates from the same building as Title Research and has a contact email of a Director of Title Research. Regarding the "100 year rule" over publication of the index, this is not laid down in law in the same way as the census data is but is a rule enforced by ONS. Originally, ONS did not permit publication of the GRO index by persons or organisations who may have bought the fiche - it was subject to copyright and sold on the usual basis of being for "research and private study" - which permits commercial genealogy firms to use (but not reproduce) the index. Earlier this year, ONS relaxed their rules and permitted the publication of the index but only in respect of entries over 100 years old. The original rules still apply to later data. Our money stays firmly in our pocket. Tony & Linda