Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Democracy - rant by blog owner!

Democracy is a funny thing. Wildly popular, but not all that common. If you want a definition, then hop over to Wikipedia. The word is Greek in origin and means, roughly, rule by the people. Of course, in Ancient Greece, people were the free men. Two thirds of the population were women or slaves, and they didn't get to vote.

Generally speaking nowadays, we think it means "one man one vote". Or "one woman one vote". But in my opinion, this needs a caveat. There has to be an alternative bunch of people who could also form a government. In the UK the government could be run over by a bus and the opposition would be there to take over. Excellent!

Why am I rabbiting on about democracy? Well, democracy in the UK has taken, and is taking, a big hit. The Scottish government in London is handing the UK over to the French government in Brussels. I am rather biased about this I am afraid. I would rather there was an English government in London and a Cornish one in Truro. I don't want to rule the French and I don't want them ruling us. I feel much the same about the Scots.

Democracy in England is not quite as old as democracy in Ancient Athens, but it has been around for a long time. The Anglo-Saxons came to power in much of England about AD600. They elected their kings. Of course, I am not suggested that this was democracy as we know it - a big sword or a large axe was pretty handy in elections. But there was no divine right to be king. This was introduced later on by the Church. What about the Normans you say. Well, they mainly just adapted their system to the Anglo-Saxon one. Most of the Anglo-Saxon system just carried with a different top layer.

So it wasn't all that long after 1066 that parliament arrived. Because the Normans (Norsemen) were also fairly democratic. Since about the 12th century, the parliamentary system moved forward, quite a few hiccups, but it did not fail us.

Now our Scottish Prime Minister is handing us over to the European Union. The EU has one man one vote to elect people to the European Parliament but they have limited powers over the real rulers, the Council of Ministers and the EU Commission. Nor are these people drawn from the parliament. The government is separate from the parliament and there is no handy alternative government around.

Nor is the government elected. Of course, the Council of Ministers are all elected - but not as such. Our Prime Minister is not elected because he is on the Council of Ministers.

My forecast for the present UK government is that they will lose the next election. They will lose it because they are not trusted. So, the handy opposition party takes over as government. But it will make NO difference. The real government, the French one in Brussels, will just sail on. They cannot be removed by the voters.

Before the present treaty comes into force, it is said that 80% of our laws are made in Brussels. EU law outranks UK law. We are about to lose our veto over another 40 or 60 (depends who you listen to) areas .

The UK will then be a province of the new European Empire. Perhaps it will all turn out alright. But if it doesn't, things might get nasty!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Occasional notes No 5 - Copyright

Our basic philosophy is that our transcripts belong to everyone and to no one. Recently, the question of copyright has reared its head again.

If you ask ten experts then you will get ten opinions. So the question of copyright in family history is shrouded in confusion but as far as I know, no one has been prosecuted for breach of copyright in the field of family history. Here is my take on the situation with regard to the UK 19th century census returns.

The Crown has copyright of the UK census returns; this is vested in The National Archives (TNA). The Crown has waived its copyright in the contents of the returns but not in the images. TNA has obviously sold licences to reproduce the images to people like ACDB and Ancestry. Anyone who has transcribed the returns holds the copyright in that transcription - it is theirs. As a collective group, COCP & NWOCP hold the copyright in the completed transcriptions, that is those that have been through our procedures. Legally or not, I hold this copyright on behalf of the volunteers of those projects. The only obligation levied on us by TNA is that we acknowledge that the copyright remains with them in the name of The Crown.

Because we post our completed transcriptions as texts on our web sites, anyone can download them. We have a copyright statement but it is primarily there to try and discourage wholesale copying for commercial purposes. As far as we know, no one has been tempted to do this. We are quite happy for people to download what they need. In addition, completed years are cut to disc and distributed to national and other institutions interested in our areas. We are only bound to supply copies to TNA and the LDS, but the discs go to about 15 institutions.

We are quite happy for people to cut and paste sections into emails or to chat forums. We only ask that you acknowledge where the information comes from.

As I said at the beginning; this is my take on the situation. I am happy with what we do and have been for the last 7 years. Other people may have different views but this outlines the position of the COCP & NWOCP projects. And that of the Warwickshire Ancestors Project 1891 returns.

Occasional notes No 4 - Header Data

Along the top of each page of the enumerator's books is a lot of interesting information. The amount and type varies from census to census; there is very little in 1841. At the start of each enumeration district, there is also a page that records a description of the district including the registration district and sub-district names plus its number. Very little of this information is recorded by Free Census.

The reason we don't record it is due to the limitations of the original programme, INCENS, written back in 1999. There wasn't, it seems, space to record everything. So, from the district description page, we record only the ED number. From the individual page we record the folio number, page number, civil parish and ecclesiastical parish. Page numbers are printed within the page frame, top right or left. Folio numbers are stamped top right on every other page, top right and usually outside the frame. Each two pages are in fact the front and back of one page. So pages without folio numbers take the number of the preceding page. If a page is blank, then leave a note against the last record of the preceding page. This procedure is also followed if a page is missing. You don't have to do this with blank pages at the end of a district.

Returning to the lead-in page. Although we don't record the district description, it is worth volunteers transcribing it, because it is often better written and gives addresses that are used later on. Having worked out what it says, take a look at a map of the district and try and match up what is written with the map. The ED numbers on this page vary a lot. They might just be 1 or 2; or 1A, 2B, or something entirely different. Up to 3 numbers and one letter can be recorded for Free Census. If there are more (some 1851 ED numbers are 1ac and so on, then just input what you can, and leave a note. Free Census also has a system of ED suffixes. These identify certain types of returns and the numbering system has been lifted from the 1861 census instructions. If you have an ED number 1A, then the "A" is replaced by the appropriate number when necessary. According to Free Census, only those returns in institutional books get the suffix numbers. The COCP disagrees with this, and we give them for all institutions. One reason for this is that the census takers themselves didn't always stick to the rules about institutional books and the returns appear in the normal books.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

NWOCP 1841 update 4th October 2007

The NWOCP project for the whole county of Wiltshire for 1841 is being transcribed and checked by parish. When all the parishes in a Hundred are complete, they are all stitched together and reloaded to the NWOCP site and uploaded to Free Census.

The 1841 was enumerated by Registration District, then the returns were cut up and stuck back together into Hundreds. Hence the often confusing state of the returns.

This is the current position for the 1841 project:

1164 Alderbury complete
1165 Amesbury complete
1166 Bradford complete
1167 Branch & Dole complete
1168 Calne complete
1169 Cawden & Codsworth complete
1170 Chalk complete
1171 Chippenham 10% complete
1172 Chippenham 50% complete
1173 Nth Damerham 10% complete
1174 Dowton 70% complete
1175 Dunworth 20% complete
1176 Wroughton complete
1177 Heyesbury 15% complete
1178 Highworth 90% complete
1179 Swindon 80% complete
1180 Kinswardine complete
1181 Malmesbury 25% complete
1182 Melkesham
1183 Mere 10% complete
1184 Potterne & Cannings complete
1185 Aldbourne complete
1186 Swanborough 25% complete
1187 Warminster complete
1188 Westbury 5% complete
1189 Whitehorse 5% complete
1190 Salisbury complete

Friday, September 07, 2007

Nth Wilts OCP update


Hello folks

Where is this?

Good morning from Cornwall.

The 1841 project is going well, with some 11 of the 27 ancient Hundreds now complete and online. Of the 16 remaining; 14 have some of the parishes complete and online. Up to now, we have managed with just one checker, our web site host John Pope. We have now got 3 checkers and I would like more. If any of the transcribers would like to try their hands at checking just drop me a line. I am hoping that you will all keep at the task - who knows, we might complete the job early next year.

On the 1861; here is what I think is being done:

1269 Highworth to be transcribed by Lilian Fraser
1270 Swindon, waiting for checker
1272 Swindon, waiting for checker
1274 Cricklade being transcribed by Sue Flower
1279 Malmesbury West, waiting for checker
1280 Castle Combe, being transcribed by Marlene Bond
1281 Corsham, waiting for checker
1282 Corsham, waiting for checker
1283 Chippenham, being transcribed by Nancy Frey
1284 Chippenham, being transcribed by Jane Brown
1285 Chrstian Malford, waiting for checker
1289 Marlborough being checked by Ray Smith

We have nine pieces complete and online.

