Family Historian User Group

Gedcom Census is a free application designed to be used with Calico Pie's Family Historian to allow faster and more convenient creation of census source records with occupation attributes, census events and birth events linked to the sources. Gedcom Census is in no way associated with or endorsed by Calico Pie.

I first developed Gedcom Census early in 2004 and the various versions since, all available exclusively through the FHUG website, have proved to be very popular with over 2,500 downloads. This latest version has several new features, most of which are listed below (see the help file for others).



New features:

• It is now possible to link any number of images to a census entry created using 'method 1'. This is expected to be used to attach census images to the census source. It is possible to link a picture which is already stored as a multimedia object in Family Historian or an entirely new image. When linking an entirely new image, Gedcom Census will optionally rename the file to match the chosen image title.
• There is also a new facility to attach images to existing sources. This allows those users who wish to use Gedcom Census to attach images to their census sources to go back and do the same for those already created.
• The Census Place (location) and Birth Place will now automatically suggest the place being typed based on other locations within the GEDCOM file.
• A sentence describing the date of birth, place of birth and likely age based on information already in the file is now shown for the currently selected individual to help to ensure that the correct person has been chosen.
• The main form can now be resized and maximised. Various elements of the form such as lists, some text boxes, etc. will resize as the form resizes.
• There is a new Find facility to allow an individual to be searched for by name or by browsing through relationships.
• There is a new 'Auto Text' button. This will automatically fill in the source-text based on the individuals chosen. Gedcom Census will make a best-guess when it does this and so it is almost certain that the source text will need to be edited by the user to reflect the details in the original census record. However, this can be a great time-saver.
• I added a 'View All' check-box to be used in conjunction with the 'All Individuals' list. When a census year has been chosen, unticking the check-box will cause the list to not show those individuals who were dead by, or not born until after, the selected year.
• The interface has been changed to use drop-down menus and various options added.
• The Help file has been expanded and greatly improved.
• Gedcom Census makes a backup copy of the GEDCOM file before saving changes to it and therefore it is possible for a large number of backup copies to appear over time. A menu item, 'Remove Old Backup Files' will remove all but the 5 most recent backups of GEDCOM files.
• It is not possible for lists in Gedcom Census to hold more than approximately 32,000 items. Gedcom Census will no longer crash if faced with a file with more than 32,000 individuals and will use automatically untick and disable the 'View All' check-box in this circumstance.
• A bug where Gedcom Census would not load a file if any individual had more than 8 spouses has been fixed
• Right-clicking a GEDCOM file in Windows Explorer and selecting 'Open with Gedcom Census' will now work as expected.

Version 4.0.7 is now available from this website. You can Click Here to download it.

Please contact me if you have any problems and I hope you enjoy using the new version.

Nick Walker
Author of Gedcom Census

Nick Walker has developed a most useful tool for which I think most of us are grateful.

His Intoduction to the update is clear and comprehensive.

Regards
Jane H

Well done, Nick! You've done it again!
Given all your unpaid effort, it is most ungracious of me to suggest even more, but several days before this release I was thinking it would be nice if it created a residence attribute for people listed at the stated address (if one is stated, that is).
Thank you again.
John L

This is great and like John I shouldn't be ungracious, but... my research is mainly Irish so I have census entries for 1911. Is it possible for this to be added to the year selection?

Many thanks

Allyson J

John: In my opinion all that a UK census entry tells you regarding residence is where the person was living on the night of the census and this is covered by a census event. It seems unnecessary to also record a residence event with identical information in it. However, there is an option in Gedcom Census to use a residence attribute instead of a census event (see Options under the Tools menu). If you disagree and have a requirement for a census event and a residence attribute to both be recorded for each person then I can look at this as another option.

Allyson: If you look at the Options (under the Tools menu) you can select either UK, US, Canada or Irish census. If you select the Irish census you will find that 1911 is available.

Hope this helps and thanks for the kind words.

Nick

Many thanks to you again Nick for your efforts. I shall be sending a donation by snail mail so I need an address.

Thanks Ron

Thanks very much! I've sent my address to you via email.

Cheers Nick

Thanks very much Nick. Much appreciated. Don't know what I'd do without it now! Can you send me your address too please?

Julie Goodman

My thanks also Nick. I've just started using it and it's great. But can you please tell me how I can edit an entry? What I mean is I've created census entries and then realised I've left a child off. How can I go back into entries I've created and add people in? (I've tried reading the help but couldn't find the answer there.)

