It was only in a meeting with another User Group member prior to the actual User Group meeting, - we do our very best to get our act in order before the full UG meeting
, - that I learnt that the date for the availability for the 1841 and 1861 censuses on line at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk had yet, once again, been delayed, - from "Summer 2005" to "Winter 2005".I could give you "bell, book and candle" in terms of GROS's justification of this at today's UG meeting, except that such multiple. continued reassurances now mean nothing whatsoever to me in terms of repeated, previous re-assurances to the UG by GROS in terms of promised dates after previous reassurances in terms of previous promises in terms of dates, - which were obviously fallacious.
I can now only encourage every reader of this post to email GROS, as well as their MSP and MP, in terms of the very obvious and continued failures of GROS to meet multiple and repeated very clear and repeated promises on many previous occasions in terms of repeated promises as regards the availability on line of the outstanding censuses and other databases, - 1841, 1851, 1861, & Minor Records, including RCEs ......... i.e. to bombard MPs, MSPs, and others in appropriate terms .............
So where are we now in terms of the 1841, 1851 & 1861 census indexes and digitised images on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk ??
All that I am now able to say is that these records will, at some future point, appear on the www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk site ..... but that is all that I feel comfortable to place on the record, i.e. at some future point, which I am no longer prepared to specify, these census records, - indexes and digitised images, will come on line, - 3 months from now, 6 months, 12 months, 24 months, wha the heck kens!! <bg> <sad g>, I no longer understand the GROS/SoL/SP agenda(s) and how these affect the future availability of these records...........
Whether the date for such access is later in 2005 or into 2006 is no longer a subject on which I'm prepared to speculate !!
, but, very sadly, I can only conclude that there has to be a distinct possibility, sadly maybe even a probability, that 2006 is the more likely availability date.The Deputy Registrar General Scotland, - Paul Parr, - made the clear comment at today's User Group meeting that the only real method of assessing GROS/SP's future performance in the light of the above comments would be to examine the appropriate outcomes...........
The only possible "good" outcome from the situation is that, whatever the timescale, all three censuses, 1861, 1851, & 1841, - indexes and digitised images, - are most likely to come on line within a period of 2 to 3 months after the online availablity of the first of these three datasets .......... if not, then the User Group will go totally ballistic <v v v sad g>
Davie