For the 1871, we have 16 pieces online.

1881 Swindon being checked by Steve Brain
1883 Swindon being checked by Helen Ward
1884 Wootton Bassett being transcribed by Lianne McDowell
1885 Wootton Bassett waiting for checker
1888 Cricklade, status uncertain
1889 Malmesbury East, waiting for checker
1890 Malmesbury East, being transcribed by Karen Hayes
1891 Malmesbury West, being transcribed by Amanda Coles
1894 Castle Combe, being transcribed by Paul Webb
1895 Castle Coombe , being transcrribed by Harry Tadd
1896 Corsham, being checked by Heather Williams
1897 Corsham, being checked by John Holden
1898 Chippenham being checked by Phil Drewe
1900 Christian Malford, being checked by Valerie Henwood
1903 Calne to be transcribed by Vivienne Reaveley
1906 Marlborough, being checked by Edmund Bristow

Please do drop me a line. In the last month or so I have re-allocated 4 pieces. I don't know what has happened to the original volunteers - for all I know they could be beavering away. If you don't want to continue, then please let me know and return the disc. All of the people who have just dropped out of sight have taken the LDS discs with them.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

COCP 1881 Project update



Hello folks

Where is this?

Here is a list of what is being done to the 1881 returns and who is doing it. Any comments are welcome.

2270 Stratton being checked by Glenise Spittey
2272 Boscastle being checked by Richard Hender
2274 Alternon being checked by Geoff Moss
2278 North Hill being checked by John Ball
2282 Saltash being checked by Jan Lewis
2284 Liskeard Callington being checked by Althea Johnson
2286 Liskeard being checked by Valeri Paine
2287 Looe being checked by Maxine Cadzow
2299 Fowey being checked by David Trounce
2304 Mevagissey being checked by Helen Blamey
2309 St Agnes being checked by Geoff Westlake
2313 Kenwyn being checked by Malcolm Rule
2328 Gwennap being checked by Tony Bennett
2330 Redruth being checked by Di Thompson
2337 Phillack being checked by John Smith
2339 Uny Lelant being checked by Carol Jennings
2342 St Ives being checked by Peter Veryan
2349 being checked by Valerie Pettifer

COCP 1871 Project Upate




Hello folks

First question - where is this?

Second question - Here is a list of the remaining 1871 pieces. Let me know if you disagree.

2217 Week St Mary Poundstock being transcribed by Caroline Buckland
2220 Camelford St Breward being checked by Judy Waddell
2225 Launceston St Magdalene being checked by Francis Kenshole
2228 Anthony Maker being transcribed by Julia Woodley
2234 Callington St Ive being transcribed by Lesley van Goeson
2236 Liskeard Menheniot waiting for transcriber
2237 Liskeard St Clear being transcribed by Susan Tippett
2238 Liskeard being checked by Julia Mays
2240 Liskeard St Neot being checked by Donna Hazledon
2253 Padstow being transcribed by Celia Wikert
2254 Padstow Little Petherick being checked by Pam Pinkerton
2255 St Columb Major being transcribed by Eleanor Twist
2288 Kea being checked by Doug Luke
2289 Kea Feock being transcribed by John Wright
2291 Mylor being checkd by Chris Uphill
2293 Falmouth to be checked by Christ Uphill
2296 Falmouth being checked by Barbara Pullar
2300 Wendron being transcribed by Robert Worthington
2304 Helston to be checked by Jeff Beaton
2306 St Keverne being checked by Penny Trueman
2315 Redruth being transcribed by Irene Todd
2316 Redruth being transcribed by Janet Copping
2322 Illogan being transcribed by Karen Duvall
2324 Camborne being transcribed by Yvonne Morgan
2325 Camborne transcribed; to be checked by John Nance
2328 Phillack being checked by Brian Millett
2331 Uny Lelant being transcribed by Samantha Hussey. To be checked by Maxine
2339 being transcribed by Primrose May
2340 Penzance being checked by John Nance
2341 Penzance being transcribed by Sandra Searston
2343 St Just in Penwith Morvah being transcribed by Gillian Johnson
2346 St Buryan being transcribed by Sue James

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Occasional notes No 3 - Place of Birth

I write about this because even experienced volunteers (7 years servitude!) are getting things wrong. Unfortunately, some of it is subjective and in some areas I do not agree with the Free Census policy. It is all covered in the General Instructions that everyone, including checkers, should have.

This can be divided into two - 1841 - and the rest.

In 1841, there are two fields. The first one asks if the person was born in the county or not. If the answer is YES, then the enumerator should enter a "Y". We enter the county code. If the person being recorded was born in England or Wales but not in the county, then the enumerator should record N for NO. We just enter OUC or the county mentioned. The enumerators were not required to enter the county. However, if the person was born overseas, or in Scotland or Ireland, then the enumerator should use the second column and enter F, S or I. We use OVF, SCT or IRL. If there is additional information, then record it in the notes column. If there is no information or you can't read it, enter UNK.

After 1841, things changed. There are still two columns to fill. The first should be the county and for this you use the Chapman code. Free Census has a modified version of this table; modified to include OVB, OVF and UNK. The second column should record the town or parish. For Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the enumerators were only required to enter the county, not the town or parish. For some reason unknown to me, ALL volunteers are strangely reluctant to use the Chapman code for Irish and Scottish counties. In fact, hardly anyone does, so I have to input them. If the second field is not used by the enumerator, input a hyphen.

Overseas births are difficult. This is a Free Census thingy and is not "as is". In general, I subscribe to the idea that if the name looks English, then they are OVB no matter where they are born. You, of course, still enter the details of their birthplace in the second column. In the first, you enter OVB or OVF. Quite often, British Subject or B S are added to the place of birth. You should enter this information, even if you are entering OVB. You should also enter OVB for people who are described as naturalised. If they are born at sea, then it is OK to follow the rule of thumb and enter OVB or OVF; but you can also enter UNK.

Free Census supplies a gazetteer, but it only has 35,000 or so place names. It is possible for the validator to enter the modern place name, but I don't. As long as you are sure it is transcribed correctly, then it will pass through the system and appear online, just as the enumerator wrote it. It is up to the customer to work out where the place is. If you are having trouble reading the place name, then there are various aids you can use. The first is Google. Just type the place name in and see what happens. Quite often, Google will put up our census returns in the first ten hits. So, another way of checking on a place name is to search our online returns. English place names have been largely unchanged for a long time. Sometimes, it is worth just browsing our online returns for clues. Some volunteers use the LDS familysearch web site; others use FreeBMD. If you think it will help - then leave a note. Do not correct the enumerator's words!

If the place of birth fields are empty, then you enter UNK hyphen. If it says N K or Not Known, then you enter the respective words and UNK for the county. In fact, whatever it says in the place of birth field, that is what you should enter. I will also point out that it is very unlikely that the enumerator would enter U K, as United Kingdom was not used then as it is today. It has got to be a badly written N K. Sometimes you will see N B; this is for North Britain, usually meaning Scotland. If you can't get everything into the place of birth field, then split it and use the notes column. Try and make it so that it makes sense. If you have something like St Stephens by Launceston, then St Stephens by Launc is acceptable. You can also spell out the whole thing in the notes column. Please don't use St. when the enumerator has used St - it makes hard work for me.

The bottom line is that we want what the enumerator has written; not what we think he should have written. As is!!!!!!

Saturday, August 25, 2007

COCP 1871 Project Upate




Hello folks

First question - where is this?

Second question - Here is a list of the remaining 1871 pieces. Let me know if you disagree.

