Cambridgeshire OPC

Across the country there are OPC groups and some years ago I looked to see if there was a Cambridgeshire OPC, but there isn't.

Online Parish Clerks, shortened to OPC, are groups of volunteers who transcribed the parish registers of their county.  They work as a county team, informed, local and interested people transcribing parish registers usually from the originals. Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Lancashire OPC groups seem the most vocal, of the counties I've had to check for records, with phenomenal coverage!

This surprised me at first!  I thought that the interested and educated people of Cambridgeshire would have willingly started an OPC group for Cambridgeshire, but it seems that they prefer to work alone :)  Some OPCs have their entire counties covered.  Almost every parish register transcribed, Censuses published and even local newspapers re-typed and published!

Cambridgeshire does have the Family History Society, of course - and the County Council have made Cambridgeshire BMDs available through their Camdex system, but you simply don't get the same level of commitment and coverage that an OPC might've given.  Perhaps its because people within the county see themselves as different groups and not as a whole.  There is a world of difference between the settlements in the north of the county and the city of Cambridge itself.  Maybe groups felt pulled in one way or another.

It's a shame, but when researching family history in Cambridgeshire, as in any county, you have to work with what you've got!  For beginners, though, it's a vast array of different groups that can be confusing if you're not from round that way.  Born locally, I have a mental map of the area and am familiar with all the place names - that makes it a little easier for me ... but without the records it can be fruitless.

My current best sources of information on Cambridgeshire family history would be:

• FreeREG and FreeBMD (not FreeCEN as there's very little transcribed for Cambs)
• Cambridgeshire Family History Transcribed CDs (a few ££ each)
• Familysearch.org website (free)
• Findmypast (££ or a free trial), who are putting parish registers from CFHS online

Having multiple sources does give you different results.  Transcriptions don't come from the same sources - and, working from the originals, there can be variations in spellings/understanding of what was written down.  Many parish registers are falling apart, faint, faded, scribbled in illegible script and even, sometimes, in Latin or other languages.

I am signed up as a transcriber with a couple of sites, but they don't (as yet) have the parishes I am keen to transcribe (or areas I feel familiar enough with to volunteer).