Entering Census Data

[Karl Craig]

I've never understood how best to enter census data in Reunion. My main problem is that I think a census record is most useful when the entire household can be viewed at the same time: it's the relationships that often matter most.

To this end, I created specific 'notes' in Reunion for each census year (1841–1911) and have those viewable inside the Couple buttons:

http://www.reuniontalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=632&stc=1&d=1418182233

Which looks like this:

http://www.reuniontalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=633&stc=1&d=1418182233

Then, for EACH person I enter the FULL text from the census record (i.e. all the household and whatever information is supplied). I usually enter that (using my own quirky format) first in the appropriate note for the 'Head', and Copy/Paste that into the same note field for every other member of the household. Notes look like this:

http://www.reuniontalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=634&stc=1&d=1418182233

I have a purchased a scan of nearly every census record (yes, I'll soon be bankrupt!) which I keep on my hard drive – and, as well, I create a spreadsheet facsimile (I use Apple Numbers; so much better than XL, particularly because you can have multiple charts with unique layouts on each page). My facsimile of the above example is:

http://www.reuniontalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=635&stc=1&d=1418182233

Now, I guess by now most of you are rolling around the floor laughing at my stupidity, but I just don't think adding single line "Events" in the "Edit Person" window provides the same comparative view that I think so important to understanding a census record.

However, those 'User" created notes don't seem to export in the Gedcom file, so do not appear in my public 'Family Tree' in Ancestry.com

I've only recently felt confident enough to post and update that Family Tree, and I realise that the census information should appear in the Timeline for each person's profile. Does this mean I'll have to go back and repeat all those (many thousands) of entries in the Events window for each person?

Is there another way? (You've already guessed I'm a genealogical idiot!) It would be so good if Reunion provided a custom field for household census data that automatically attached to ALL members of the household and exported to Gedcom.

Have I missed something? I'd appreciate any suggestions on how to improve the way I'm doing this.

Many thanks,
Karl Craig

[rclrocco]

Re: Entering Census Data

This is really interesting as I too think that recording and showing Census data is vital. Many times, a Census return has been the vital step which has taken me back to the eighteenth century i.e. before British Civil Registration started

No I don't think you've missed anything, and I'm not sure there are easier ways of doing this in Reunion. Perhaps there will be others along shortly who have other ways but I do something similar to you, although I enter the census details under new fields created as an Event, then use a "view" thats shows each Census in chronological order on the Family Card - I'll post an attachment later which hopefully will make this clearer. I make a spreadsheet, like you and put a pdf of this - i.e. each full census transcript, into each person's Multimedia area; and use it as a source. Your method makes everything more visible without having to go find it in Multimedia!

I've not got as far as exporting Gedcoms or a tree to Ancestry so can't help you there. Not sure that I would want to either until I was 100% sure of all my entries.

Interested to read that you favour Numbers over Excel, i've used Excel for years on PCs at work, and it works so well for that but Numbers always seems to look more attractive. Maybe having a Census template would be an ideal time for me to get more used to Numbers

Will watch this closely to see what others say :-)

[Bob White]

Re: Entering Census Data

I find this interesting. BUT.... I have a question. What does this extra work offer?

In other words, it appears to me that you are just copying information from a census sheet into a spreadsheet to see what one can already see by looking at the census sheet. So, I am curious to know to what end this serves. Please don't think I'm being critical because I'm just trying to learn something that is obviously not obvious!

[Michael Talibard]

Re: Entering Census Data

Below I explain what I do about this - though I think what you do is fine, and it would cost you a lot of work to change to a new system. If I understand correctly, your problem is that what you have done does not export well to Ancestry; I don’t know whether mine would export any better, as I haven’t tried. Anyway, in case it is of interest, here is my approach.

I do not also enter census, or any other genealogical information, in any outside database, because it seems to me that it is for Reunion itself to hold all this, and I don’t want to double my work.