2217 Week St Mary Poundstock being transcribed by Caroline Buckland
2220 Camelford St Breward being checked by Judy Waddell
2225 Launceston St Magdalene being checked by Francis Kenshole
2228 Anthony Maker being transcribed by Julia Woodley
2234 Callington St Ive being transcribed by Lesley van Goeson
2236 Liskeard Menheniot waiting for transcriber
2237 Liskeard St Clear being transcribed by Susan Tippett
2238 Liskeard being checked by Julia Mays
2240 Liskeard St Neot being checked by Donna Hazledon
2253 Padstow being transcribed by Celia Wikert
2254 Padstow Little Petherick being checked by Pam Pinkerton
2255 St Columb Major being transcribed by Eleanor Twist
2288 Kea being checked by Doug Luke
2289 Kea Feock being transcribed by John Wright
2291 Mylor being checkd by Chris Uphill
2293 Falmouth to be checked by Christ Uphill
2296 Falmouth being checked by Barbara Pullar
2300 Wendron being transcribed by Robert Worthington
2304 Helston to be checked by Jeff Beaton
2306 St Keverne being checked by Penny Trueman
2315 Redruth being transcribed by Irene Todd
2316 Redruth being transcribed by Janet Copping
2322 Illogan being transcribed by Karen Duvall
2324 Camborne being transcribed by Yvonne Morgan
2325 Camborne transcribed; to be checked by John Nance
2328 Phillack being checked by Brian Millett
2331 Uny Lelant being transcribed by Samantha Hussey. To be checked by Maxine
2339 being transcribed by Primrose May
2340 Penzance being checked by John Nance
2341 Penzance being transcribed by Sandra Searston
2343 St Just in Penwith Morvah being transcribed by Gillian Johnson
2346 St Buryan being transcribed by Sue James

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Occasional notes No 2 - Occupations

The occupation column often contains a lot of useful information - useful for our customers that is. The transcribers have 31 characters(including spaces) available. However, many of you are using a templated spreadsheet that allows only 27 characters. I keep meaning to change this. It is, however, a useful discipline thing.

If there is more than 31 characters worth of detail, then you have two choices. You can abbreviate and fit the lot into the occupational field, or you can split the information and put part in the notes field. Or you can do both.

Abbreviations should be designed to make sense to the customer and to look neat. There is no need to abbreviate more than you have to. I get lots of "Farmer 200ac E 7m 3b" . It is obvious what is meant, but "Farmer 200a Emp 7 men 3 boys" looks better and still fits. If you have someone who has several occupations, then shuffle the employment data into the notes field. If you do that - enter it to fit the pattern you can see in the online returns already completed. So in this case, enter Employes 7 men 3 boys, not E 7m 3B.

If you have someone who is described as Grocer & Draper employing 3 lady assistants and a United Free Church local preacher, move the preacher stuff to the notes field - it is obviously not his primary occupation. You must strive to capture all the data. If a doctor gives his qualifications, as he was supposed to do, then enter them. It might help a researcher later on.

I cannot emphasize enough this business of capturing all the data. I have just done a piece which was full of entries like "Almswoman formerly laundress". It is not correct to enter Almswoman (laundress). She was, but she isn't now.

Things that are crossed out must be entered in the form "Pauper (crossed out)". If there isn't room, then put this information in the notes field. Sometimes things are crossed out because they were wrong, but in many instances, the information was correct but the enumerator was tidying up by crossing out things he should not have put in. We don't know why it was crossed out - but the researcher has all the data we have.

Things are rather more complicated for volunteers checking the 1881. Due to the reformatting, occupations are in uppercase and frequently, large chunks are shunted into the notes field. Checkers cannot edit the notes field, but they can edit the occupations field and/or leave a note for the validator.

Do NOT correct the enumerator's words. This morning I had a "Potografher". Don't transcribe this as "photographer"; enter it "as is". Leave a note if you wish. There are web sites containing lists of old occupations; but my first port of call is Google.

The final word is to try and get the entry as near as possible to the enumerator's words, given the limitations of the Free Census software. And make it look good for our web pages!

Monday, August 13, 2007

Occasional notes No 1 - Ecclesiastical Parishes

When Free Census started in the summer of 2000 the only software was INCENS which was used for transcribers. The checking software, CHKCENS was developed on the hoof just in time for the first Cornish and Devonian pieces. At that time it was decided that the Ecclesiastical Parish needed to be captured. The project was only working on the 1891 at the time and the EP was almost always given in the top right slot on the page. It was felt that this was a valuable lead for researchers who would know the most likely parish registers to search. As the decision was rather late in the day for the numerous pieces already in the hands of transcribers, it was decided the checker should insert the EP.

The next set we tackled were the 1841; there was no slot for EP on the page. In 1851 there was a field for Ecclesiastical District, but it was rarely filled in. In 1861 the Ecclesiastical District had moved to the top right field, but didn't seem to be filled in very often. The position remained the same for the 1871 but in 1881 the field was changed to Ecc Parish or district. These were not often filled.

The difficulty is knowing just what an Ecc District is. The census returns themselves do not define it and enquiries made to people who might know have produced no answer. The fact that many of the returns have no entry for the relevant field suggests that the enumerators didn't know either. The assumption might be that it is a group of parishes, but that is only an assumption. And we don't do them, do we?

Sometimes, the ecclesiastical parish is mentioned on the enumerators "patch" description, but if it is not on the actual pages, we don't use that. Because it isn't "as is". We do take the ED number off that page, but nothing else.

So - what is required of transcribers and checkers? For transcribers it would be nice if they would leave a note against the first record of each ED, saying if the the Ecc field is filled in and with what. Or that it is empty. This will alert the checker. Checkers MUST fill in this field. At the first prompt you are required to do so. If there is nothing there, then enter a hyphen. Checkers must check the header detail at the start of each new page. Quite often, parishes, both civil and ecclesiastical change or go missing. You must follow these changes faithfully.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

COCP 1881 update



Hello Folks

The pub next door taken about 1890.

This is the list of 1881 pieces being checked currently. If you are not on the list or are not doing what I think you are; please drop me a line.

2270 Stratton being checked by Glenise Spittey
2272 Boscastle being checked by Richard Hender
2274 Alernon being checked by Geoff Moss
2278 North Hill being checked by John Ball
2282 Saltash being checked by Jan Lewis
2283 Callington being checked by Kevin Burrows
2286 Liskeard being checked by Valerie Paine
2287 Looe being checked by Maxine Cadzow
2290 St Mabyn being checked by Steve Mitchell
2299 Fowey being checked by David Trounce
2304 Mevagissey being checked by Helen Blamey
2309 St Agnes being checked by Geoff Westlake
2313 Kenwyn being checked by Malcolm Rule
2328 Gwennap being checked by Tony Bennett
2330 Redruth being checked by Di Thompson
2337 Phillack being checked by John Smith
2339 Uny Lelant being checked by Carol Jennings
2342 St Ives being checked by Peter Veryan
2349 beign checked by Valerie Pettifer

Most 1881 checkers have more than one piece on their discs; but you are only committed to the list above. Obviously, I hope you will stick with us the the bitter end!!!!

Friday, August 03, 2007

Nth Wilts OCP 1861 & 1871 update


Hello folks

Here is the baptismal entry of one of my great great grandmothers. Mary Delaney, born in Gibraltar in 1825.

Remaining pieces of the Wiltshire 1861 & 1871 and who is working on them.

1269 Highworth to be transcribed by Lilian Fraser
1270 Swindon transcribed waiting for checker
1271 Swindon being checked by Phil Pike
1272 Swindon transcribed waiting for checker
1274 Cricklade being transcribed by Sue Flower
1279 Malmesbury West transcribed waiting for checker
1280 Castle Combe being transcribed by Marlene Bond
1281 Corsham, to be checked by Sue Flower
1282 Corsham transcribed waiting for checker
1283 Chippenham being transcribed by Nancy Frey
1284 Chippenham being transcribed by Jane Brown
1285 Christian Malford transcribed waiting for checker
1286 Calne to be transcribed by Jane Brown

1881 Swindon being checked by Steve Brain
1883 Swindon being checked by Helen Ward
1884 Wootton Bassett being transcribed by Lianne McDowell
1888 Cricklade being checked by Phil Drew
1889 Malmesbury East transcribed waiting for checker
1890 Malmesbury East being transcribed by Karen Hayes
1891 Malmesbury West
1894 Castle Combe being transcribed by Paul Webb
1895 Castle Combe being transcribed by Harry Tadd
1896 Corsham being checked by Heather Williams
1897 Corsham being checked by John Holden
1898 Chippenham being checked by Phil Drew
1900 Christian Malford being checked by Valerie Henwood
1903 Calne being transcribed by Linda-Jane Hamil
1906 Marlborough being checked by Edmund Bristow

COCP 1871 Project Upate




Hello folks

Here is a list of the remaining pieces and of who is doing what to which; if you disagree, let me know please.

