GRO visit

pinkypinky · 11-08-2015 12:57pm #1

I got to make a rare visit to the GRO yesterday. Some reflections:

Pros:

Easy parking on Castle St, just around the corner.
They now take cards, so having vast pile of cash is not necessary.
Quite a number of people in there, leading to queues at the desk. Both good and bad!
Plenty of staff so a quick turnaround on getting certs

Cons:

New system where you have to go to the desk to give in your order form, and then again to pay when it's ready. Seems counterproductive and makes extra work for both staff and visitors. Why was this changed from the old system of paying when you order?
Still only one toilet.
No visible power points at all (but I came prepared for this with a fully charged tablet).

Wifi would be a great advantage for them.

I think they could do with an extra table in the shelving area. Those books are heavy and it's impossible to hold several at once. Would be great to have a second desk to rest them on while selecting/putting back.

Thomas from Presence · 11-08-2015 3:27pm

Wi-fi would kill off that lucrative €2 business in consulting the big books! :P

pinkypinky · 11-08-2015 3:56pm

Not for the post-1958 period.

And for births post 1915 it would be useless! The maiden name index there is invaluable and none of the online versions are as good.

P_1 · 11-08-2015 4:12pm

Was there myself yesterday too, agree with what you say regarding the system for getting certs, seems quite awkward and very civil service-ish.

Probably a bit rich to ask but having a second copy of each index book would be a great step forward, or dare I suggest it, a digitised vesion. They could even set it up on a closed network that one needs to pay for access to so their valuable €20 fee (when did that double in price!?) is kept safe.

pinkypinky · 11-08-2015 4:46pm

There's no point suggesting digitised. Even though they would make a huge amount of money from the overseas people who could now order easily. I suspect the money it would cost to develop and administer would pay for itself within a few years.

P_1 · 11-08-2015 5:32pm

They could probably farm it out to one of the Ancestrys or FMPs, get them to pay for the digitising and probably pay a royalty for a number of years. Sadly this is Ireland and the lemmings in charge of us would never consider such a thing

L1011 · 11-08-2015 5:38pm

You are aware the images are already scanned and are going online free shortly? As in 2016 probably

Your summing up there couldn't be more wrong - all the genealogical records we have and can legally release are out online free. That is extremely rare

pinkypinky · 11-08-2015 6:03pm

L1011:

There has been no official confirmation that the GRO records have been digitised yet for public consumption. The GRO has a private database which they claim is not suitable for online use.

If that does happen, they will be in the limited form: i.e. older than 100 years for births, older than 75 years for marriages and older than 50 years for deaths, so we will still need the paper format to look at the more recent stuff which is available up to 1995.

L1011 · 11-08-2015 7:40pm

pinkypinky wrote: »

L1011:

There has been no official confirmation that the GRO records have been digitised yet for public consumption. The GRO has a private database which they claim is not suitable for online use.

If that does happen, they will be in the limited form: i.e. older than 100 years for births, older than 75 years for marriages and older than 50 years for deaths, so we will still need the paper format to look at the more recent stuff which is available up to 1995.

I'm willing to take Burton's word on it, considering we did get the indexes.

We're never going to get more than the 100/75/50 without legislation allowing it. It would never be given to a third party to do it if it ever did happen.

Compare and contrast this to Scotland having indexes from 100/75/50 - pay per search; images from about 90 years ago back - pay even more per images; censuses to 1911 - pay per search and per image; and so forth. All they have on us, beyond the records fire, is the images. And we've been promised those, free.

When the state gets involved in genealogy here, they do it right. The standard self-hatred a lot of Irish people have is completely and utterly misplaced when they start it on this topic.

chughes · 12-08-2015 10:44am

I've visited the GRO many times over the years and it does seem like its stuck in a 1950s time warp when it comes to its procedures.

For professional genealogists and other frequent visitors I think there should be some sort of membership system which would allow for some discounting in cost of searches and certs. Also, a real bugbear of mine is the lotto of whether the cert you ordered is, in fact, one you actually want. I know I've spend a good few quid over the years on certs which were not relevant to me.

Wyldwood · 14-08-2015 10:01pm

chughes wrote: »

I know I've spend a good few quid over the years on certs which were not relevant to me.

Don't forget to stick the details up on the 'cert exchange' thread here in case they might be useful to someone

GRO visit

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