Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
Standard Edition
A
Weekly Summary of Events and Topics of Interest to Online Genealogists
Vol.
7 No. 48 –
- Wiltshire 1851
Census CD-ROM
Wiltshire Ancestors has released a CD-ROM
disk containing transcribed records from the 1851 Wiltshire Census. This is not
just a simple index; it is the complete census as transcribed by expert
genealogists.
The transcript of the 1851 Census for
Wiltshire has been available for about three years on microfiche in a series of
19 volumes. The new CD-ROM places the same data onto a single plastic disk in a
format that can be easily searched. This product is produced by the
collaborative effort of several individuals: Pat Wilson, Alan Merryweather, and
Michael Gwilliam did the transcriptions, while B.
I installed the disk on a Windows XP system
and was in business a couple of minutes later. The opening screen gives several
options:
The "Find Ancestor" feature is a
powerful method of searching by any combination of fields, including: given
name, last name (surname), birth year, county of
birth, place name of birth, census address, and occupation. You can specify
searches for any one field or a combination of fields. The name fields can use
exact spelling, partial spelling, or Soundex (sounds like). For instance, here
are a few of the results of a search I conducted for my own surname, specifying
only those born in Downton (a small village near
1846 1851
CENSUS HO107/1846 FF.206 - 226 ED. 1C DOWNTON
Piece:
1846 Folio: 220 Schedule: 094
Address:
Morgans Vale
EASTMAN
Sarah DA M 32 -
WIL Whiteparish (c1819)
EASTMAN
Ellen GD - 3 -
WIL Downton (c1848)
EASTMAN
Andrew GS - 1 -
WIL Downton (c1850)
The letters "DA" indicate that
this person is a daughter of the head of household, while "GD"
indicates granddaughter and "GS" indicates grandson. The information
is easily printed or "copied-and-pasted" into another Windows
document as I did with the above lines, pasting them into this newsletter.
When viewing the results of a search,
another button appears, labeled "View Neighbours." Clicking this
displays a list of all the other residents in the neighborhood.
A number of screen captures that illustrate
the program’s operation are available at http://www.wiltshireancestors.co.uk/. You can scroll down the page to see them.
The functionality I have described so far
requires Microsoft Windows. However, anyone with a Macintosh or Linux system
will note that the census transcriptions and the indexes to the transcriptions
are also available on the same disk in Adobe Acrobat format. Mac and Linux
users can use this disk to look up information in an index and then go to the
page referenced to view the transcribed original record. However, Mac and Linux
users will not be able to use the search capabilities I described without use
of a Windows emulator.
The Wiltshire 1851 Census CD-ROM disk
contains high-quality genealogy information. The records were transcribed by
expert genealogists, not by untrained clerical workers as used by some other
products. It is easy to use and should prove popular with those researching
Wiltshire ancestry. I would expect that most genealogy libraries will also want
to purchase a copy of this CD-ROM to add to their available resources.
The Wiltshire 1851 Census transcriptions on
CD-ROM sells for £22.50 (about $35.00 in U.S. funds) plus shipping and taxes,
if any. The disk is available only from Wiltshire Ancestors at this time. They
are not equipped for online ordering via credit card although they do plan to
offer the disk through another retail outlet that is equipped for credit card
transactions.
For more information about the Wiltshire
1851 Census CD-ROM, go to http://www.wiltshireancestors.co.uk/