In his latest weekly Scottish Genes newsletter Chris Paton wrote, “I was a little troubled by a new release from Findmypast… which maybe could have included a wee bit more tact for those recently bereaved.”
Chris wrote on his blog “But I think what bugs me slightly about this is that a commercial company has an index of records including those up to 2024, and from a few test searches, the records appear to go up to January 2024 – in other words, there will be people included in this new database who have literally just passed away four months ago. At least on Ancestry there is a buffer zone of a couple of years for those who may be grieveing.
Perhaps a slight tweak to this might make it a bit more tasteful, FindmyPast?”
The latest issue of the Ottawa Citizen includes obits for about 40 people recently deceased, the latest on 14 May. The family pay a pretty penny to have these published, sharing their grief with the community.
In England and Wales, while entries on the GRO website are only to 2021, probate register entries for deaths are as late as 12 April 2024. Scotland’s People has 202 entries for 2024 death registrations just for people named Reid.
Is Chris being a wee bit tad sensitive?
Chris will be an in-person speaker at the OGS conference in Toronto next month.
This small, 1,474 item, database is a delight for those with nostalgia for cricket. Findout about the careers of Len Hutton, Peter May, Jim Laker and Tony Lock, not forgetting Freddie Trueman. Generations back there’s W. G. Grace and A. N. Hornby.