family search and Kent records

[Kit]

can anyone browse the Kent records and see the images?

It keeps saying the images are unavailable and I would dearly love to see them.

[Chris in Sussex]

I am getting the same as you, only available to view at a Family History Centre.

Hopefully they will make them available online at some point.

Chris

[kiterunner]

It's not up to FamilySearch - the restrictions were decided by the Kent archives. The images can only be viewed at a FamilySearch Centre, or at the Kent archives, or if you are a member of the LDS Church, you can view them on your own computer. Info on here: https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/...age_Visibility

I have complained to the Kent archives and to FamilySearch about this before, asking if access could also be given to FamilySearch indexers and members of the Kent Family History societies, but I never had a reply. I sent a letter into one of the family history magazines but it wasn't printed.

It seems outrageous to me that most of these records were generated by the Church of England, yet members of another church can be given privileged access to them.

I wouldn't find it quite so outrageous if it was FamilySearch Centre and Kent archives only, though because the records I want to look at are browse only, I reckon that if I booked a computer slot at my nearest FSC and took the infrequent bus or walked the long distance, I would find that I wouldn't manage to look at much of what I wanted to view anyway, even if their computer and the system work o.k.

I was also very annoyed that FamilySearch had previously said that indexers who had keyed a certain number of records would have access to restricted images, and yet I didn't get access although I had the right number of points. It then transpired that they had decided not to use this system at all because it was too difficult for them to implement or something, but they didn't make this known to all their indexers when they made the decision.

But some Kent records are viewable on Findmypast now - can we hope that eventually all the images will turn up on there?