In almost twenty years working as a genealogist, I don't think I have ever been as angry as I was yesterday when I read about Ancestry's latest endeavour.
In a quite frankly appalling development, Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) is taking the National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk) to court in a bid to try to gain access to many of the records available on ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk). The story is at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy50gn5353zo.
Ancestry is doing this because the NRS has refused to enter into a financial agreement with the records platform, stating that it would cost the archive £3.7 million a year in lost revenue, I imagine because the need for the ScotlandsPeople platform would collapse. The Information Commissioner's Office actually sided with the NRS, but Ancestry has challenged this with a body I have never heard of based in London, called the General Regulatory Chamber. It's reported that the Tribunal has ruled that the NRS should be able to make the records available, but has also noted that it hasn't got the legal authority to compel it to do so**. So there will now be a separate hearing.
In the past, Ancestry has entered into many agreements with the National Archives (TNA) in England to digitise and host records, often with exclusivity periods, for example with past census releases. But those were entered into as the result of a decision by that archive to seek commercial involvement (TNA also regularly partners with TheGenealogist and FindmyPast).
The NRS holds its records in trust for me and the people of Scotland. If I was to challenge the NRS that it was not providing access to Crown copyright records that I felt it should open up, there would perhaps be a moral case to support the challenge, with my being a Scottish based taxpayer. And indeed, there is a mechanism to attempt to do so, the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act, which I know various colleagues have attempted to use from time to time.
But Ancestry, by contrast, is a multinational for-profit genealogy company. Its main interest is its shareholders, no matter how fluffy the language on its platform may be for hungry genealogists. The idea that it may feel that it has a right to demand access to records so that it can make them available on a for-profit basis is quite frankly shocking.
If Ancestry succeeds here, which archive and country is next for its lawyers?
I have many issues with the NRS, which in many ways I find to be opaque and antiquated when compared to other UK based national archives. I have often discussed them on this platform, and continue to stand by the various criticisms that I have levelled at the platform in the past. The lack of a subscription based model for access to its records is just one of these criticisms. On that basis alone, I can imagine many people around the world will be supporting Ancestry's demands.
But this is a slippery slope. And as things stand just now, it is my sincere belief that Ancestry should back off (not the words I specifically want to use at this juncture, I have a few more that would be more appropriate!). From the reaction to this story on my Facebook page yesterday, Ancestry will certainly win few friends in Scotland with this action.
I'm absolutely disgusted. Good luck to the NRS in the legal proceedings.
UPDATE: ** In fact, that's not quite the case. Having now read through the judgment itself, the judge has found NRS was within its rights to refuse access, but that its description of what Ancestry wishes to do with the records is wrong. It has, however, noted that Ancestry can pursue as a point of law whether the NRS should have the right to allow exemptions to access in the first place. You can read more about the legal proceedings in my follow-up post at https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2025/09/more-on-legal-proceedings-by-ancestry.html.
Chris
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