It’s not only the digitising of wills that means original documents will be lost (Ministry of Justice plan to destroy historical wills is ‘insane’, say experts, 18 December). My local registrar told me that new-style marriage documents are transcribed word for word – not even scanned as an image – and the paper originals will be destroyed after five years. If that’s true, it means that future generations risk losing the thrill of being able to see what their ancestors’ signatures looked like. For the quality of the historical record, let’s do better.
Paul Ferguson
Bishop of Whitby
• I was aghast to read the story of the outrageous government plan to digitise and then destroy most wills after 25 years. Which ignoramus initiated this folly? Will they next suggest destroying the registers at the National Archives at Kew and county record offices, or the books and documents at the British Library, just to save money? Certainly digitise documents, but do not destroy originals as they are valuable historical testimonies, the importance of which may not become clear for years to come.
I am a family historian who has felt the thrill of seeing original registers, paper and parchment, and as has been pointed out, this is as emotional as verifying a record.
Derrick Phillips
Coulsdon, London
• The government’s plan to destroy wills after digitisation is insane. I have just spent two years researching local archives for a postgraduate history degree, and the experience would have been impoverished if I had been working solely with digital material. Yet another example of a philistine government that clearly feels little affection for our history or culture.
Patrick Russell
London
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