More on the new ScotlandsPeople website

I've had a chance to have more of a play with the new ScotlandsPeople site at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk and remain impressed with the new version of the site, although there are a few gremlins that need to be sorted out.

My initial concern when I saw some of the early design concepts last year was that the site might sacrifice the PC experience for the tablet experience, but in fact, I think they have found a happy compromise. There are seveal new features, some useful videos - and some new records, which is the key thing!

First up, the new records:

• Divorce record (indexes)
• Civil partnership records indexes
• Civil partnership dissolutions indexes
• Non-conformist presbyterian denominations indexes and images

The biggest is of course the last, with over 150,000 records added from the following denominations:

• The Reformed Presbyterian Church
• The Original Secession (or First Secession) Church
• The Associate Synods (Burghers and Antiburghers, and the Auld Licht Burghers, New Licht Burghers, Auld Licht Antiburghers and New Licht Antiburghers)
• The Relief Church
• The United Secession Church
• The United Presbyterian Church
• The Free Church

(See http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/kirk-history.html for a quick history as to how they all came about!) 

Whilst a detailed list of actual churches and parishes featured from all denominations (including Church of Scotland and Roman Catholic) is availableon the site at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/guides/church-registers#Parishes, there is no list of the year range for the nonconformist entries at present - only the general catalogue number for all of the records as noted by the National Records of Scotland. Some searches are also not returning results for records that I know to exist - for example, none of the baptismal entries for my Paton family are showing up in the Blackford Free Church records in the late 1860s and 1870s. So teething troubles would seem to be at play. Not all nonconformist records have been added yet - and most of those that are there are baptism registers for now. Kirk session records will be added in due course with a subscription option, rather than a credits option. For more on some early gremlins visit Fergus Smith's blog post at http://www.oldscottish.com/blog/september-29th-2016.

One thing that does seem to have gone completely in the new site, unless I have missed it, is the ability to view search results by way of a map as opposed to a list. This feature in the previous version of the site was something that many of my overseas Pharos courses students have often commented on as being useful.

There are some nice touches - I have no problem with the price increase to £7.50, because the balance is that index searches are now completely free, as are views of the Register of Corrected Entries records, though these unfortunately still remain searchable as a follow up to an initial find in a birth, marriage or death record, and not as a database in their own right (which would allow a second bite at the pie if an original register image was for some reason misindexed, which has happened to me in the past). The 1881 LDS Scottish census transcription is also now free to view (as are its English and Welsh equivalents on FamilySearch).

The help and support material I have read so far has been of a high standard, as you would expect from the NRS. So I remain very positive about the new site - let's just sort those teething issues out!

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Beginner's Guide to British and Irish Genealogy, A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

Latest additions to The Original Record website

Latest additions to The Original Record (www.theoriginalrecord.com):

1664
Suffolk Archdeaconry Marriage Licences
Marriage licence bonds in the Suffolk Archdeaconry Registry at Ipswich, abstracted and printed by Frederick Arthur Crisp

1845-1850
Consistory Court of London Divorce Cases
The list of causes of divorce determined in the Consistory Court of London gives the title of the cause; whether opposed or unopposed; whether promoted by husband or wife; whether for adultery and cruelty, or which; when commenced; when concluded; whether appealed or not; whether carried to the House of Lords.

1850
Masters and Mates in the Merchant Service
Masters and mates in the Merchant Service who voluntarily passed an examination and obtained certificates of qualification under the regulations issued by the Board of Trade, from 28 February to 11 April 1850.

1868
Art School Teachers
The Science and Art Department of the Committee of Council on Education produced this list of persons certificated as competent to act as teachers of art schools, revised to March 1868. The list gives name (surname first); school where previously taught; and certificates obtained (1 elementary drawing and colouring; 2 painting; 3 the figure drawn and painted; 4 modelling ornament; 5 modelling the figure; 6a mechanical drawing; 6b architectural drawing).

