Gloucestershire Archives charging us to photograph records (Announce)

by rookancestrybest , United Kingdom, Friday, November 20, 2009, 19:32 (5484 days ago) @ admin

I am concerned about any charges for information as I think people ought to have a right to know their family history. Perhaps we should lobby Gloucester Archives as a group to express our concern? I know in the city where I live there is no charge to look at records but I don't know if they charge to photograph them. I know I asked to photocopy some pages out of a printed book for personal use (a book containing information about my Forest of Dean ancestor's workplace and how he came to move from the Forest to Yorkshire) and they did not allow any photocopying at all on grounds that it could fade documents. But in the case of the document I wanted to copy it was printed and not any older than a few decades!!!!
Having said that though I have found that different councils subscribe to different family history websites and what I tend to do is go to nearby boroughs as well as the one in which I live to take advantage of the different subscriptions they have. This works well as I have found different information according to the resource used.
I am conscious though that a lot of money is being made out of people's family history which is one reason why I always tell Mormons when I see them that I really appreciate their website and the information it holds on family history being easily accessible and free of charge.