* Census Entry Utility by Nick Walker

[admin]

Gedcom Census v1.0 © N.S.Walker 2004About Gedcom CensusGedcom Census is an application designed to be used in conjunction with Calico’s Family Historian to allow faster and more convenient creation of England/Wales Census source records for single households with occupation and census events linked to the source for each individual in the household. This program is not in anyway connected to or endorsed by Calico Software.Thanks to Jane Taubman for all of her help in finding the first bugs in this application, and hosting the files.Copyright NoticeYou are free to distribute this program but only if this document is distributed with it and that the program is not reverse-engineered or changed in any way.Warranty and SupportThere is no warranty. Although I have made reasonable attempts to ensure that this program is virus-free and fault-free, I can not be held liable for anything untoward that may happen to your computer or the files upon it. Do not install this program if you don’t agree with or understand this. Having said that I would like to know if you do have any problems, contact me via nsw@eidosnet.co.uk .Please email me if you have any problems with Gedcom Census or suggestions for improvements. However, I don’t guarantee that I will continue to give this support for ever!DisclaimersI have only tested this with GEDCOM files created by Calico’s Family Historian 2.2 (http://www.family-historian.co.uk), although I believe it should work with earlier (or later) versions as well as 100% compatible GEDCOM 5.5 files produced by other programs (if any other programs are able to do this!).This program was originally written in a couple hours one afternoon to help me to enter 100s of census entries that I had stored as notes in Family Tree Maker. I then spent a large number of hours getting this ready for other people to use, creating the setup program, etc. If this program proves to be of interest to anyone else other than me I may be tempted to add more features but currently it produces data in a format that I wanted to use in my own family history file.I have only tested this on a Windows XP computer, I therefore assume it should work on Windows 2000 computers. I guess it will work on Windows 98 and Windows ME but I have no proof of this. Let me know if you have problems.Make sure you backup your family history file before you load it in to Gedcom Census. I have never had a problem with it and indeed a backup is made automatically every time you create a census entry (see later), but better to be safe than sorry!This program only deals with UK Census for the years 1841 to 1901.InstallationRun the download file (Gedcom Census 1.0.exe) and follow the usual instructions to install the program. You should find it creates a shortcut in your Start Menu in the (All) Programs section under a sub-menu “Gedcom Census”. Click on this shortcut to run the program.Using Gedcom CensusBefore creating a new census source entry make sure that the people in the census entry that you want to refer to in your family history file have already been added using Family Historian. Gedcom Census will not add new individuals to your file.Important: Make sure that the GEDCOM/Family Historian file you are going to add the census entry to is not open in Family Historian at the same time. i.e. close Family Historian before you use GEDCOM Census. This is important as you might find Family Historian automatically saves over the top of your updated file causing you to lose the new census records you have added.Use the Open File dialogue box to select your GEDCOM file. You will then be presented with a screen with various fields that need to be filled in and a list of all of the individuals in your GEDCOM file. The Source ID textbox shows the ID that will be recorded for this new source once it has been added to the GEDCOM file.Steps to add a census entrySelect a Census Year from the drop-down list (e.g. 1901)Type in the place that the census entry refers to in the Census Place textbox (e.g. Warrington, Lancashire)The Other Info textbox can be used to add some further information to help to easily distinguish this source from others. I usually use this to refer to the head of the household or most important person to me. (e.g. Alfred Hough)If you know the PRO reference code for the census entry type this in to the Reference Code textbox (e.g. RG13/3583/157)The Address textbox can be used to record the address of the census entry (e.g. 17 Helsby Street)The Full Title textbox can not be edited but should be automatically constructed using information entered in steps 1 to 4 above. This will be the title given to the source record when viewed in Family Historian. (e.g. “Census 1901 Warrington, Lancashire RG13/3583/157 (Alfred Hough)” )Type the census entry into the Source Text box with as much or as little detail as you choose. I rarely include all columns mainly through laziness. (e.g.
1901 Census Warrington (RG13/3583 - 157)
17 Helsby Street
Alfred Hough   47   Joiner ?                  Sandbach
Anne Hough     47                        Sandbach
Elizabeth Hough23   Fustian Cutter            Warrington
George Hough   20   Joiner                    ditto all children
Mary J         18   Fustian Cutter
Alfred         14   Timber work errand lad
Beatrice       14   Fustian Cutter
Eva            9

The All Individuals list shows all of the people in your family history file with the date of birth of the person in brackets to help to distinguish two people who may have the same name. If the date of birth is not recorded then the Record ID of the individual is shown insteadSelect the first person in the household who appears in your tree from the All Individuals list. They should appear in the first row of the set of textboxes at the bottom of the screen. If you select the wrong person click on the grey button with an X marked on it. This always removes the last person added from the census entry.Fill in the age of the person and the occupation details (if applicable). If the age refers to months or weeks then click on the Y with the mouse to change it. The value with switch from Y to M to W and back to Y with each click.When you select the first person, the Immediate Family list will display the parents, children, siblings and spouses of the person assuming they appear in your family history file.You can now continue to select the other people in the census entry from either the All Individuals or Immediate Family lists, filling in the age and occupations for each as described in step 9.If there are people in the census entry that you don’t have or want to have in your family tree file then obviously you don’t need to include them though you will probably want to include them in the transcript of the census entry in the Source Text in step 7.Press the Save Changes button once the census details have all been included. This will immediately save the new source record and associated events to your Family Historian/GEDCOM file. You can then go back to step 1 and enter a new census record.Before saving the changes a backup is made of the GEDCOM file in the Gedcom Census folder. A new backup file will appear every time Save Changes is selected. These will be numbered Backup 1.ged, Backup 2.ged, etc. To save disk space it is probably sensible to delete these files occasionally once you are certain that you don’t need them.What changes does Gedcom Census make to my Family Historian/GEDCOM file?A new source is created for the census record with the Title field filled in (see step 6 above) and the Text from Source filled in (see step 7 above).Each individual selected in steps 9 to 12 above will gain a Census Event with the date, age, Place and Address fields filled in. This event will also automatically be linked back to the source census record.Those individuals with an occupation entered in the census will gain an occupation attribute with the Date and Place fields filled in. I chose not to also fill in the Age and Address fields for the occupation as the age given is often not reliable in a census entry and I felt that the address for an occupation attribute probably ought to refer to the place of work rather than where they live (although these are sometimes the same thing). Again the occupation attribute will be linked back to the source census record.


This program has been superceeded - please check for the latest version in the Downloads section under Gedcom utilities

[AlasdairMacG]

Hi Jane.

I have clicked the link to http://www.bakery.co.uk/fh/Gedcom_Census_1.exe
in the census entry utility article, and the site I get taken to is a Bakers site, with no mention of FH !!
Is the link wrong, or am I being daft?

Regards.

Alasdair.