1876
Members of the Society of Biblical Archaeology
This membership list of the Society of Biblical Archaeology is corrected to January 1876; it gives names and addresses, asterisks indicating members of the society's council.

1882-1887
Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders Died in Egypt and Sudan
The roll of officers, non-commissioned officers and men of the 79th Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders who were killed in action or died of wounds and disease in Egypt and the S(o)udan 1882 to 1887, compiled from the orderly room records by Captain T. A. Mackenzie and Lieutenant C. Findlay: giving rank, full name, and where or how died.

1909-1910
Durham University Matriculation Examination
The lists of students who satisfied the examiners, September 1909 and March 1910: surnames are given, with initials.

(With thanks to The Original Record)

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

Scottish Court service explains divorce records restrictions

On October 27th I blogged that there something was afoot with the Scottish divorce records, and the possible closure of records less than a hundred years old (see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/closure-on-historic-scottish-divorce.html). In this post I noted that I had contacted the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service for clarification on this, and was awaiting confirmation from their end as to exactly what was closed, why, and what access was still possible in certain cases.

I followed this up with a further news announcement from the National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk) on November 3rd, detailing some subsequent restrictions caused by the SCTS decision on the Register of Divorces at the ScotlandsPeople Centre (www.scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk) from 1984 onwards, which notes Sheriff Court judgements from that period onwards (see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/access-to-scottish-divorce-records-to.html).

True to their word, the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service has now come back to me with an official response:

SCTS has decided that it is necessary to put a closure period on the records of historic divorce cases in the Scottish Courts. All divorce cases, that is Sheriff Court (post-1984) and Court of Session, are closed for 100 years from the date of the case. Divorce papers can contain additional personal data and the restriction is in place to avoid that material being made public inappropriately. The closure was implemented on data protection grounds because these records can contain information that could cause substantial distress to identifiable individuals if made public. This issue was brought into sharp focus by a particular case and for privacy reasons relating to the affected individuals we cannot enter into discussion about that case.

This restriction does not apply to the fact of the divorce, the date of the divorce, the court in question or the names of the persons divorced. That information is still available from the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service or for Sheriff Court (post-1984) from NRS. The parties can get a copy of their divorce/dissolution extract by applying in writing to the court which granted the divorce/dissolution. 

Further information is available at:

http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/taking-action/frequently-asked-questions/questions-about-divorce-or-dissolution-of-civil-partnership

Others who are not data subjects can make an application to SCTS for access to records under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. However, detailed sensitive personal data about living individuals (for example, child custody or access arrangements) is highly likely to be exempt under that Act. NRS will be updating their catalogues in due course.

The restriction will of course be a blow to those carrying out genealogical research, but it could have been much worse. It is still possible to note that a divorce took place within the last one hundred years, and to note to whom it related - the real genealogical restriction will be in noting any follow up concerning the children of such relationship breakdowns.

(With thanks to Chris Macrae, Media and Communications, Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service)

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

Access to Scottish divorce records to be restricted

Some fairly bad news for Scottish family historians, relating to the access of records and privacy.

Last week I posted a blog post concerning a request I had made to the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service about the proposed closure of Scottish court records from the Court of Session, a request in which I outlined several questions for which I have yet to receive an answer (see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/closure-on-historic-scottish-divorce.html).

However, I have just received an email from the National Records of Scotland's Head of Public Services, Anne Slater, who kindly offered at last week's Scottish Genealogy Network CPD event in Edinburgh to provide an update from the NRS on the developments, as soon as the archive was able to work out its position and obligations under the rule change.

Unfortunately, the new rules also include restricting access to divorce records from the Sheriff Court, which has had responsibility for divorces since 1984. There is therefore a knock on effect for the GROS Register of Divorces which was established at that point, and which until now was accessible at the ScotlandsPeople Centre (www.scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk) in Edinburgh. Here is the body of Anne's letter:

Following our discussion on the availability of the digital images of the Register of Divorces at your recent CPD event I am writing to let you know that NRS are reviewing the Register of Divorces (RoD) as a result of a recent case and that, because of our statutory and legal obligations under the Human Rights and Data Protection Acts, we are going to limit access to the RoD with immediate effect, while we work through the legal issues.

