Federation Of Family History Societies

Family Records Centre to Close by April 2008

On Tuesday 16 January, as we reported on FFHS-NEWS, The Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced its decision to close its facility at the Family Records Centre (FRC) in Islington, London, which it has shared with The National Archives since 1997. The News Release can be read at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/frc0107.pdf. The National Archives itself announced in June 2006 its decision to relocate those holdings currently at the FRC to Kew in early 2008. At the FRC Regular Users Meeting on Wednesday 21 February, and at the DoVE (Digitisation of Vital Events) meeting on the same day, some further information was offered by ONS.

Although the actual ‘milestones’ have yet to be announced for the EAGLE (Electronic Access to GRO Legacy Events) project, it is expected that by April 2008, as a result of the MAGPIE (Multi Access to GRO Published Index of Events) project, at least the indexes to the ‘historic births’ registrations’ (1837-1934) will be available online, free of charge, with the indexes to the other registrations, including marriage and deaths to follow. These indexes will be accessible on terminals at TNA at Kew (as well as via the internet) when the ONS facilities at the Family Records Centre close.

The FFHS has accepted the GRO's invitation to take part in user testing this new internet facility. However, it is probable that the search facilities that will be offered for these online indexes will be more restricted than users hoped for: for example, searches for a surname only over a specified period will not be allowed, only a year-by-year search. As an interim measure, those indexes not available online will be accessible at TNA, on microfiche. The original vellum and paper indexes will be moved from the FRC to TNA at Kew, but will not be on open access.

Following the closure of the FRC, ONS has no plans to operate any facility in London, or elsewhere, where certificates can be ordered, and/or collected in person: all certificates will have to be ordered online or by post. (Currently, 74% of all certificate orders are online.)  All certificates will then be posted out to the applicants. Although it is hoped that the four-day turn-around will continue, this does now mean that no reliable delivery date can be known as it is the postal service that will need to be relied upon. Currently around 180,000 certificates are ordered monthly, of which 4% are ordered at, and collected from, the FRC. This decision will also affect Priority Orders (currently 24 hour turn-around for collection), many of which are required for both legal and professional services.

No decision has yet been reached as to whether the certificates themselves will eventually be available online as digitized images. No decision has been made as to what will be happening to the Miscellaneous and Overseas Indexes at the FRC, and therefore to the records to which these indexes relate, as these have not been included in the DoVE project.

If you have any thoughts about the decisions recently announced by the ONS, then why not let the FFHS Archive Liaison Officers, Maureen Bullows and Jane Starkie, know - by email to or in writing to The Old Stables, Main Street, Tugby, Leicester, LE7 9WD