TO BE PHOTOGRAPHED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21850, 31 December 1940, Page 5

TO BE PHOTOGRAPHED

BIRTH AND DEATH ENTRIES FOR 274 YEARS (From Our Own Correspondent) LONDON, October 26 A complete photographic record of every birth, baptism, marriage and death entry in England between 1538 and 1812 is being compiled. This monumental task has been undertaken by the Society of Genealog- , Ists in case originals are destroyed by enemy action. The rolls of film—as many as 10,000 exposures are recorded on one roll 121 n in diameter—are being stored in a safe place. Parishes which lose their registers will be supplied with prints. “The keeping of parish registers began under an ordinance of Thomas Cromwell in 1538,” said Mrs K. Blomfield, secretary of the society this week. “In 1812 entries began to be J made on printed forms and there are so few to a page that the cost of photographing them is prohibitive. , Members of our society and voluntary ; workers have undertaken the task of transcribing entries from that date until 1837, when registration was taken over by Somerset House.” . The society recently had sent for photographic reprodustion some ancient parchment registers which had been in the safe of a church damaged by a bomb. The pages were shrivelled to a third of their original size, ; though the modem millboard!: church ; plate and recent paper registers were i unharmed.