Policy Statement

The Purpose and Future of the Site

The Genealogy in Hertfordshire web site is one of a number created by Hertsweb over 20 years ago to provide online facilities for the people of Hertfordshire, and I have been the online genealogist and webmaster for all but the first few months. The purpose of the site is basically educational and its aim has been to provide advice on family and local history research linked to the County of Hertfordshire. Over the years the site has grown enormously to well over a gigabyte, and has been widely used (up to 1000 visitors a day) and cross-linked, including several hundred links from Wikipedia to the site. In 2012 a separate blog, Hertfordshire Genealogy News, was established to report on changes to the main web site and also give details of time-limited events. The site has always been free, but people who find the site useful have been encouraged to make donations to help the mentally ill in Hertfordshire in memory of my daughters Lucy and Belinda.

However all good things come to an end. The Frontpage software used to maintain the site ceased to be supported by Microsoft over 10 years ago, and will not run under Windows 10. I am now 81 and don't have the energy I once did - and will not be here for ever. In addition problems associated with old age mean that at some stage I may have to down-size my accommodation - which means dismantling the extensive library of books, post cards, maps and ephemera used to help run the site. As a result it has been decided to put the site into "Archive Mode" to ensure that no important historical information is lost when it is node longer possible for me to support the site.

This means that in future the web site policy will concentrate on safeguarding the historical content for the future.  The aim is to ensure

1. That the current web site continues to be available - even if no longer updated. Arrangements have been made for the British Library to include it on the sites they archive.

2. That when down-sizing becomes unavoidable no unique documents will be lost

3. If possible the Newsletter will continue even if the main site is no longer being updated.

4. Donations to help the mentally ill will still be accepted and those who have found the web site useful in the past, but have not yet made a contribution will be encouraged to do so.

As the site has got rather untidy this will involve maintenance - probably village by village - and the addition of material already in the "To Do" queue. While simple questions about material already on the site will still be answered no new project work will be started - priority being given to material which has already been digitized but is not yet on line.  Progress reports will be given on the Newsletter.

NOTE: Arrangements have been made for the British Library to include it on the sites they archive.

NOTE: From 2019 any pages which I update or check as part of the archiving process will have the page banner coloured blue. This is to tell users of the site, and remind me, which pages can be considered up-to-date. Pages with the banner coloured grey are considered "out of date" because more useful information is almost certainly to have come online on genealogy web sites since the page was created.

This site has been created to help people to carry out research into genealogy, family and local history linked to Hertfordshire. The approach used is to educate by example by demonstrating the wealth of information available and the varied sources it comes from, and by also showing the pitfalls awaiting the unwary.

To do this it is often necessary to quote from sources, in order to demonstrate the kind of information they contain, and the way they can be used, and this raises the question of copyright. For this reason the following "fair usage" rule is applied to the use of pictures, drawing, maps, reproduction of manuscript documents, and direct quotations.

(1) The source of any copyright material used will be identified where practical.

(2) Where appropriate a web page will be created - in the form of a review if relevant - describing the source, how it may be accessed, and the uses to which it might be put. The idea is to encourage the reader to want to access the source.

(3) For a typical reasonable sized local history book in copyright "fair usage" will normally be limited to no more than three illustrations or quotations of less than one page, and totalling no more than three pages. Significant extracts will only be done with the explicit permission of the copyright holder. 

(4) The idea is to educate genealogists by example - and as a result examples of a wide range of documents are being included. There is a "problem" with small items which have to be reproduced in their entirety if they are to be a satisfactory example. Virtually everything is potentially copyright - and I suspect that even a used bus ticket, or the writing on a milk bottle, is covered by the Act! In the case of much 20th century ephemera, including undated photographs, post cards, letters, advertisement handouts, etc., it is often impractical to fully identify the copyright holder (if any). In such cases details of possible source, etc., will be given as comprehensively as practical.

(5) In general scanned images (at least where copyright is involved) will be at a comparatively low resolution, so that anyone wanting to print them out, or enlarge them, will find they need to access the original source. In the case of out-of-copyright engravings and post cards where I have an original I am now placing larger images online (click on smaller image for bigger size). If you want to use these larger images see Note 7.

(6) If any copyright holder of material used in this way requests it, material for which they hold the copyright will be removed. I should make it clear that I make no claim which invalidates any prior copyright or document holders existing rights.

(7) Where I own the copyright I am happy to allow material to be copied for non-commercial purposes as long as due acknowledgement to the site are given. As for any other request for information addressed to this site, there is a suggestion that a donation to charity would be appropriate.

