Last month I replied to an article in the New Zealand Genealogy newsletter FamNet, entitled ‘Has Technology killed Genealogy and Family History again?’ The article asked if subscription databases would be the cause of Archives closing. I thought my reply below might be useful for others to read – and perhaps comment on.
“Whilst I agree to some extent that the major genealogy subscription databases may ‘suck the cash from genealogists’ purses ’, I am less convinced that it has had “dire consequences to genealogical societies and their branches, libraries, museums, Archives and other research facilities. Less money in our pockets means less money to spend at these repositories.”
Certainty in the UK, these places are free anyway, plus the Archives and libraries often have free access to subscription databases such as Ancestry (via their Library Edition) and/or local records on FindMyPast (FMP). For example FMP digitalised many Yorkshire records, and these can be viewed in the Yorkshire Archives and libraries using FMP for free.
I do agree that the advertising for these subscription databases may give the impression that they are all you need when in reality they are not. As a professional researcher I need to use both of the above named databases, plus a host of free sites (for more details of these see my 2016 article on free websites free websites here.) in addition to using the records at the Archives. It needs to be remembered, and probably a lot of relatively new researchers need to be made aware, that the records online – free or otherwise – consist of a very tiny percentage of all of the records held in our local Archives. Imagine an iceberg; we all know that the majority of it is hidden from view. The top part you can see can be thought of as the records that are online. Sadly I have to agree that the basic beliefs of new researchers are “If it isn’t on the web it doesn’t exist”. It also seems to be the case that some researchers are mainly concerned with how many people are in their tree and how far back it goes rather than its accuracy.
One reason why Archives may lose funding could be due to less people walking through the door, but the same is happening with our high street stores. So much is done online now business, including Archives, need to find new ways to entice us in. For Archives this could involve advertising, education and even volunteer led projects. Another reason is simply down to the interests of the Council involved. If they themselves have no interest in history, then they will not see the importance of keeping Archives open. Time and again we see historical buildings or monuments torn down and replaced simply because no one involved was interested enough in history, heritage or culture. The same argument works for Archives. (There is an intereting article in the May 2021 edition of the Who Do You Think You Are? magazine looking at the work of Archives in Lockdown.)
One point that many people may not be aware of is the agreements that local Archives have with these websites. As I understand it Ancestry and others hold the copyright to their digital records so if for any reason the company should collapse the digital images could be lost, whereas FindMyPast allow the Archives to keep the copyright to their own records, therefore once the contract has ended, or if that company fails, the digital images are owned by the Archive.
Once a contract ends the records become ‘non-exclusive’ (unless another exclusive contact is agreed) and can be uploaded onto other database websites including the archives own website. An example of records becoming non-exclusive is the 1911 UK census returns. These were exclusive to FindMyPast for an agreed period of time after which the other websites could host the images.
As I said this is my understanding and it may not be strictly accurate, but I believe that is how it works in general.
We need to remember that the Archives themselves agreed to give the website concerned access to their records. The Archives have control of this agreement. No one can just copy the records without it. So what do the Archives get from the deal?
Apart from their records being digitalised and transcribed for free (it cost millions of pound to do this and the Archives do not pay for it), it also helps with conservation. In my local Archive in Yorkshire you can only look at the actual record if it is not readable on either the fiche copy they hold or on FMP – accessed from their own computers. As these books are over 100 years old in most cases, and often very fragile, keeping them away from the general public makes sense. Thirty years ago, when genealogy was not a popular hobby, a parish register may only have been accessed a few times a year – if at all. Now it may be required many times a month.
Another very important part as far as the Archives are concerned is that they get paid every time we access one of their records. As none of the Archives I have ever visited charge for looking at records this is a new way of gaining income. Even if they hosted the images themselves (if they could afford the digitalisation and running the website), they are unlikely to have the reach or advertising venue of the major websites. In the pre Internet days if someone from New Zealand wanted to see a record in England, they would have to either employ a local researcher or ask the Archivist to look it up for them. This may have been free in the early days (not now though), and could take up a lot of staff time. Now the Archivists and their assistants free to do other tasks related to cataloguing, conservation, basic digitisation and photocopying, looking after websites and social media platforms and research that cannot be done online.
So yes we do have to pay lots of our hard earned cash to buy access to subscription databases, but what do we gain from it? Ease of access from around the world 24×7 and the knowledge that these records are being protected and conserved for future generations.
In the ‘good old pre online research days’ I had to pay for rail fare and 5 days accommodation to stay in a town 100 miles away to research my mother’s ancestors, and take time off work to do it. Archive records in Ireland are free, but I believe the Irish pay higher taxes so they pay for them, even if you don’t access them. Very little in this life is free, and access to historical records via the database is no different.”