The images will be taken down from the ScotlandsPeople Network this evening. The index to the Register of Divorces will continue to be made available and should you require information from the Register beyond what is available in the index please email: enquiries@scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk. Alternatively should you require an extract from the Register of Divorces please use our extract service: http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/registration/how-to-order-an-official-extract-from-the-registers.

I will provide a further update in due course and please let me know if you have any queries.

This is an undesirable change of policy, not from the National Records of Scotland or the ScotlandsPeople Centre, but from the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service, which has forced the NRS to take this position. I am still unclear as to what precipitated the changes in the first place, but it is now not possible to see the Register of Divorces images on the terminals at the ScotlandsPeople Centre (and the satellite access points across the country), only the index entries - that, at least, will still indicate if a divorce took place. For the moment, some form of access is, however, still available to the original records through the extract service.

More on this when I get it...

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

Closure on historic Scottish divorce records?

Last week I was alerted by a colleague to the fact that there seems to have been a development on access to historic records of Scottish divorces implemented by the Court of Session from September 29th 2015, something that was seemingly partially confirmed by an NRS contact at the weekend. From what I can gather, it seems that access is to be restricted to historic cases for the last one hundred years. This is clearly something that will be of concern to Scottish based genealogists, for whom the records have previously been accessible.

I have just spoken with a contact at the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service (www.scotcourts.gov.uk) and have sent a subsequent email to ask for clarity on the following questions:

1) Can you confirm if a closure period has indeed been enacted by the SCTS on historic cases of divorces in the Scottish courts?

2) If so, are all divorce case records, including Sheriff Court cases post-1984, now subject to a one hundred year closure period for privacy reasons, or simply those of the Court of Session?

3) If a closure period is now in place, can I ask on what basis the closure has been implemented, i.e. for what reason? For example, was there a trigger case where a privacy concern was raised that sought a change to the access?

4) Are there exemptions to these restrictions - for example, for those directly involved in the cases seeking copies of papers?

5) I have been unable to find any formal announcement on this online, but if there has been one, could you perhaps direct me to the link?

The press officer I spoke to has indicated that he has indeed heard something on this, but has requested a few days to try to get some answers. Once I have those, I will pass them on.

Historic records from the Court of Session are deposited with the National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk), and from what I can gather this seems to have caught them as much by surprise as anyone. However, it is imperative to point out that any restriction, if it has been implemented, is not one that the NRS has put in place - but if confirmed, may affect how such records are accessed at the facility.

I'll keep you updated if, as and when I hear anything.

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

English and Welsh divorce database updated on Ancestry

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has updated its U.K., Civil Divorce Records, 1858-1914 collection at http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=2465, although there is no detail on how it has done so.

Please be aware though that Ancestry is again showing its ignorance of what actually constitutes the United Kingdom, because this contains divorce files from England and Wales only. In England and Wales, divorce prior to 1858 was only possible via an Act of Parliament. After 1858, a civil based procedure became possible through a division of the High Court of Justice.

In Scotland, however, the law of divorce has always been entirely different, having been carried out via the civil courts since the 1560s. The courts initially handling such matters were the Commissary Courts, then the Court of Session from the 1820s, and since 1984, the Sheriff Court. For cases prior to 1984, check the National Records of Scotland catalogue at http://catalogue.nrscotland.gov.uk/nrsonlinecatalogue/welcome.aspx. For cases after 1984, a dedicated register has been kept by the GROS, which is accessible and searchable at the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh (www.scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk).

In Northern Ireland, divorce was not possible, other than by means of an Act of Parliament, until 1939, with the laws revised again in 1978. I'm actually a little unclear on where to source Northern Irish divorce records - I believe that they may still be held at the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast or at a relevant county court.

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.