Thanks in advance
Louise

Hi Louise

You will need to add the relevant events and citations to the individual using Family Historian. A quick way to do this if you have missed off an individual:
1) Go to an individual who you did include in the census entry and look at the property dialogue for them.
2) Select the 'Events' tab
3) Select the relevant census event
4) Click on the 'Copy' button that is below the list of events (second button - looks like a picture of two documents overlapping)
5) Now find the individual that you missed off the census entry and go the Events tab for them
6) Click on Paste
7) Edit the age of the person in the census event
8) Repeat the above for an occupation event related to this census entry if applicable, remembering to edit the occupation after pasting.

Hope this helps

Nick

Ignore the smiley-in-sunglasses above, it is meant to be an 8!

Hi Nick,
Just like to say thanks for an excellent little program, which save me a lot of time entering details when i used it for the first time last night.
I agree with John that a residence event would be a nice option, as well as the census event. I could then use that as part of a query to view the locations people lived.
One bug that i did notice is that if you don't enter an occupation for a person that has a previous one, the previous one is picked up when the auto text is generated.

Thanks Again

Richard

Thanks very much for your kind words

If you record the details twice i.e. as a residence event and as a census event then I feel that this is redundant. Really your query should pull out all census and residence places/addresses. If this isn't currently possible using FH then this is a fault of the querying system and not of the way the data is a recorded. I strongly believe that one shouldn't change the way the data is recorded just to compensate for shortcomings in the data access facilities of software. However, I'll consider adding this request as an extra option in future.

Thanks for pointing out the occupation issue. I've not had a chance to check this but I assume you are correct and I'll fix it in the next version.

Hi Nick,
Would it be possible to get an update for your wonderful program to include the 1911 canadain census which is now starting to appear on the web. I believe the date was the 1st June.

Thanks

Richard

Hi Richard

Thanks for letting me know about the canadian census. I will add this to a new update very soon - see the Family Historian Users rootsweb mailing list for details.

Cheers

Nick

Perhaps I've missed it but although I enter the address in the Address field (i.e. number of house and street name) on the Gedcom Census utility, I can't see that information recorded on the source record on FH.

Regards, Martin.

Hi Martin

The information entered in the large 'Source Text' box is what goes into the source so you must type this in to this box yourself if you want this included in the source. The address field, place, date, ages, occupations, etc. get stored in events linked to each individual. To see what I mean, in Family Historian click on an individual and look at the properties for them. Under the Events tab you will see a census event and (if applicable) an occupation event that have the date of the census, the place and the age of the person. These are linked to the source via a citation. The address entered is put into the census event as this is the address the person was at during the census. However, the address is not put into the occupation event because it is more likely that the address of the where they are employed is not the same as the address where they were on the night of the census.

Hope this helps

Nick

Perhaps I've missed it but although I enter the address in the Address field (i.e. number of house and street name) on the Gedcom Census utility, I can't see that information recorded on the source record on FH.

Regards, Martin.

I assume you didn't mean to enter the same question again as I already answered it? Just to repeat, the address is recorded within the census event not in the source record.

Don't know how my message got in there twice - I only input it once! Thanks for the answer by the way Nick.

Martin.

I have just downloaded the software and entered information for the first time, but mistakenly have entered the same census details twice. Is there anyway of deleting entries?

I tried removing the programme and all files but the system will not allow me to remove the program file.

I guess that i have mucked it right up now. How do i sort it out?

I have just downloaded the software and entered information for the first time, but mistakenly have entered the same census details twice. Is there anyway of deleting entries?

I tried removing the programme and all files but the system will not allow me to remove the program file.

I guess that i have mucked it right up now. How do i sort it out?

I love Gedcom Census but I find that when it is downloaded onto my computer (MS XP), which has Norton Firewall, Norton thinks my computer is being intruded by something called BD Blade Runner 0.80a. (This sort of thing turns my head to mush!) Gedcom census is the only download I have on my computer that I need to deinstall before I can use the internet again. Has anyone else had this problem and are there any solutions? Thanks Liz

I love Gedcom Census but I find that when it is downloaded onto my computer (MS XP), which has Norton Firewall, Norton thinks my computer is being intruded by something called BD Blade Runner 0.80a. (This sort of thing turns my head to mush!) Gedcom census is the only download I have on my computer that I need to deinstall before I can use the internet again. Has anyone else had this problem and are there any solutions? Thanks Liz

Hi Elizabeth

I can assure you that Gedcom Census does not include any trojans. With over 1700 downloads of this application and most people having anti-virus nowadays it would have been reported. I use Norton at home (updated daily) and Sophos at work (updated hourly) and neither have ever complained about Gedcom Census.

I suspect something else other than GC is causing the message. At exactly what point does the message from Norton appear and what are the exact words it uses? Please email me via nsw@eidosnet.co.uk about this and I'll see if I can help.

Nick