Saturday 19 November 2011

FindmyPast to widen access to international records

Well all is going well here in New Zealand, yesterday's opening sessions at Auckland City Library went down great, and some great topics throughout the day. In one of the talks from Rosemary Kopittke on the various FindmyPast websites around the world she outlined some future plans for the platforms which will be of great interest to many beyond New Zealand! I had heard about these a few months back, but this was the first I had heard of it in the public domain, so now's as good a time as any to share!

There are three FindmyPast websites at present, for the UK, Ireland and Australasia - www.findmypast.co.uk, www.findmypast.ie and www.findmypast.com.au. At present, to use each site you need to purchase individual subscriptions. Around March of next year there will be a development that will allow you to purchase 'bolt-on' packages to the site that you mainly use, to draw in records from the other sites - in much the same way that at present you can purchase additional record sets for your Genes Reunited account, for example additional military records packages to your subscription. Indeed, my understanding from another source is that the GR platform technology is that being used as the basis for the new look FindmyPast platform.

In addition, for those using the Australasian site, there will be a revamp to the look of the site in December, which will reconfigure the collection categories along much the same lines as those of the UK site, and in the very near future the number of records on this version of the site will double, significantly enhancing the material available.

Exciting times ahead for FindmyPast in all its aspects!

Chris

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