From: tickettyboo@mail2oops.com   
      
   On 2018-07-31 19:28:45 +0000, Richard Smith said:   
      
   > I was browsing the registers on the FreeReg site earlier this evening   
   > when an idea occurred to me.  There are some registers that I'm eagerly   
   > hoping will eventually be transcribed, whether on FreeReg or elsewhere,   
   > because the originals are too inconveniently located for me to consult   
   > easily.  For me, one example is St Peter Port, Guernsey.  I'm sure most   
   > people have their own parishes like this.   
   >   
   > On sites like FreeReg or the various Online Parish Clerk projects,   
   > transcripts are done entirely by volunteers.  The choice of what to   
   > transcribe is made by some combination of the volunteers and project   
   > coordinators, depending how each project is run.  Having spoken over   
   > the years to some of the volunteers who transcribe these registers, I   
   > know some are happy to transcribe anything and others are only   
   > interested in transcribing records from their own areas of interest.  I   
   > was quite surprised to hear from people involved with FreeReg quite how   
   > many people were happy to transcribe anything.  Clearly the people   
   > doing that are not doing it for any personal reward (other than the   
   > satisfaction of doing something useful).   
   >   
   > Is there any mileage to having a system where people can pledge money   
   > to reward those transcribing the registers of interest to the person   
   > pledging the money?  If the transcribers don't want the reward, it   
   > could be donated to a charity instead.  The reward a single person   
   > might offer is unlikely to be sufficient to influence the choice of   
   > what to transcribe, but if several people pledged towards the same   
   > records, it could make a significant difference.   
   >   
   > This could help both the transcription project by getting more   
   > volunteers, and also the people who pledged the reward by speeding up   
   > the transcription of the records they wanted.   
   >   
   > I'm not aware of any such schemes.  Is this because no-one has come up   
   > with it before, or because there's some flaw in the idea that I've not   
   > considered?   
   >   
   > Richard   
      
   One of the aspects that you may not have considered is that any   
   'choice' of what to transcribe is mainly governed by the actual   
   availability of records for transcribers to work from.   
   I have just looked at the website of the Priaulx Library (which holds   
   the Guernsey records you are interested in).  Their Record User Guide   
   resembles those of a number of archives and is very specific about the   
   conditions that govern getting a copy of a 'single' record, even if you   
   could raise the money to get a copy of a complete register I'd doubt   
   that they would agree to provide it or give permission for it to be   
   transcribed.  This page would seem to bear that out:   
   https://www.priaulxlibrary.co.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/pdf   
   /Copyright_church_registers.pdf   
      
      
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   Tickettyboo   
      
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