London, England Early Parish Registers, Trial Update


The trial period for the London, England Early Parish Registers project has come to an end and as such the project will no longer be available for keying.  Based on the feedback we received we have decided that keying this collection through the World Archives Project is not a viable option.

 I hope you learned as much through this experience as I did – patience, handwriting skills, perseverance, alternate spellings, a little Latin. . .  Thank you to everyone who was involved in keying these fun and challenging records!

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August 12th, 2009
9 Responses
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Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Lou
Posted on:
August 12, 2009 at 3:39 pm

Tis a shame. They were interesting and, IMHO, a lot easier than the Nebraska census!

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Kate Rimmer
Posted on:
August 12, 2009 at 4:01 pm

I did suspect this would be the outcome as there seemed to be so few people keying this trial. But I have greatly enjoyed it and it has been an excellent introduction to 16th century parish registers for me, learning to read the handwriting and so on. I won’t be scared to have a look at the early parish registers when I visit my local record office any more! Thanks for giving us the opportunity.

I should think the best way to make the early parish registers available online will be similar to the poor law records – scan in all the pages, list them by parish and date, and let people look through the pages picking out their ancestors.

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
Michelle O'Bryan
Posted on:
August 13, 2009 at 7:31 am

When this happens does it also means that these records will be put back in some basement?! This would truly be a shame. I am starting to get more confident in reading these older records (always afraid I would make more mistakes and be more a hindrance than a help).

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
Vivien O'Connor
Posted on:
August 13, 2009 at 3:02 pm

I too am sad that this is the outcome of the trial. I loved the challenge of reading these records and found that with practice they were getting easier to read. Did the results show a learning effect? and if so was the trial long enough?

Comment Number:
5
Written by:
Laurie Myres
Posted on:
August 15, 2009 at 12:00 am

Vivien
If you are truly hooked, don’t worry, there is that “other” place that takes volunteer keyers, or as they call it, indexers. They have old parish records from Cheshire and Warwickshire.

Comment Number:
6
Written by:
bishopswife
Posted on:
August 18, 2009 at 4:02 pm

This is such a shame, I only got info about tonight and now it’s gone!

Comment Number:
7
Written by:
emscote82
Posted on:
August 24, 2009 at 11:57 pm

Why not start the LMA records with the 17th or 18th century parish records, not the 16th? Although mother churches started in the 1500s, hence these early records in the trial, there should be enough parishes started the 17th/18th centuries, even the 19th, to put a viable index online for users. And this should mean the language is English and the writing easier to interpret accurately.

The 1753 Hardwicke’s Marriage Act seems to coincide with such legible writing and an increase in parish expansion. May be a good date to look at.

Don’t give up, else the LMA’s records will never get online properly!
J

Comment Number:
8
Written by:
emscote82
Posted on:
August 25, 2009 at 12:26 am

By the way, I would love to have helped with this and any other projects, but you don’t allow Apple Mac users to get in on the act. Pity.
J

Comment Number:
9
Written by:
Cecilia Wardle
Posted on:
October 15, 2009 at 6:50 am

I am from the United Kingdom and have ancestors with the name of Finkle (sometimes spelt Finkel)- I am attempting to trace whether they are of Jewish/German origin – could you please let me know if there is info I can obtain anywhere in Ancestry.co.uk, of which I am subscriber? Thank you