Cornwall images - Familysearch

[ElizabethHerts]

Cornwall OPCs are reporting that the images for the PRs are no longer viewable, even after signing in.

This message appears:

These images are viewable:
To signed-in members of supporting organizations.
When using the site at a family history center.

Someone has suggested that perhaps they might link them to the transcripts on Ancestry, but no-one really knows.

I have signed in and can't view images any more. ;(

[ElizabethHerts]

I should state that I don't know whether this applies to all the images.

This is a reply one of the OPCs received from Family Search:

Thank you for contacting Family Search Support. We are sorry for the issue you are having and apologize for any inconvenience. You may get a message at various times and on various collections stating,
"These images are viewable: To signed-in members of supporting organizations."
Due to contractual limitations, you may get this message showing on your screen. Each film and image has a contract that indicates the rights and who can use them and see them. This is a big legal matrix regarding who is signed in, the place they are signed in, and what restrictions have been placed on the films. These contracts are reviewed regularly, and the archivists can remove rights at any time.
Please make sure you are signed in, and if you still get this message, these two options may help.
You may be able to subscribe to Ancestry.com, findmypast.com, or Myheritage to see some of these images, since many are duplicated at these third party companies. Many of these companies have a free trial period that would let you see the image immediately.
Another option is that almost all films and images can be viewed from inside a family history center. Please make sure you call the Family History Center before you travel and make sure they can be seen in the Center.
We are again sorry for the issue, but contracts with the archivists limit to whom and where access is given.
Have a great day,
Family Search Support

[kiterunner]

It's so unfair to those volunteer transcribers who are not members of the LDS Church but have been helping to index these, expecting to be able to use the index to view the images! And annoying for everyone else too, of course.

If I were you I would contact Cornwall Record Office and ask them what's going on - they have a Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/KresenKernow/

[ElizabethHerts]

There are people who are trying to find out more information about this. I'll keep you updated.

[Olde Crone]

It has always been my understanding (based on conversations with volunteers at family history centres in Cornwall) that the C of E bishops allowed the LDS church to film their registers on the strictest understanding that these films would be available for anyone to view regardless of their religion.

Of course that only means that the LDS must make them available to view, not that they must make them available to view online. I surmise then, that other agencies are also licensed to make the registers available but are able to charge. So it would depend on who is licensed. Phew! I wonder if it is only Cornish records which are affected?

As an aside, I have felt for some years that the LDS is quietly retiring from making information freely available on line and indeed, why should it, when so many companies are making huge sums of money from providing the same or similar information.

OC

[ElizabethHerts]

This is my summary of a reply that was posted:

Family Search has restrictions imposed by the original records custodians. Many of the records were filmed before there was any such thing as digitization or the internet, and many records custodians and archives did not grant future permission for posting on the internet. FS is negotiating with the records custodians. They are meeting with varying degrees of success. They are being careful to honour all acquisition agreements to prevent future filming projects being refused. That is why some records that were there have disappeared. Archives have in many instances asserted that the original filming agreements did not include internet access and that the images can be viewed only on a Family History Center and have insisted on the restrictions.

[kiterunner]

So they weren't supposed to put them online in the first place. Thanks, Elizabeth.

[Olde Crone]

Elizabeth

Yes, that's more or less what I thought the position was. So I suppose it will spread to other counties too. Ah well, it was good while it lasted!

OC

[Ann from Sussex]

Family Search has restrictions imposed by the original records custodians.

I don't know if this is still the case but years ago when I was a member of the Kent FHS there were many complaints about the vicar of the village where my father grew up on his grandfather's farm. This vicar wouldn't release the church's historic registers to the county archives, wouldn't allow LDS to film them and wouldn't allow individuals to look at them. If anyone wanted to do family research in those registers they had to pay the vicar's wife to do it for them.

[NickiP]

I vaguely remember this happening with access to the Cornwall PRs not long after they were originally made available on Familysearch. Something along the same lines but then some agreement was made that allowed them to become accessible again. May be getting confused, but that does ring a bell. I wonder if the Record Office has entered into an agreement now with one of the commercial companies and that is why they're now restricted.

[kiterunner]

They are available to view again now, once you are logged in. Don't know whether this is permanent or not.

[ElizabethHerts]

Thanks, Kate. That's great news. For Probus the baptism images start at 1783, but it's better than nothing. Marriages begin at 1754.