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Occasional Paper

Ongoing Work

With the success of the digital image concept proven, the DIGROS project has been continuing with the imaging of GROS's other records. In the period since the completion of the 1901 images, work has been in progress on the imaging (from microfiche) of the statutory registers of births and deaths from 1856 onwards, and will soon begin on the statutory registers of marriages. As a result, GROS plans to make all of the 'historical' statutory registers (ie births to 1901, marriages to 1926 and deaths to 1951) available as linked index and image to customers on our pay-per-view website from September 2002, and in New Register House by the end of 2002. Imaging of the census records for 1841, 1851, 1861 and 1871 (from microfilm) is also complete. There are no surname indexes to these records at present, and they will initially be made available as images for 'browsing'. However, the existing street indexes to these censuses will be keyed and made available electronically as part of DIGROS, and the project will also eventually utilise indexing work on the 1841 census done under the auspices of the Scottish Association of Family History Societies (SAFHS).

Work scheduled for 2003 includes the imaging of the remainder of the statutory registers up to 2000, imaging of the 1881 census, and the imaging of the Old Parochial Registers (OPRs) of the Church of Scotland. These records, the earliest of which dates from 1553, and which run until 1854 probably present the greatest technical challenges facing the DIGROS project. Created locally by session clerks, they present a variety of formats and states of preservation, with discoloured and damaged pages and faded inks a particular problem.

Like the census records, the OPRs will be digitally captured from existing microfilm, since this allows for more efficient capture, and prevents damage to the original records during the filming process. However, the images captured will be more sophisticated, greyscale rather than bitonal, both to deal with the physical peculiarities of the originals, and to give readers the higher level of visual information necessary in dealing with 16th and 17th century manuscript. Other aspects of the rendering of the image will be varied, according to the format and age of the records, so as to achieve a reasonable balance between image quality and the compact electronic file size necessary for downloading via the Internet.

Before the end of the DIGROS project in 2003, GROS also intend to capture as image the various minor record series it holds, and the Registers of Corrected Entries which will be cross-indexed with the statutory registers with the statutory register entries to which they relate.