Recording Census Pages

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laschapas
Posts: 74
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2006 9:48 am
Location: Derbyshire, UK

Recording Census Pages

Post by laschapas » Sun Dec 06, 2009 1:45 pm

Hi all,

How do you record the information you transcribe from a census page? I have been looking at various Family History programs for ideas as to how census forms are recorded. I have not found a program that includes a census form. I want to record the transcription of a family on one note attached to a family record. Here is what I do, I invite comments and suggestions particularly if you think your way is better.

The note form of Kith&KinPro has limited formatting features, you can change the font, search, import & export the file. When entering text the only formatting is using the TAB & RETURN keys.

Here is a copy of my recording of a family on the 1861 census:-

The description field is:-
1861 Census Page Image - Golden Hill 1924/46/21

The datafield is:-
Piece Enumerator's District Folio Page Schedule
1924 7 46 41 238

Parish [or Township] of Oldcott
City or Municipal Borough of -
Municipal Ward of -
Parliamentary Borough of -
Town of -
Hamlet or Tything, &c., of -
Ecclesiastical Parish or District of Golden Hill

Registration district Wolstanton
Sub-registration district Tunstall

No Road Name Relation Condition Age Occupation Born
238 Garden St Willm Nixon Head 25 Coal Miner Stafford, Goldenhill
Sarah Nixon Wife 25 Stafford, Bucknall
James Nixon son 4 Scholar Stafford, Goldenhill

As you can see cut & pasting the page into this forum ruins the data alignment I created by tabbing. I match the Privacy Level number to the RG number of the census page, ie. 1861 is RG09 so Privacy Level is 9.

I also combine all the census years together under one note at Privacy Level 15, for example :-

1861 Garden St, Golden Hill (1924/46/41)
Name Relation Condition Age Occupation Born
Willm Nixon Head 25 Coal Miner Stafford, Goldenhill
Sarah Nixon Wife 25 Stafford, Bucknall
James Nixon son 4 Scholar Stafford, Goldenhill

1871 47 High Street, Golden Hill (2844/11/15)
Name Relation Condition Age Occupation Born
William Nixon Head mar 35 Collier Goldenhill, Staffs
Sarah Nixon Wife mar 35 Bucknall, Staffs
James Nixon son 14 Works in Coal Pit Goldenhill, Staffs
Thomas Nixon son 7 Scholar Goldenhill, Staffs
Frederick Nixon son 3 Scholar Goldenhill, Staffs
Louisa Nixon daur 1 Goldenhill, Staffs

Again the tab formatting has failed in the copy to this forum.

I await your comments with interest,

John Wood

donne
Posts: 80
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 12:46 pm
Location: UK
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Post by donne » Sun Dec 13, 2009 1:37 am

I don't think it is surprising that formatting should be lost by cutting and pasting text from one application to another e.g. from your KKPro datafield window to this forum or indeed to any other destination. If you really want to preserve format, then I would think one way to do it would be to create a form in some sort of spreadsheet program and then save it as a pdf file which you could then import as an object into KKPro.

Using privacy level as a classification is quite neat although I'm not quite sure how it is used.

Personally I have a different issue with censuses, namely whether to attach the census notes to the individual or the family. Generally, I would prefer to enter the census information just once, for the family. However, it would be useful if this same information could also be flagged as available when the person information for the individuals comprising the family is called up, and could be accessed directly from the person data form.

laschapas
Posts: 74
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2006 9:48 am
Location: Derbyshire, UK

Post by laschapas » Mon Dec 14, 2009 1:38 pm

Hi Roger,

To answer your question :-

"Using privacy level as a classification is quite neat although I'm not quite sure how it is used. "

In my example I said I recorded all 1861 census data with a privacy level of 9 to match RG9 from the Register General 9 filing system for all 1861 census data. I can then do the following query to find all families with an 1861 census entry :-

--Notes with a Privacy Level of 9 (Families with 1861 census data)
SELECT Notes.[RecordCode], Notes.[Description] FROM Notes
WHERE ( Notes.[PrivacyLevel] = 9 ) AND ( UPPER(Notes.[RecordType]) LIKE '%F%' )

This produces a list with two fields; the Record Code, in my example the family is F137; & Description, the description field from the Note. All families will 1861 data will be listed, I have only shown one example. Below is how the family from my example is shown :-

RecordCode Description
137 1861 Census Page Image - Golden Hill 1924/46/21

If you right click the query window and select [Export to text file..] you will get a text fill containing all notes with a privacy level of 9 for all the families on the list. You could restrict the number of families listed by extending the filter to include a specific place etc..

On your last paragraph; I also only enter the data once and record it against the family. I also record the census page of a single daughter working away from home in service against her parents family record. Only when she is married does she move to a separate family record. If she lives at home with her parents after she is married I record the information against both families. I have examples where a married son lives one side of his parents home and a married daughter lives on the other side. In this case I record all three families on the same census data form and copy the data to all three families.

Following on from my example above, if you print the note as a PDF file you can link it to a person via the [Object] button. I don't see how the system could automatically link it to a person as the family members on a census page changes each year.

I hope these comments help,

John Wood

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