I have a Note field, called Dates, which appears in my standard Family View. It sits between some starting events and facts (Birth, Bapt, Relig, Educ.) and the last events (Death, Burial). It is the largest Field in this View, though sometimes it is empty, especially in earlier centuries, when documentation other than ‘hatch, match and despatch’ is often lacking.

This field contains census information and various other things that may turn up, provided I can assign a date to them. The census info always starts with the year followed immediately by a colon (saves me typing ‘census’ each time), followed by a source reference and my transcription of the info. Other items usually start with the year and a dash, source at the end; this helps me to see which is which. I attach a (rather full) sample.

The census info is copied and pasted into the similar Dates field for each family member present, with suitable adjustments - which is quicker than typing it all again. I attach samples.

[rclrocco]

Re: Entering Census Data

http://www.reuniontalk.com/showthread.php?t=8797

This was an earlier thread along similar lines. With luck , it shows my attachments to which I referred earlier. Particularly the Excel table that I set up. Karl I like your way of doing this within Reunion, but i'm not yet sure how the whole screen will look for someone's Family View with many census entries

To answer your query Bob. Yes it is more work, and many will have a scan of a census either in multimedia for a person or persons, or as a source or both. A tabular census entry gives me a quickly legible summary of how I found out about new people . I use it as research evidence and often refer back to it while finding out about a new family branch. Because the average Census entry - I'm only really familiar with British ones - gives so much valuable information, I like to have a tabular transcript of it. It will point me in the direction of B,M or D Certificates to look for; show me relationships and occupations about which I didn't previously know and give me new siblings, addresses etc etc . It's a vital cog in the wheel of finding out more about people.

Yes, you could just have a scan of the original entry, and refer to that, but I find the additional work of transcribing is worthwhile because it makes me think about that Census entry and compare it to others for inconsistencies, early Deaths and so on . I guess I use the Census as one of my most significant stepping stones. I have also many times enjoyed being able to email a simple summary of consecutive Censuses to a correspondent when showing how I've verified someone in my database. I can do this from my spreadsheet tables or from a screen shot of a person's Family View with multiple consecutive census entries.

Michael T , hallo and its good to see your input as you showed me how to enter Census detail ! I think the only thing I do a little differently , is to replicate the tabular form of the original census entries. For me this relates to what I first saw in my research , and is easier to read than your method. Its not easy , as your first attachment particularly shows, to see at a glance who is entered in a particular Census. A spread sheet makes that easier for me. And Karl, I find that entering the information as a table, similar to but more legible than the enumerators hand written original, is a useful thing to do. Its extra work, but for me its definitely worthwhile. Michael, you make a good point about not using another database , but rather keeping the Census data in Reunion. Reunion is a powerful database and it is I think easily capable of storing many hundreds of census entries whether in table form or narrative. Perfection for me would be a tabular entry direct in reunion , and I think that is what Karl does.

Er, but can't easily export.

As ever though in Reunion, each to their own.

[Karl Craig]

Re: Entering Census Data

The importance of census records to a proper family tree can hardly be overstated. Knowing the BDMs is one thing, but census records tell you about the ‘life’ of a person. For instance, I knew my g-granddad’s birthday and when he died, his wife and marriage date. So far so good, but none of that told me much about him as a person. However, discovering him in 5 census records covering 50 years, and I now know how he moved around the country, how his working life changed, how many siblings he had, and when and where his children were born. But I also found out about the other people in his household: that his boys originally followed him into the coal mines, that they grew up and left home, that his daughters were power-loom weavers, and that he often had lodgers in the house – the list is endless. Sherlock Holmes would always look for the census records.

Amazingly, non-family members (like servants or lodgers) in a household’s census record can often lead to discoveries that otherwise would have eluded the researcher. I found my gg-grandmother working as a domestic servant in a wealthy household far from home, not because of her name (a common name and it only ‘might’ have been her), but because another domestic servant in that household was a witness to my gg-g’mum’s wedding: now no longer a ‘might be’! I have dozens of family connections confirmed or found because of ‘secondary’ people in the records: witnesses, doctors, lodgers, informants, ministers, etc.