2217 Week St Mary Poundstock being transcribed by Caroline Buckland
2220 Camelford St Breward being transcribed by Celia Wikert
2225 Launceston St Magdalene being checked by Francis Kenshole
2228 Anthony Maker being transcribed by Julia Woodley
2232 Saltash being checked by Ken Hosking
2234 Callington St Ive being transcribed by Lesley van Goeson
2236 Liskeard Menheniot transcribed, waiting for checker
2237 being transcribed by Susan Hooper Tippett
2238 Liskeard being checked by Julia Mays
2240 Liskeard St Neot being checked by Donna Hazledon
2253 Padstow being transcribed by Shirley Ball
2254 Padstow Little Petherick being transcribed by Judy Holman (Waddell)
2255 St Columb Major being transcribed by Eleanor Twist
2256 St Columb Minor being checked by Pam Pinkerton
2261 Fowey St Blazey being checked by Kay Hinrichsen
2288 Kea being checked by Doug Luke
2289 Kea Feock being transcribed by John Wright
2291 Mylor being checkd by Chris Uphill
2293 Falmouth to be checked by Christ uphill
2296 Falmouth being checked by Barbara Pullar
2300 Wedndron being transcribed by Robert Worthington
2304 Helston to be checked by Jeff Beaton
2305 St Keverne St Martin in Meaneage to be checked by Jeff Beaton
2306 St Keverne being checked by Penny Trueman
2315 Redruth being transcribed by Irene Todd
2316 Redruth being transcribed by Janet Copping
2322 Illogan being transcribed by Karen Duvall
2324 Camborne being transcribed by Yvonne Morgan
2325 Camborne being transcribed by Sue James
2328 Phillack being checked by Brian Millett
2331 transcribed by Samantha Hussey. To be checked by Maxine
2339 being transcribed by Patience May
2340 Penzance being checked by John Nance
2341 Penzance being transcribed by Sandra Searston
2343 St Just in Penwith Morvah being transcribed by Gillian Johnson
2346 St Buryan to be checked by Judy Holman (Waddell)

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

George Orwell and perpetual war

I don’t know how many of you have read “1984” by George Orwell, but the background to the personal stories were a global war between the three remaining countries. These wars were used to justify the enslavement of their populations. I think we are on our way to that future.

Since 1990, the United Kingdom has been engaged in an assortment of armed conflicts. Often, these are not called wars, but they are. We have fought in the Balkans and West Africa, and of course, in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of them were under UN mandates, but some were not. We have bombed countries and we have invaded them.

Currently, we are engaged in two major conflicts. We have been fighting in Afghanistan for five years now and there is no sign that we are prevailing. The Afghanis are a people with a long memory and a desire for revenge. Some of them are still quarreling about the results of Alexander the Great’s invasion of 2500 years ago! The Taliban are not from the planet Zog, most of them are Afghanis and every time one is killed his relatives are committed to revenge to honour family, clan or tribe.

Our last Prime Minister is now safely out of office but he claimed that we could be fighting there for a generation – which as family historians we would reckon as about 20 years. The new man seems to be inclined to stick with his friend Tony’s plan.

I was in favour of the invasion of Iraq to remove Saddam Husein. Rather foolishly, I imagined that the invaders would have a viable plan for post-war Iraq. Obviously they didn’t and there is no sign that things are getting better. We have been there for 4 years now and more than 100 British servicemen and women have died and hundreds have been badly injured. There is a democratically elected government in Baghdad, but they are more interested in re-fighting the battles of 1100 years ago.

Now our Prime Minister, in his first big foreign thing, is proposing we deploy troops to the Sudan. Darfur and Chad are hell-holes right in the centre of Africa. There is fighting going on between numerous murderous groups, including the governments of Chad and the Sudan. He is talking of some 27,000 troops being needed. Only a few will be British, he says. I wonder if he has heard of mission creep?

This is an UN-mandated operation. The UN already has 16,000 troops in the southern Sudan and 17,000 in the Congo. Each of these operations is costing over a billion pounds a year to run. The operation in Darfur will be a nightmare in terms of logistics. Has any ever operated on this scale in that area? I think not.

Returning to the novel "1984", do you remember the two way television set through which Big Brother watched his subjects? Think how easier that will be with TV delivered via a broadband link. Anyone looked inside their new digital TV?

Sunday, July 01, 2007

COCP Newsletter 22



Taken inside the ruins of Aghaboe Abbey west of Dublin. Strangely, no mention of Cornelius Delaney, GGGgrandfather of Michael McCormick, born here in 1800.

The COCP 1851 project is complete! The last piece is being processed right now. Now for the 1871!

Here is a list of what I think is being done at the moment; if you disagree, let me know please.

2217 Week St Mary Poundstock being transcribed by Caroline Buckland
2220 Camelford St Breward being transcribed by Brian Taylor
2225 Launceston St Magdalene being checked by Carla van Kleek
2228 Anthony Maker being transcribed by Julia Woodley
2232 Saltash being checked by Roger Parsons
2234 Callington St Ive being transcribed by Lesley van Goeson
2236 Liskeard Menheniot transcribed
2238 Liskeard being checked by Julia Mays
2240 Liskeard St Neot being checked by Donna Hazledon
2253 Padstow being transcribed by Shirley Ball
2254 Padstow Little Petherwick being transcribed by Judy Holman (Waddell)
2255 St Columb Major being transcribed by Sylvia Trevena
2256 St Columb Minor being checked by Pam Pinkerton
2261 Fowey St Blazey being checked by Marie O’sullivan
2264 St Austell being checked by Glynis Millet-Clay
2273 Probus Ladock being checked by Maxine Cadzow
2288 Kea being checked by Doug Luke
2289 Kea Feock being transcribed by John Wright
2291 Mylor being checkd by Chris Uphill
2293 Falmouth to be checked by Christ uphill
2296 Falmouth being transcribed by Faye Ammermann
2300 Wedndron being transcribed by John Dobson
2302 Wendron Sithney being checked by Frances Keshole
2304 Helston being checked by Jeff Beaton
2305 St Keverne St Martin in Meaneage to be checked by Jeff Beaton
2306 St Keverne being checked by Penny Trueman
2314 Gwennap to be checked by Maxine Cadzow
2315 Redruth being transcribed by Irene Todd
2316 Redruth being transcribed by Janet Copping
2322 Illogan being transcribed by Karen Duvall
2324 Camborne being transcribed by Yvonne Morgan
2325 Camborne being transcribed by Sue James
2328 Phillack being checked by Brian Millett
2330 Uny Lelant Ludgvan to be checked by Maxine Cadzow
2340 Penzance being checked by Lynne Evans
2341 St Just in Penwith Morvah to be transcribed by Gillian Johnson
2346 St Buryan to be checked by Judy Holman (Waddell)

Friday, June 29, 2007

C-PROP Phillimore Instructions

Hello folks

I had no intention of producing these – regarding the Phillimore lists as being just a matter of typing into a spreadsheet. As usual, it is rather more complicated than that. And, as with the census volunteers, you are all experts at finding new questions to ask! That is not a complaint.

So here are a few helpful (I hope) pointers.

1. Where the bride or groom has a title specified e.g. Mr/Mrs/Sir/Rev etc. then enter this in brackets after the forename so Rev. John Smith would be entered with the forename as "John (Rev)" and "Smith" as the surname. If no forename is entered, e.g. Mrs Smith, then enter (Mrs) Smith. This makes searching the database easier.

2. Comments such as "Gent" go in the "occupation" column as the "condition" column is for marital condition e.g. widower etc. Sojourner goes in the Abode column. Single letter notations are often used. W is for widow or widower and goes in the condition columns. Y is for Yeoman and H is for Husbandman. These go in the occupation columns.

3. Married by Licence - this information goes in the "Banns" column. If the entry mentions that the marriage was by Banns then "Banns" would go in this column.