(8) If you have any doubts, please tell me.

NOTE: The above was drafted before the recent changes in European Copyright  Laws - and in addition the law in different parts of the world may be different. I am not a copyright lawyer and during the archive phase of this site I am continuing to work with the guidelines I have been using.

A Note on the Modern Photographs

In recent years I have started using photographs which I have taken myself. Such photographs may be used for non-commercial purposes as long a proper acknowledgement to the source is given, donations being appreciated. If required higher resolution images can be provided on request.

The Provision of Information from Web Sites

NOTE: The follow note applied when I was operating a full Question and Answer service. I will still consider queries which relate to existing material and extend the value of the eventual archive by providing information which is not easily available on other key web sites. I also want to know of any existing errors - as a site of this size is certain to have some problems.

Many questions to this site come from people who have not yet used such services - or who have tried and failed. What they need is help and advice as to how to find and access the information, and in many cases beginners also need the assurance that the information they seek is there to be found.

The approach taken is education by example - encouraging them to use the most relevant services for themselves, and providing just enough information to demonstrate that further research would be worthwhile. For instance, if a beginner is looking for the parents of Tony Hancock and the answer is in a census my reply may take the form "If you look in the 1861 census you will find Tony Hancock living with his parents at Railway Cuttings, East Cheam" - leaving it to the questioner to look up details of the parents themselves. Wherever possible I will suggest further ways in which the questioner can make further advances - and in some cases I may already have discovered that the suggested avenues will be successful.

In deciding what information to quote, and what to leave to the questioner to follow up a lot depends on the source of the information. Some web sites, for example familysearch, FreeBMD and Access to Archives, provide information without charge, and encourage the free exchange of information. Now even the Victoria County History is online! In such cases there is no difficulty in quoting the information - but at the same time it is very simple for the questioner to look the information up themselves - so much depends on the context as, for example, more extensive quoting may allow me to plan out a more comprehensive programme of further research.

In addition a significant amount of information is available through commercial sites, such as Ancestry and Findmypast, with indexes and in some cases document images. In general paid-for information is supplied "for personal use only" and I would be breaking the contractual terms if I simply down-loaded information using my subscription and posted it in total "for free". My approach is to look at what is available, plot out a plan of research, and provide just enough information to encourage the person asking the question to look for more. [In some cases, such as census returns, there are multiple sources - and in such cases I will reference the general source - for census the census and year - and describe the options on a separate page.]

Privacy

This site is for communicating historical information and names, addresses and personal information on living people will not normally be posted, unless they have indicated in some way that they are interested in exchanging information on genealogical or historical research. See The Policy on Questions relating to Living People.

Educational Use

Some of the people using this site are students at schools, universities, etc. preparing course work, project reports, etc., for assessment as part of a course.  Material from this site may be used AS LONG AS IT IS PROPERLY ACKNOWLEDGED. I will be quite prepared to advise examiners in any cases where material from this web site is passed off as the student's own work without acknowledgement.

Commercial Use

The information on this site is provided in the spirit of free exchange of information, and may not be used for commercial gain, without permission - when a suitable donation would be suggested. Where the copyright of the material on this site belongs to a third party. their permission must be sought for the reuse of that material.

A Note on Picture Images

For many old engravings, maps, documents and early postcards I own a copy and can supply a higher resolution image for publishing in your family history, etc. While no formal charge is made you will be reminded that a donation is a pleasant way of saying thank you. - Part of the archiving process will be to upgrade smaller post card images so that clicking on the image will give a larger resolution.

Acknowledging Use of this Web Site

If you have a web site or blog and wish to direct people to this web site you may freely use the link www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk. If you want to direct them to a particular place page, for example Tring, you may use a link in the form www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/links/tring.htm. Similar "safe" links can be provided on specific topics on request. Links directly to other pages may suffer from "link rot" when I make changes to the web site. If you actually want to include quotations or copies of pictures from this web site you must include a link back to this web site to acknowledge the source of the material.. As such a linkage suggests a common interest please contact this site using tell me - as it might be appropriate for me to include a return link to your web site.

The Signature Logo The logo appears as a faint watermark  on the pages of this web site and it is used to sign off all the menus. It comes from the letter heading of the authoress Ursula Bloom (1892-1984). She was the great niece of my great grandfather, Jacob Reynolds, and lived in St Albans with her mother for a time. Ursula wrote over 500 books and for a time was listed as the most prolific woman author in the Guinness Book of Records. Her books were mainly fiction (written under a variety of pseudonyms) but she also wrote a number of biographical and family history volumes.