Deceased online

I have been lucky to find out about a new online database that is due to go live within the next couple of months.  As many of you probably know what line of work my hubby is in this is information he brought me home from work and after reading it gave him some questions to ask and the Company designing this database contacted me and asked me if I would beta test the site for them in about 3 weeks time to give them my views on the site, something that I feel really pleased to be asked to do.  I will put below a brief outline of what they will be offering and the answers to a couple of questions I asked during my telephone conversation with them yesterday.  If anyone would like to ask any questions please feel free to leave me a message and I will make a note of it and ask the company when they contact me.  They are really interested in the fact that there are groups like ours out there and didn’t know how many members belong to these groups.  One of the reasons why the site is being set up is for people like us who have trouble with researching and finding our ancestors and they are hoping to make it a lot easier for all to access records that we have not been able to access without visiting Cemeteries, Crematoriums for burial records etc.  I hope you will find this of interest and will have a look at the site although still under construction it is almost finished and testing about to start and all being well will be going online fully at the end of June beginning of July I will keep you updated as I get more information.

Historically there has been no central facility for searching UK burial and cremation registers.  Enquirers have to approach up to 3000 burial authorities and nearly 250 crematoria individually.  With genealogy becoming one of the most common uses of the internet, this is a very unsatisfactory situation.

Deceased Online has been created to fill this gap by providing a central web search facility for burial and cremation records.

A new and unique internet based central search facility for UK burial and cremation records.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Deceased Online works by holding copies of participants historical register data, and any available register scans, maps and grave and other memorial pictures on its secure high capacity web servers, and regularly updating them automatically via the internet.  This is the first ever national database of its kind.

As with other genealogy websites, on initial search on name and date is free.  This can be limited to an area of the country, a county or district, or an individual burial authority or crematorium.  Credits can be purchased on the website to access further information such as:

·         Additional register details

·         Particulars of other grave occupants

·         Scans of register pages

·         Pictures of graves and other memorials

·         Maps to locate graves and other memorials in cemeteries and memorial gardens

·         Scans of books of remembrance pages.

A feature that will excite family researchers, and which is missing from other types of genealogy websites, is the ability to list all other internments in a located grave, enabling key family connections to be made.

An on-line shop will provide such things as high quality printouts of register pages, and formal certificates showing grave and cremation details.

Internet users from around the world can make searches and shop for information on the Deceased Online website.

I asked about the price of credits for use on the website and expiry date for them.  They have not worked out a price for them yet, but they reckon they will be valid for around 90 days at the moment all this is to be confirmed but as I said I will keep you informed.  What I was told and thought was a good idea, if you have credits left at the end of the period, you can use them as such to recycle them to buy another 90 days so in effect you get your next 90 days credits cheaper so you don’t actually lose the ones you have as happens on most sites, which I thought was a good idea as you do not always get to use them all in time.

I asked about a subscription and they said that has not been decided yet but it is probable there will be one.  I mentioned that I understood that they had to have subscriptions but as with a lot of sites etc, the subscriptions are so expensive it puts people of taking them out especially if you are on a tight budget, I myself only take out a subscription if I can pay for it on a monthly basis as I cannot justify a large sum all in one go and suggested they thing about this.  He said that this was a very valid comment and one they would be looking at and if anyone has anything else they would like to add please do let me know as they would like as much input from us groups as possible as he said we are the ones that will be using the site the most.

I hope you have found this of interest and please do leave me feedback with your thoughts and questions which I will pass on all comments will be valued.  If you wish to visit the site to see how it is going to look please go to www.deceasedonline.com

Dee