FLHIG

Family and Local History
Indexing Group

Selected articles from the Newsletter

This article first appeared in SIGGNL 12  (May 1996)

Coventry 1891 Census Index
by Peter Cobbett (Coventry FHS)

I was very interested in Tony Rydings' article on the Group (Family Tree Magazine, January 1996).  The reason: in Coventry we set up some eighteen months ago the Coventry Family History Society, and during the next year we managed to enrol over two hundred members, which to my mind constitutes a very successful start.  Three members of my family and I are on the committee.  One of the projects we undertook was to index the 1891 census returns of Coventry.  We purchased microfiches of the original enumerators books, and started transcribing them onto forms.  The forms are then checked, and the data on them entered and saved onto disk as a text file.  From there, the data is fed into a computer program, which was written for us by one of my sons.

Now for the problems: I am the piggy-in-the-middle.  I have one son who is an expert on genealogy, but whose knowledge of computers is basic.  I have another son who is an expert analyst-programmer, who does not want to know about genealogy.  Finally, I have the help of seven or eight people who enter data for me.  They are simply people keying material into the computer using word processors, and when I get the disks back I find literally hundreds of mistakes on them.  As for me, I know a little, just a little on each subject.  All in all, I feel as a group we are tackling a project where we start as complete beginners, and any information we can glean from you would be a great help.

The program I am using was written by my analyst-programmer son in Delphi and certainly took several days to write.  It indexes the data by surname, forename and age.  The reference is fiche number, piece number, enumeration district, folio, page number, and ecclesiastical parish.  In the Coventry census there are about 55,000 people and over a thousand pages of census returns.  That, very briefly, is our situation.

I have previously indexed and sorted all the street names in the census, which was very easy because I used Microsoft Word.  I am also involved in the Cobbett One Name Study Group, and have over ten thousand Cobbetts in our database, but this present project is a bit of a nightmare.  Even now I am not sure what we are aiming for.  If you can suggest any literature that I might help, I would be grateful.

Editor's comments

With regard to mistakes, some are inevitable, but your inputters should  cross-check their own work before passing the disks over to you.  The program can help in throwing out invalid data, but even the best typist will make mistakes, and will not be offended at the idea of having their work checked.  In addition, reduce the error rate by providing carefully written guidelines, telling volunteers to key in what they see on the material, how to deal with the occasional difficult entry, and not to be afraid to ask for advice if they are not sure what to do.  Give the format you need if you have not provided a program which will set up the data in the right format.

As I mentioned in the last issue, we have had the idea of a manual on genealogical indexing suggested a couple of times - first as an SI Occasional Paper, then more recently as an FFHS booklet - and Tony Rydings has given some thought to this.  However Tony cannot carry this forward himself, and we would welcome a volunteer (or volunteers) prepared to take on the work.

It also helps to be involved with a project from an early stage.  I am a comparative newcomer to the Society of Indexers, although I have some experience as a genealogist.  I think the best way is for Peter Cobbett, and any other member with a problem, to feel free to pick the brains of fellow SIGG [FLHIG] members.  What comments or suggestions can other readers make? -

Colin Mills.

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