4. Register comments. A comment on a separate line that says that there are no marriage entries for years 1630-1635. The records go into the database and are viewed separately so an empty record with this comment will not get seen. The counter example is "The following are from the Bodmin Transcripts. They do not appear to have been entered either at Morvah or Madron:". This is useful information but needs to be entered against each record to which it applies.

5. The main columns have a limitation on the number of characters which each cell can contain, in order to keep the search time within reasonable limits. However, the Register Notes and Transcriber Notes columns (which aren't searched) are almost limitless in the amount of space available. So all long statements should go into one of those.

6. Please don’t use unusual symbols such as square brackets and askerisks. Ordinary brackets are OK. You can use question marks. If you can read only part of a name, then try McCxxxxxxk.

When I get a spreadsheet, I give it a quick look over and then forward it to one of the two people with authority to upload. They will give it a much more detailed appraisal and correct anything that needs correction before uploading it. The less they have to do the better.

If you have any suggestions for advice that might help – please send them in.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Cornish Family History Research Online



Not Cornwall! My favourite city.

Cornwall is an unusual English county, not least because many people will tell you that it is not English or a county! It is also unusual in that it is further advanced towards becoming fully online, as far as family history research is concerned.

At the centre of Cornish online research are the Cornish GENUKI pages (http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/Cornwall/). These provide links to anything and everything to do with Cornish family history. The pages are organised on a hierarchical basis and lead to some 260 town and parish pages and some more general pages. Normally GENUKI aims to use the county and parishes as they were in 1850 but these Cornish pages also include new parishes created towards the end of the 19th century. The Cornish GENUKI pages are constantly being updated, so it is worth checking them frequently.

The Cornwall Online Census Project 9COCP) started in the summer of 2000, transcribing the 1891 returns from fiche supplied by the LDS. By 1st June 2007 the 1841, 1861 and 1891 censuses were complete along with 99% of the 1851; 85% of the 1871; and 25% of the 1881). The aim of the project is to transcribe all the Cornish 19th census returns and place them online free-to-view at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~kayhin/ukocp.html.

The Online Parish Clerk scheme (OPC), originated in Cornwall about five years ago and has now spread to half a dozen other counties. Volunteers adopt a parish or parishes and seek to accumulate information and data about their parish. Their primary aim is to offer free “look ups” for researchers, usually via the Cornish mailing lists. Many of the OPC have their own web sites but the central site is on http://www.cornwall-opc.org/index.htm Some of the individual web sites and the central web site contain data.

The OPC scheme has now launched its own searchable online “free-to-view” database – known as C-PROP – the Cornish Parish Register Online Project (http://www.cornwall-opc-database.org/). Starting about a year ago it already has over a half of a million records online. Initially it concentrated on Church of England registers, but its scope encompasses other types of data.

The C-PROP database contains “hatches, matches & dispatches” from the 19th century West Briton newspaper. The West Briton Project aims to transcribe all the interesting information from the newspaper and place it online at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~wbritonad/cornwall/intro.html

There are two Cornish mailing lists. The main Cornish list, Cornish-L, is for all things Cornish, while Cornish-GEN is a list strictly for family history. The Cornish-L list is home to the famous (or infamous) virtual Christmas party! Details of how to subscribe can be found at Rootsweb.

Cornish Parish Register Online Project



Grandson outgrows bucket!

The Cornish Parish Register Online Project (C-PROP) is a daughter project of the Cornish Online Parish Clerk (OPC) scheme. The project aims to transcribe all the Cornish parish register entries and place them online, free-to-view, in a searchable database. The project encompasses other sorts of data such as the West Briton lists of “hatches, matches and dispatches”.

The people involved are Myra Cordrey (OPC scheme co-ordinator), Diane Donohue & Julia Mosman (LDS liaison), Bill O’Reilly (COCP “fixer” & C-PROP uploader), and myself, recruiter for C-PROP. I am also the Free Census organiser for Cornwall and the other four are all OPC for various Cornish parishes.

A current project is to re-type the contents of the well-known Phillimore marriage lists. Done at the end of the 19th century, these are a valuable transcript of the parish registers. Often the work was carried out by vicars with the co-operation of the parish priest. These people were experienced with the records and of course, the records were younger than they are now.

Although this data is a typed transcript, we need it re-typed into our standard spreadsheet as a vital intermediate step to uploading into the database. We would like to capture all the information in the lists. You are invited to place the additional information in the two notes columns that are provided.

You will see that there are a lot of columns you won’t need. This is because the spreadsheet was designed to cover all types of registration document and the later registers carried a lot more information.

Each parish should have its own spreadsheet and on completion, each parish should be emailed to me. Do not wait till you have completed the volume. I will eye-ball it and then forward it to one of the two uploaders. They will check it more thoroughly for layout and other problems and upload it to C-PROP.

When you have graduated from the Phillimore project we hope that you are sufficiently enthused to volunteer to take on some actual parish registers. These are supplied on disc and involve transcription as well as data input.

C-PROP can be seen on http://www.cornwall-opc-database.org/ Check out the coverage table to see your name in lights! Currently, we have well over half a million records online. With your help we should hit a million soon. Well – quite soon.

Monday, May 21, 2007

NWOCP Newsletter No 8



Minack cliff-top theatre in Cornwall




Centre of picture - girl with smile - yet another grandchild!


The NWOCP continues to make steady progress with the 1841 returns with about half of them now transcribed and online. However, movement on the 1861 & 71 is much slower and on the 1891 there isn't anything to report.

What I would like you to do if you are working on the 1861 or 1871 returns is to drop me a line sometime. Please confirm the details below and give me a rough estimate of your progress. Transcribers can just tell me which image they are on and how many they have left; Checkers can select review progress under Options and just cut and paste the results into their email.

Some of you have not written to me for a long while and I really need to have some idea of how you are doing - or if, indeed, you are doing anything. I received a disc the other day from a chap who had it for a year. He had never written to me and had not made a start on the piece.

This is an option open to everyone. If you don't want to carry out the task, then just let me know and return the disc - no hard feelings on my part.

If you are finding it hard work, please take my advice and just do a few hours a week; it will get done sooner than you think.

Email is very simple - so just please write to me!!!!!

1861:

1269 Highworth being transcribed by Liz Price
1270 Swindon being transcribed by Helen Ward
1271 Swindon being checked by Phil Pike
1274 Cricklade being transcribed by Peter Collins
1278 Malmesbury West being checked by Allan Kennaird
1280 Castle Combe being transcribed by Marlene Bond
1281 Corsham being transcribed by Chris Hughes
1284 Chippenham being transcribed by Kevin Lacey
1286 Calne being transcribed by Peter Reddick
1288 Marlborough being checked by Ray Smith

1871:

1884 Wootten Bassett being transcribed by Lianne McDowell
1890 Malmesbury East being transcribed by Kren Hayes
1891 Malmesbury West being transcribed by Amanda Coles
1892 Malmesbury West being checked by Keith Salisbury
1894 Castle Combe being transcribed by Paul Webb
1895 Castle Combe being transcribed by Harry Tadd
1896 Corsham being checked by Heather Williams
1898 Chippenham being transcribed by Nancy Frey
1900 Christian Malford being checked by Valerie Henwood
1906 Marlborough being checked by Edmund Bristow

Friday, April 27, 2007

COCP Newletter No 21 - 1881 project

Hello folks



Recent family history lunch in Cornwall.

At the moment there are twelve people checking 1881 returns; some of whom are waiting for their first zip. This is a revisit to blog newsletter of March 10th this year.

This transcription was given to us and is not in the FC format. It has to be reformatted before it will go into the FC checking software. The transcription is a good one and most of the problems in checking stem from the reformatting that has had to be done.

Schedule numbers and page breaks are inserted arbitrarily during reformatting because there are none in the transcription. The reformatting will only input page breaks with a household start. Often, where a page break comes in the middle of a schedule (on the image), the change is not being noted by the project checkers. Checkers must check the header detail for every household and keep an eye open for changes during a schedule.

There is also a problem with lodgers. Enumerators should have treated them as a separate household. Sometimes they did and sometimes they didn't. Even where the enumerator got it right, the non-FC transcribers frequently ignored the separation of landlord's family and any lodger. If a lodger has a schedule number of his own; he is a separate household. If he does not, he is part of the relevant household.

