Occasional Paper

On 6 July 2000 the Registrar General launched a new initiative that heralded a significant change to the way in which GROS presents its records, and which is likely to have far-reaching consequences for the future of the registration service in Scotland in the 21st century. The product launched was of particular interest to family historians - namely digital images of the 1891 Census enumeration books, which were linked to an existing computer index of over 4 million individual names of the people who were recorded by that Census. Also included were digital images of the statutory registers of births, deaths and marriages for the year 1891. The images, which had been produced from the GROS's own microfilm and microfiche by Benefit Systems, an Edinburgh-based firm, were made available to the public on trial workstations in New Register House. As well as being a valuable resource in itself, the 1891 images were intended as a pilot study to allow GROS to gain experience and insight, preparatory to undertaking a much broader digitisation programme.