& Index
to the Project
|
Home Page & Index |
|
Contributing to the Project |
|
| What does it take to become a volunteer transcriber? | Not a lot. Anyone can do it.
We are however, looking really for fairly large chunks of data from a single baptism, marriage or burial register rather than the odd entry from different registers which you may have in your personal records. Not necessarily the whole register from a volunteer, but a good range of dates inclusive. You need:
If you haven't transcribed a church register before, we would suggest startuing with either a baptism or burial register (not marriages) of 1813 and later. Choose a small place with not too many events per year. It is much less daunting! Apart from the obvious handwriting problems, overall they are easier to read. Typing out register data into a computer can be boring. However, it is not a thankless task! Many researchers in the future will be grateful for the work you have done, and it is a great way to "put something back" for all the work others have done in the past which you have used. You need to set yourself a target of completing so much per week.
See also: The starting point for
novices
|
| Where do I get the registers to transcribe | You can't normally get original register books. In any case, it is not
a good idea to handle those old books more than is absolutely necessary.
However, microfiche copies are available to view at a County Records Office,
and to view at an LDS (Mormon) Family History Centre. Some local libraries
also have copies of microfiche of parish registers for their district. It
is also possible to make photocopy prints from the microfiche, although the
fiche are sometimes easier to read than a print made from them.
Most (but not all) County Record Offices will sell sets of microfiche of a set of parish registers. Some County Record Offices will sell microfiche only to recognised bona-fide family history societies, some will sell them to anyone. If you belong to a family history society, then it may be possible to have the fiche on loan to transcribe at home. Please be aware that some County Records Offices do not like the idea of complete transcripts of registers being made available on the Internet. In many ways, this is understandable, and we must abide by their wishes, even if we might disagree. However, this is not what the FreeREG Project is about at all. We will not publish complete transcripts, or even complete indexes of any parish register. What we will be doing, is entering the basic details into a database making it possible for people to search for an ancestor by name. But it will not be possible to do a search for everyone whose name begins with "A" for example, and "cheat" the system that way with blanket searches. However, if you do transcribe the data from a register into a computer, then the local family history society and the County Record Office, will be grateful to receive an indexed print of your work. We need to support the family history societies, and especially the County Record Offices, who never have the man power or funds for such projects. See also: The starting point for novices
|
| What are the priorities? | Starting with those parishes/places that have not been transcribed and indexed (for example, those not in the IGI) already would be most beneficial to users. There is also a distinct lack of previous work done on non-conformist registers. The period from 1812 to say 1900, should ideally be tackled first since that would benefit the most people. We realise that one cannot dictate to volunteers what parish and time period they should work on, but a strong and reasoned recommendation along these lines should be considered. This approach will also contribute well to the records already held by the family history societies. It is our intention to make the data from freeREG available to them and the County Record Office. |
|
Home Page & Index |
|
Contributing to the Project |
|
 |
Copyright ©2000 FreeREG
Last updated 10 Feb 2000 / RN