The transcription does not include the uninhabited dwellings and public buildings. Free Census requires they be inserted. This involves inserting a new record. The header detail of this new record will reflect the previous household unless the checker changes it.

The occupational field in the donated transcription is more generous than FC allows. During reformatting the occupational data is often split and part of it is dumped in the notes field. Checkers cannot edit the transcriber notes field, but they can tidy up the occupational field. By the use of judicious abbreviations you can get the information into the limited space available. If you are uncertain of what is allowed, browse the existing returns on our web site. Our aim should be to produce something that is correct, makes sense - and looks nice!

The original transcribers seem to have entered all "unmarried" people as "single". I do not want all the "S" changed to "U" but they also seemed to have classified everyone 14 and above as "S". If there is nothing in the marital status column on the actual returns, then pse change it to a hyphen.

It might seem a bit perverse to do the 1881, given that the Mormon version has been available for so long. Please be assured that we are finding errors and correcting them, so it will be worthwhile. And will lead to us accomplishing our task - to transcribe ALL the Cornish 19th century returns and make them available free-to-view.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

COCP Newletter No 20




Hello folks

My garden last summer; this year summer is coming early! The cat is sunbathing (he has to have sun block on his remaining ear); the Starlings are back in the roof and the weeds are growing fast. I should be concentrating on the garden; but there are all these census returns........

We continue to upload returns from 1851, 71 & 81. We are now down to 10 1851 parishes or bits of parishes. Another couple of months should see it finished. At the moment Kay & I are chasing up 1871 volunteers to see what they are doing. Or not doing.

If you are in the habit of writing to places such as the Rootsweb mailing lists; can I ask you to use a signature block advertising that you are a volunteer for COCP? The publicity helps me.......

Email must be the easiest form of communication invented (maybe texting is more so). Would anyone like my mobile number? And we also have jabber........ But still, many of you don't seem to appreciate how easy it is to drop me a line to tell me how you are getting on. Or even to tell me you are still alive! Strangely enough, I have had five volunteers die whilst on the job and their next-of-keen were quick to look through their emails and contact me to tell me the sad news. It is the living ones who are not playing the game fairly.

If you don't want to carry on - just let me know and send the disc back.

The parish register project has now broken through the half a million barrier. Next stop one million!

I am offline April 17-24th inclusive. That means there is still 48 hours for you to drop me a line and to enlighten me as to what you are doing. Or not doing.

Rgds and good luck!

NWOCP Newsletter No 7





Hello folks

Six frightening years I spent down the back of this!

The project continues to upload lots of 1841 stuff; rather less 1861/71/91 stuff. No 1891 returns as a matter of fact have been uploaded for some time. Does anyone have a microfiche reader?

If you are in the habit of writing to places such as the Rootsweb mailing lists; can I ask you to use a signature block advertising that you are a volunteer for NWOCP? The publicity helps me.......

Our web site owner has now got a roll of honour - take a look to see if you are there. He would like to post pictures on it. I would like you to as well - it would be nice to see what we all look like!

Email must be the easiest form of communication invented (maybe texting is more so). Would anyone like my mobile number? And we also have jabber........

But still, many of you don't seem to appreciate how easy it is to drop me a line to tell me how you are getting on. Or even to tell me you are still alive! Strangely enough, I have had five volunteers die whilst on the job and their next-of-keen were quick to look through their emails and contact me to tell me the sad news. It is the living ones who are not playing the game fairly.

If you don't want to carry on - just let me know and send the disc back.

I am offline April 17-24th inclusive. That means there is still 48 hours for you to drop me a line and to enlighten me as to what you are doing. Or not doing.

Rgds and good luck!

Michael

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

NWOCP Newsletter No 6



Hello Folks

Two more grandchildren, but this time there is a connection. The grand daughter is actually the youngest transcriber I have ever recruited! Her mother says that it will keep her away from The Sims! We will see......

In the last month we have uploaded:

1841
HO107/1164 Hundred of Alderbury. Pat Mahoney (Aus)
HO107/1180 Hundred of Kinwardstone. Peter Eastman (UK)
HO107/1185 Hundred of Selkey. Carol Patios (Aus)

[All 1841 checking done by our web site host, John Pope (UK)]

1861
RG101277 Malmesbury. Sue Flower(UK) & Phil Pike (UK)

1871
RG101882 Swindon. Jane Brown (Can) & Phil Drew (Aus)
RG101886 Sue Flower (UK) & Ray Smith (UK)

Four people have dropped out and two more have joined. I am still worried by lack of contact with a number of you. If you haven't written to me in the last two months, please drop me a line. If you are not actually going to do what you have volunteered to do, please post the disc back to me.

At the last Free Census rebuild we had contributed 95,922 records - good going for 14 months. This includes five of the 1841 Hundreds. Of course, the NWOCP web site contains a lot of 1841 records that have yet to be uploaded to Free Census.

Don't forget - please drop me a line!

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

How quiet it was!

Taken in 1904.

The other day I was sat at the top of my long narrow garden, drinking coffee & smoking a small cigar. I suddenly noticed that I could hear the cries of three buzzards soaring above the village. Young buzzards often stay with their parents for a couple of years, so I expect this was a family group.

I live in a very small Cornish village called Mitchell. First mentioned in a court case in London in 1235, it used to be called Medeschole. The court case confirmed the landowner’s charter to hold an annual market here. Medeschole was an artificial borough created to sit on a cross roads. In the 13th century many such boroughs were created in England and the English parts of France. Our cottage is in the middle of a terrace of granite houses built about 1850 for workers in the giant lead mine at Wheal Rose, about a mile north of the village.

Behind the cottages are long narrow gardens, about 20 feet wide and 120 feet long. Typical working class gardens they would have had a flower area, a rather larger area for vegetables, a few fruit trees and possibly, a sitting out area with a patch of grass. At the top of the garden is a stone privy complete with thunderbox. A long walk on a winter night.

What has this got to do with buzzards? Well, the A30 lies a few hundred yards north of us and in the garden there is a constant background noise from the traffic. It never ends and usually you just ignore it. I could hear the buzzards because there was a break in the traffic. It set me to thinking about how quiet it must have been here when Medeschole was young.

There was a chapel here and although it fell down about 400 years ago, it is known it had a bell. So that would have tolled at set times. The nearest church is over two miles north, so you wouldn’t have heard that very often. There was a blacksmith at the other end of the village, so you might hear the banging and clanging from there.

There would have been some noise from the Stanna Way, which ran through the village. There would almost certainly have been a few drinking establishments. Just to the west of Mitchell is a very large hill and no doubt the carters etc would have needed a drink after the descent and one before tackling the hill if going westwards.

Overall, it would have been very quiet, above all because there would have been very few people. An estimated 25,000 in the whole of Cornwall in 1086 and 35,000 in 1377. Current population is approaching half a million!

Nothing but the cries of the buzzards

Monday, March 12, 2007

Yet another rant from Cornwall

Democracy in Cornwall

Who are the voters in Cornwall? First of all, there are the Cornish, people born here of parents born here of parents born here…….. There was a debate in the local press at the time of the last census in 2001 and a well-known protagonist of “Cornishness” ended up saying that if you lived here and felt Cornish – you were Cornish.

Only about half the electorate are Cornish (however you define it); the other half are like me – blow-ins as some rude lady once said. However, many of us have lived here for a long time, and unlike many of the Cornish, we have chosen to live here. So, I will call us the Cornwallians.

As we all have a single vote, any major change should aim to carry us all with it. Which is where what I call the “Western Ghettoists” go wrong. They want enforced Cornishness and they also want the rest of the UK to pay for it. A very unlikely arrangement!

At the moment in Cornwall, we have seven layers of government. At the top is the French government in Brussels. Unelected by us and remote and untouchable. And unloved. Below them comes the Scottish government in London. Roughly speaking most of us don’t like them at all. Below them is a regional assembly. Unelected and situated in Swindon or somewhere up there. Nothing to do with us and also disliked.

Finally, we reach Cornwall. Sitting in Truro is the County Council, overall rulers of the county. Heavily constrained by the three layers above them and increasingly secretive. We get to vote on them every 4 years, but we always return the same people. Odd that, as no one has much time for them.

