Census Reviews

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“London and Lancashire 1891 censuses on CD
are an outstanding research tool”

THE LANCASHIRE 1891 CENSUS RG12/2898-3488;
THE LONDON 1891 CENSUS RG12/0001-0541.

Both on CD-ROM in 38-disc boxed set, both also available as 3 DVDs.

Census CdsHOW many hours and days have you spent trawling through reels of census microfilm in a windowless, airless basement in the old PRO or in a record office, library or family history society?

How often have you had to queue to use an aged reader, then wait for your reel of film to become available, only to strain your eyesight because it is impossible to get the film in focus?

How many times have you spent money and time on long journeys just to be able to read a census?

How many times have you wished you could read the census in the luxury of your own home at your own convenience?

Well, at long last you can. Thanks to S&N, the 1891 census for Lancashire and London is now available on CD-ROM. Other areas and years will eventually be available and I look forward to reviewing them also.

The CD sets are pleasantly and conveniently boxed for easy use and storage. They are very simple to use. The page images are taken from the enumerators' entries, thus enabling you to your own mind up about an entry and not on the transcription done by a third party!

Although the sets are not indexed, I do not feel this causes a problem. With all the technology now available, we have become spoilt in recent years with the sudden influx of indexes. It is so often forgotten that indexes should only be used as a tool and the original entry should be checked. We will have to do what we have always done in the past: use other sources, like certificates and directories, to obtain the addresses, so that we are able to find the entry we require. It is then possible with these CDs to go straight to the horse's mouth and look at the enumerator's entry. What more could one ask for?

System requirements

To view the CDs, your system requirements are: a PC running Windows 95 or later with 16 Mbytes of RAM or greater and a CD drive. You will also need Abode Acrobat, version 4, which is supplied with the CDs, or a later version. OR: a Mac or Unix system with a CD drive and Acrobat software, which can be obtained from www.adobe.com.

Each set contains an eight page booklet that gives step-bystep instructions on how to install and use the CDs. Although, as already mentioned, there is not a name index in these sets, Disc 38 contains the Master Area Index, Master Street Index and Piece Index. This enables the user to locate the CD that their particular area of interest is on and the subdistrict or piece number which covers that area.

The next step is simply to choose the relevant CD from the boxed set and load the Index file from within Acrobat, which allows you to locate the sub-district and then browse through it. Entering the required street name in the Master Street Index, will locate the matches giving their sub-district number and the folio number. A note must be made of the street's details that are required. Using the noted details, select the correct CD and load it within Acrobat, then select the correct R12 file followed by the nearest folio bookmark, then browse.

As the quality on the original street index varied and in some cases was rather poor, when entering a street name it might not be recognised. If this is the case, it will be very worthwhile scrolling through the separate alphabetical lists, of which there are many. Although this can be a lengthy process, I had great fun and spent more time than I should have done looking up interesting and totally irrelevant addresses to my research, but many of my friends now know who lived in their homes in 1891!

Top of a London 1891 Census page:

Top of a London 1891 census page

The page images can vary depending on the condition of the return, but I have had this same problem in the past when looking at the films in the PRO. With this system it is possible to magnify up to 1600%, which proved very useful when trying to decipher the spelling of certain words.

Images of the pages can be printed, but great care must be taken to select the correct option of current page, otherwise you could end up printing hundreds of pages! The other slightly annoying inconvenience is that the piece number and sometimes the folio number does not get printed on the image, therefore you have to remember to note these details on each page. But, then again„this has always been the case when taking the details from a film or fiche.

Technical support is available through the S & N website, details of which are found at the start of this review.
A surname index project has been started and everyone is encouraged to take part. A WordPad document and Excel spreadsheet have been included on CD 38 but to avoid duplication and find out the latest information about the name index go to the S & N web page. You will be able to find out which districts have been registered, then choose and register your own chosen district for indexing.

 

Five Tree Rating

I have found both the London and Lancashire Census CD sets to be excellent. There is a wealth of information that can be tapped whenever you have a spare moment. No longer do we have to make a telephone call to advance book a microfilm reader, then plan a trip to a record office. Our research can now be done from the luxury of our own homes and S & N have made the dreams of some people come true!

They are to be congratulated on this ongoing project. An absolute must for a genealogist's bookcase.

 

LONDON 1891 CENSUS INDEX - REL. 1.1. CD-ROM (1).

Price: £14.95 or £5 to purchasers of the S & N London Census Box Set.
Published by: S&N British Data Archive Ltd., details as above.

 

HERE it is, the first CD-ROM Surname Census Index of the 1891 London Census. It is thanks to the tireless hard work of the 70 named volunteers, who are acknowledged on the paper CD sleeve, we now all have the chance of owning this wonderful research tool.

This is only the first Index and does not cover the whole of the London census, only the districts shown on the accompanying loose sheet of paper. The other areas will follow in other CDs as soon as the volunteers have transcribed their chosen districts. If you would like to be part of this project and help to make the indexes available sooner, rather than later, then log-on to The Genealogist website for details.

Contained within this CD is the S & N catalogue, along with the London 1891 Census Surname Index (Partial) and the London 1891 Census Surname Index (Partial) Indecipherable Entries. On the Indecipherable Index there are 58 pages of names.

I am very pleased to see this, as I much prefer transcribers to state when they cannot read a name, rather than guess it incorrectly. It would otherwise have been indexed with a very slim chance of ever being found. Also, by having a separate index like this, where you are aware the transcribers have had problems with the names, if you have been unable to find a particular name in the main index there is more chance of you finding it through this type of index.

It would be rather like looking for a needle in a haystack trawling through the 11,667 pages of the Census Name Index looking for names the transcribers had had problems with! Some entries have question marks for both forenames and family names, others show the forename but the majority have their ages, so it is possible to use this as a guide for the location of missing people and then be able to make up your own mind about the name.

I had great fun testing out the Surname Index. I chose a name, looked for all possible spelling variations and then I printed out the relevant pages. For each person, you are given their family name, first name, age, followed by the area, district and folio numbers for the census.

Using these census details, it is very simple to locate the entries on the appropriate CD from the boxed set. I was pleasantly surprised when I found that each one had been indexed correctly. I found it very simple to use and by having the census details on the printout it was so easy to add them onto the census page images when I printed those out, which is what I had found to be a slight annoyance when using the CDs without the Index.

Five Tree Rating

This index is an excellent research tool and I look forward to reviewing the others.

 

Jane Morson