So, because census data is so essential to the ‘story’ and for the data it provides for research, it needs to be front and centre in your family tree. That is why I have ALL the data from the census records in a miscellaneous note (cmd-4) that I see in Family View “General”. My “Default” Family View (cmd-1), contains ALL the data from the BDMs (see sample), so I can be looking at a person and quickly switch between views to ‘see’ the WHOLE life of that person.

http://www.reuniontalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=641&stc=1&d=1418259655

Yes, I could just open the downloaded scan of the original record, but having it embedded in Reunion is essential for that file to be a complete record in itself. I can share my Reunion file with other family members and know that they will have the complete picture.

This is why it is so important that Reunion develop a more integrated ‘census’ view within the program; one that allows for:

• a single tablature representation of each census record

• linking of individuals in your tree to that single source (both ways)

• the mirroring of the census data for each linked person in the “Events-Census” window so that it will export to GEDCOM.

Is any of this possible Leister Productions Inc.?

[Karl Craig]

Re: Entering Census Data

Now (as a separate post) the issue of creating spreadsheet facsimiles of the census records (and, indeed, the BDMs). There are a number of reasons for this. First, I’ve painstakingly translated a lot of scrawly handwriting, and it is easier for others to view the record already transcribed.

Second, I can append notes, dates, corrections, etc. to a spreadsheet in many ways (e.g. pop-ups, additional columns/rows), and use colour to highlight certain characteristics. For instance, I make purple any person in a record who is a direct ancestor of mine (yes, my Nero complex), black is for ‘extended’ family, and faded grey for those who are not related at all.

Third, these spreadsheet versions can be saved in various formats and exported as very small files. They can then be used as multi-media attachments or emailed to interested parties.

Finally, but certainly not least, by using Apple Numbers (referred to in earlier posts) I can assemble the data in ways that other family members can use most effectively (see sample). For instance, I make a ’sheet’ for all ‘couples’ in my family tree and have a facsimile of ALL records for that couple: births, marriage, census, migration (if available), and deaths. (XL does not allow multiple unique charts on a single page or support freeform placement.) I often include date calculators, lists of children, and special notes.

http://www.reuniontalk.com/images/attach/jpg.gif

Why do this? Well, it’s all very nice having a beautiful platform like Reunion to hold your ancestral data, but I’ve always noticed that when I try to show the Family View to less genealogy-orientated folks (almost everyone I know), it only takes about 30 seconds before their eyes glaze over. Yes, Tree View is amazing with both ‘pedigree’ and ‘hourglass’ presentations (though no pedigree on the iPad) displaying the generations – but, again, this is only BDMs; the life-rich data from census records is not available.

However, my ‘couples’ sheets are always a big hit with family members: they can look at the life of two people from start to finish through the medium of public records. Can’t do that in Reunion.

[kmgenealogy]

Re: Entering Census Data

Karl, your first attachment didn't come up. Looks like you have a jpg.gif at the end of the link. Might this be a problem?

[Karl Craig]

Re: Entering Census Data

Hi Kaye,

They look okay in my browser: they are in fact .png, but I can see they have been appended with .jpg on import. Hmmm; not sure what's happening there. Anyway, here they are again – hope this helps. I'd be happy to email you any you wanted to look at if this doesn't work.

Cheers

http://www.reuniontalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=644&stc=1&d=1418269916

http://www.reuniontalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=643&stc=1&d=1418269916

[gathompson56]

Re: Entering Census Data

A very informative discussion. Thanks to all who have contributed.

Grant

[kmgenealogy]

Re: Entering Census Data

Hi Kaye,

They look okay in my browser: they are in fact .png, but I can see they have been appended with .jpg on import. Hmmm; not sure what's happening there. Anyway, here they are again – hope this helps. I'd be happy to email you any you wanted to look at if this doesn't work.

Cheers

http://www.reuniontalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=644&stc=1&d=1418269916

http://www.reuniontalk.com/attachmen...1&d=1418269916

Thanks, Karl.