Below them are the six District Councils. These are the nuts-and-bolts people. They collect the rubbish, maintain the street lights and so on. We get to vote for them, but don’t care much for them. Most people think they cost too much.

Right at the bottom are the Parish Councils. Also elected, they have few powers but they usually have to be consulted and they are required to consult us – the voters – and we are right at the bottom.

How does all this work? Well, in my small village (now 150 households), a developer wants to build a row of five houses. At the village consultation no one was in favour. The Parish council advised against. The District Council voted it down and it went to appeal. An unelected bureaucrat in Bristol, who probably doesn’t even know where we are, has approved the plan. Democracy it is not!

Now, the Scottish government is thinking about yet another re-organisation of local government. The paranoid section of the press thinks this is all part of a secret plan by the French government in Brussels. But it is probably just something governments do when they are desperate to do something. They have called for helpful suggestions.

The County Council wants to abolish the District Councils. The District Councils want to abolish the County Council. They both claim their plan will save money. We know it won’t. But it doesn’t matter what we want – because we are not being asked. The County Council has conducted a telephone poll of 1000 people and says they like its plan. Really? Who are these people? Are they all council taxpayers?

What this shows is that democracy in Cornwall is in short supply. The voters are irrelevant to these people. I don’t have any solutions – well, I do – but they won’t be adopted.

As a last resort, perhaps taking one in ten of them out and shooting them might help!

Nothing to do with census returns!!!!



This lady is a distant Aunt of mine called Catherine Delaney.

From the census returns, I knew that a great great grandmother of mine was born in Gibraltar. She stuck out like a sore thumb in the returns for Birmingham. I viewed the parish registers for the main (and only?) RC church in Gibraltar for a likely period - and there she was. Shout of joy that caused the customers of the Mormons in Helston to gather round. Some kind lady in Cheltenham translated the abbreviated priestly Latin for me and I discovered that her father was a corporal in the 94th Regt of Foot. I also found she had a brother.

I found a lot of information on the IGI - but it was placed there by a member of the Church and there didn't seem to be any way of contacting him or her.

My next step was to pay a researcher to look for Cornelius Delaney in the army records at Kew. Two lots of £25 bought me a great deal of information about him. A search of the Army records also turned up another 4 children, all born to another wife.

Catherine Delaney was born about 1835 on a ship off Malta. Her father's regiment had moved from Gibraltar to Malta and was now on its way to India. He didn't spend much time there and was back in Ireland by 1836. He managed to fit t being busted from Sgt to Private for being drunk on bathing parade!

I posted my Delaney details on the Delaney message board and much to my surprise got responses from two ladies in Australia. It seemed I had lots of relatives out there! The whole family had gone to Tasmania on a convict ship, the SS Rodney. Cornelius was an Enrolled Pensioner Guard. Catherine married a convict (or ex-convict) in 1851 and soon after that, the whole lot of them moved to Victoria. She died in 1913 and this photograph is said to have been taken shortly before her death.

One of the Australian respondents on the Delaney message board put me in touch with the Mormon source. She was an 82-year old lady living in Sidney. She had a computer but didn't use the internet. We exchanged information and we both ended up with much better family trees. She had been studying Cornelius and his family for 60 years! By the way, this made me look at the IGI in a different light.

What a life Catherine had! Three long sea voyages when they were very unhealthy. I don't suppose that Tasmania was very safe in 185o either. Yet she lasted 78 years! They made them differently in those days!

I sometimes look at her picture and wonder what she would think of me.......

A final note is that Cornelius is another of my Irish brick walls. Although I know where he was born and when, he isn't on the parish register. Lots of Delaneys, but not mine.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

COCP Newletter No 19

Hello folks

This week we have completed 7 more 1871 pieces plus 3 1881. They should all be online soon. The number of 1851 parishes being worked on has fallen to about a dozen. Shouldn't be long now. The February rebuild of Free Census showed that we have completed and uploaded 1,500,741 returns.

At the moment there are ten people checking 1881 returns and it is this project that is the subject of this newsletter. This transcription was given to us and is not in the FC format. It has to be reformatted before it will go into the FC checking software. The transcription is a good one and most of the problems in checking stem from the reformatting that has had to be done.

Schedule numbers and page breaks are inserted arbitrarily because there are none in the transcription. Often, where a page break comes in the middle of a schedule, the change is not being noted. Checkers must check the header detail for every household and keep an eye open for changes during a schedule. There is also a problem with lodgers. Enumerators should have treated them as a separate household. Sometimes they did and sometimes they didn't. Even where the enumerator got it right, the non-FC transcribers frequently ignored the separation of landlord's family and any lodger.

The transcription does not include the uninhabited dwellings and public buildings. Free Census requires they be inserted. This involves inserting a new record. The header detail of this new record will reflect the previous household unless the checker changes it. Ths comment also applies to volunteers checking the other years.

The occupational field in the donated transcription is more generous than FC allows. During reformatting the occupational data is often split and part of it is dumped in the notes field. Checkers cannot edit the transcriber notes field, but they can tidy up the occupational field. By the use of judicious abbreviations you can get the information into the limited space available. If you are uncertain of what is allowed, browse the existing returns on our web site. Our aim should be to produce something that is correct, makes sense - and looks nice!

We have now completed the 41, 61 & 91 returns; the 51 is almost complete and about 60% of the 1871 is done. More & more work is going to be 1881. I have just spent 3 days validating a single 1881 piece!

Finally, a reminder that we are transcribing "as is". It doesn't matter if the Enumerator is wrong - we want to record his words. Place names, surnames, relationships - it doesn't matter - get down what he wrote. Leave notes if it will help. If I don't think researchers will understand our finished work, I will write a note for them.

All in all, things are going well. Another couple of years and I can retire and grow cabbages. Or something.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

COCP Newsletter No 18



Hello from Cornwall. As usual, the picture has nothing to do with anything. It shows me and five grandchildren on my birthday last year.

Although things might seem very quiet, we have been getting on with the project. Since the beginning of the year we have uploaded:

1851
West Looe Joan Oliver & Frances Kenshole
Redruth Asylum Joan Oliver & Frances Kenshole
Saltash (completion piece) Moira Hurst & Ken Hosking

1861
1579 (completion piece) Shirley Franklin & Maxine Cadzow
1584 (last piece) Carrol Parfait, Maxine Cadzow & Marion Paul

1871
2224 St Stephen John Warren & Julia Mays
2257 Newlyn East Faye Ammermann & Jan Lewis
2318 Redruth Caroline Buckland & Ken Hosking
2338 Penzance Paul Archie Courtney-Williams, Frances Kenshole & Carrol Parfait

1881
2297 St Columb David Trounce
2303 St Austell David Trounce
2321 Wendron Althea Johnson
2323 Wendron Althea Johnson
2324 St Keverne Althea Johnson
2325 St Keverne Althea Johnson
2326 Breage Althea Johnson


In the pipeline are 7 1871 pieces and half a dozen 1881. Redruth 1851 was a very large piece - over 10,000 records - and puts the 1851 within a couple of percent of completion.

Free Census rebuilt its database on the 21st February and we have now contributed 1.5 million records - some 16% of the total.

The online parish register project continues to grow - nearly 480,000 records online. It is now possible to upload all or some of the details from post-1837 marriage certificates using an online submission form. Forms for births & deaths will follow. A number of volunteers are busy inputting the Phillimore marriage lists and extraction of hatches, matches & dispatches from the West Briton transcription project continues apace.


Sunday, February 04, 2007

NWOCP Newsletter No 5

This is aimed at the 1841 volunteers, but it is mostly valid for any year.

When a parish spreadsheet comes in, I reformat it as .csv and load it into FCTools. The diagnostic package details the errors & warnings. Errors have to be fixed, but warnings may not be serious enough to do anything about. But I usually do them with the 1841 parishes as they are so small. I then marry them to a data file and produce a zipped file for checking. I load this into the checking software to see it loads OK and then send it off to the checker.

There is only one checker for the 1841 - our web site host - John Pope. He produces a checked zip, often accompanied by colourful comments, and sends it to me.

