Digitization of GRO's births, marriages and deaths records

There's news about the on again, off again, story of digitization of vital records for England and Wales. According to a release from the Passport and Identity Service, the agency now responsible, the project is again moving forward.

Apparently through the DOVE project, now bereft of life ..., over 130 million records have been digitised, namely the birth records from 1837 to 1934 and the death records from 1837 to 1957; this is approximately half of the total number of GRO records of birth, marriage and death."

Interesting that no progress was made on marriages.

You can read the official version at www.ips.gov.uk/cps/rde/xchg/ips_live/hs.xsl/1090.htm, and Chris Paton's cogent comments at http://scottishancestry.blogspot.com/2009/11/dove-shot-in-mid-flight-welcome-in-dip.html