Parish registers online and permission

[aravyn]

Hi to all,

I am a contributor to website dedicated to the history and genealogy of my home town and wonder if there is anyone on this forum with any knowledge of copyright law and parish register transcriptions? Not surprisingly we have been refused permission to use the transcibed register for the parish church by the Lancashire Parish Register Society, but would really like to see some burials at least on the site. We are looking into the possibility of making some original transcriptions (the advice given elsewhere on this site will be useful!) but don't wish to fall foul of the law!

I'd appreciate any advice.

Barbara

[Ladkyis]

You could make your own transcription and index and use that.

[Lesley Robertson]

Hi to all,

I am a contributor to website dedicated to the history and genealogy of my home town and wonder if there is anyone on this forum with any knowledge of copyright law and parish register transcriptions? Not surprisingly we have been refused permission to use the transcibed register for the parish church by the Lancashire Parish Register Society, but would really like to see some burials at least on the site. We are looking into the possibility of making some original transcriptions (the advice given elsewhere on this site will be useful!) but don't wish to fall foul of the law!

I'd appreciate any advice.

Barbara
You own the copyright to your own work - which means that you have to make your own transcriptions from the original source (or film or whatever). It has to be your own original work, that's all.
On my own site, I'm putting photos of memorial stones, with their transcriptions beside them. The indexing took a bit of time, but it's been very well received, thus far.

[aravyn]

Thanks for your replies ladies,

We had thought of buying the microfiche if possible (although I live close to the records I work and therefore haven't much time, and the other transcriber lives some distance away) but I note on the Devon Record Office site a requirement that any fiche purchased must only be for private study. Would this not apply to all areas?

Are there not also issues with the church as officially they would 'own' the rights to the fiche? Would we not need to OK it with them? I have put the memorial inscriptions on site, but I had to obtain the Vicar's consent, even though I put the records into a database.

Also, although my transcriptions of wills (hard labour!) appear on the site I also needed permission for these.

I wonder if there is a deffinitive site or reference for copyright and these kind of materials?

Sorry for all the questions, but I am itching to get started!

[Guy Etchells]

Ah, that old chesnut copyright again, it causes so many problems.
The record office own the copyright on the fiche they produce, this means you cannot have that fiche or the images from that fiche reproduced without their consent.

As you rightly say the vicar of the church concerned holds the copyright to the parish registers which at one time was considered to be perpetual copyright as with crown copyright but the situation has changed.
Now there is a copyright limit on parish registers as with other unpublished works, but that does not really concern us here.

What you are proposing is to transcribe data from the registers and index (possibly) that. Raw data is not copyrightable and so no one can stop you transcribing the registers and putting that information online.
I would suggest as a matter of courtesy that you contact the vicar and inform him/her of your intention and offer a copy of the transcription to the church, point out how useful it would be to him to have a copy and also that the church could make some money out of selling cds of the transcription.
It is always better to have the vicars consent than to antagonise him/her.

Wills, wills as published works are the copyright of the person who died, this copyright will transfer to whoever inherited that persons estate. It lasts for 70 years after the death of its author.
Cheers
Guy

[aravyn]

Wonderful!Now all we need are the fiche. Thank you so much.

[Paul Bradshaw]

I wished to see some parish records and they would not allow unless I paid 20£ fee which I would not ,the information was also kept in the local authority records office and was free ,so yes its not their property ,its for the common good ,in fact we should charge churches who charge others for this right,the church unfortunatly have got in on a money making venture of the meanest kind .just sharing this Paul