I load this into Valdrev and validate it. The output zip from Valdrev then goes back into FCTools for a final burst of corrections. The refined output zip is sent to John, who turns it into html and uploads it to his web site.

When a whole Hundred is done (we have done two so far), I run all the validated zips back through FCTools to produce a series of spreadsheets. I stitch these all together and run the resulting giant spreadsheet back through FCTools to produce a final validated file. This goes back to John for him to create the html. Once I have looked at that and re-assured myself that all looks well, I send the data zip off to a guy name Bill O'Reilly. Amongst other things, he looks after the upload to Free Census side of things for me. You need to be a Windows user to do that and I am not one of those.

Common errors. I am not saying that you all make them or that anyone makes them all - but they come up again and again.

1. Do not use question marks or any other such characters anywhere except in the notes Col Y.

2. Make sure that all households have a schedule number - zero. Make sure that all uninhabited dwellings & public buildings have their own record complete with sched zero.

3. No entry must be on more than one line. If you cannot abbreviate an address for instance onto one line, then put some of it in the notes column.

4. Stick to the plan on folio numbers. Pages without a number take that of the preceding page.

5. If you are uncertain of anything - flag it up.

6. Addresses must only be entered against a schedule. They must not appear in the middle of a household. If a household straddles a page break; backtrack to the previous page and enter the address there.

7. Col T - county of birth - must have a 3-digit code from the table in the Free Census Field descriptions.

8. There is no need to use capitals or put the "y" after ages. You must put "m, w or d" if they are applicable though.

9. All records must be transcribed, including those crossed out.

Don't forget to keep an eye on the blog on http://medeschole.blogspot.com/

Saturday, January 20, 2007

A Gigantic Whinge

The aim of Free Census is to provide an accurate transcription of the pages of the Enumerators' books. To that end we transcribe "as is". This is the so-called Golden Rule of Free Census. Just by chance the other day, I noticed a little girl called Olive E Smith, born in Lydiard Tregoze. But the Enumerator had written Oliff E Smith born Liddiard Tregooze. That is what the transcriber should have written.

When I start new checkers off, I always state what seems obvious to me. Checkers must try and identify AND then fix the transcriber's errors. In the case of Oliff, the checker detected the error and left me a note. This is NOT correct practice. The checking software allows you to do many things and all but one field can be corrected. Only the transcriber's notes cannot be edited by a checker.

My final whinge for today concerns communication. Emails must be one of the easiest and fastest systems of global communication yet invented. Why then, do I not get regular emails from volunteers? All you have to do is drop me an email every month or couple of months telling me what you are doing. It would be nice if you had a subject line - NWOCP 1287 would tell me at once what you are working on. For transcribers, just say your piece has 253 images and you are working on image 157. For checkers it can be more accurate. Under Options you can select review progress. This tells you exactly how many records you have, how many you have done and how many are left. You just cut and paste this into your email.

Finally, if you don't want to do what you have volunteered to do - then please, oh please, tell me. There will be no hard feelings. Although the task is quite easy to carry out, it can be a pain. Lots of people drop out - for all sorts of reasons. Just let me know and return the disc.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Occasional rant by Blog owner!

My wife and I have a newspaper each every morning, which we read over breakfast. Most mornings produce a rant from Michael, which she endures politely. I have decided to have an occasional rant on my blog. If you don’t want to read it, don’t. If you wish to comment, be my guest.

A sneaky announcement on December 29th (after the New Year holiday had started) revealed that the EU had wimpishly given in to the demands of the US government over transatlantic flight passenger information. Well, I say announcement, but in fact it was only revealed after a Freedom of Information release, forced by the Tories.

Under this deal, airlines will provide the US Government with 34 pieces of information on people flying into the USA. This information will include name & home address; email address, telephone number and credit card details. This last will not only show which card has been used, but will allow the US government to access the credit card account.

Although the justification for this invasion of privacy is anti-terrorism, the US Government reserves the right to look for other sorts of alleged violations of US law. Not EU law or British law – US law. Some two dozen US agencies will have access to this data and the US Government reserves the right to share information with “foreign” governments.

In my opinion the EU should immediately insist on reciprocity. Every US citizen flying into the EU should have to provide the same 34 bits of information. Plus they should have their fingerprints taken, pictures taken and be finally and ritually humiliated by having to provide a DNA sample. The EU should also insist on a visa, although we will waive that under a visa-waiver scheme. Sound familiar?

However, the EU is pretty gutless at the best of times and the UK no longer has the power to go its own way. But just in case any US readers think their privacy is safe, their government is going to “encourage” US airlines flying into the EU to provide the information anyway.

I have spent many happy times in the USA. I did a rough count the other day; since 1958 I have made over 50 visits to that great country. I don’t think I will be visiting again. Shame

COCP Newsletter No 17

Hello from Cornwall

Here in the southwest of the UK, the day has started off dark, wet & windy. Just like yesterday really. What a difference a new year does make!

Anyway, I hope that you all had a lovely Christmas and wish you all a happy & prosperous New Year.

The world's largest project of its kind (COCP that is) has trundled along during 2006, just like it has during the previous five years. We have just one piece of the 1861 left to do and that is with a checker right now. The 1871 is about 60% done and the 1881 is edging up to 20%. The spotlight of my attention has shifted to the 1851 (sounds a bit naff that). There are 20 parishes or bits of parishes left to do. Most are pretty small and I am hoping that all those working on the 1851 will crack on.

At the beginning of 2006 we had 1,117,534 records uploaded to Free Census - at the end of the year we had 1,454,770. Quite an achievement; my thanks to everyone.

On the wider front, Free Census now has just under 9 million records online with the COCP contributing 16%. A third English county (Wiltshire) has uploaded its first 1841 piece. The Cornish parish register project (C-PROP) has gone through the 460,000 record mark.

NWOCP Newsletter No 4

I hope that you all had a lovely Christmas and wish you all a happy & prosperous New Year.

The world's largest project of its kind (Free Census that is) has trundled along during 2006, just like it has during the previous five years. Our project has done rather better than most of the other English projects. At the beginning of 2006 we had 15,000 records uploaded to Free Census - at the end we have 73,000+!!!! Quite an achievement; my thanks to everyone.

Of course, we have rather more than that on our own web site. Last month we uploaded the first 1841 Hundred. There are only three English 1841 projects and the other two are complete. 1841 parishes are rolling in on a daily basis; I hope that everyone working on the 1861 & 1871 is encouraged by this and will be cracking on!

Our web site is also carrying some returns from outside Nth Wilts as Terry clears his backlog.

Cornish 1851 Project update


Hello folks

Another grandson - the only one bearing my surname!

Here is the status of the 1851 project. If your name is on here and it shouldn't be, please let me know. If it should be on and isn't - let me known. If you are doing a piece that isn't listed here - let me know.

Trying to be realalistic, this looks about 3 months work to me. Be nice to be proved wrong again!

Virginstow Ho5a1896 Being transcribed by Sandra Coles

St Giles OTH Ho5b1896 Being transcribed by Julia Bassett

Lanteglos by Camelford HO5h1898 Being transcribed by Trudi Groves.

Maker HO5a1900 Being transcribed by Gillian Johnson.

Rame Ho5b1900 being checked by Ken Hosking

Menheniot Ho5a1902. Being checked by Arthur Hodge

St Cleer Ho5b1902 Being transcribed by Bill Phillips

St Neot Ho5d1902 Being transcribed by Ainslie Jones

Duloe Ho5b1903 Being transcribed by Caroline Buckland

Morval Ho5c1903 Being transcribed by Nick Russell

East Looe Ho5m1903 Being transcribed by Mike Beck.

West Looe Ho5n1903 being transcribed by Joan Oliver

St Blazey Ho5d1906 Being checked by Maxine Cadzow

St Stephen in B Ho5e1908 Being checked by Frances Kenshole

St Mewan Ho5f1908 Being checked by Mark Jose.

St Stithians Ho5a1914 Being transcribed by Luke Harris.

Gwennap Ho5b1914 Being transcribed by Lauren Patey.

Redruth Ho5a1915 Being checked by Peter Veryan; Di Thompson; John Nance

Gwinear Ho5b1916 Being checked by Jean Minter.