Berkshire 1851 Census on CD
The long awaited CD version of the Berkshire 1851 Census
is now available from our Bookshop. This CD combines the MACH
(Mapping and Analysis of Census Households) format from Drake Software
with the data transcribed from the 1851 Census. The data collection was
done by a team of volunteers from BFHS lead by Geoff Mather, with
contributions from the Oxfordshire FHS. This data was first published
as printed indexes in 17 volumes. After some data cleansing to
standardise place name spellings the transcribed data from the
enumeration books together with the indexes was published on fiche —
these are still available.
A
Berkshire census place map
- click image to see full size version (38Kb) with true colours
then use back button to return to this page.
Phil Wood from BFHS, and Hugh Ainsley of Drake Software, have spent
many hours pufting the data into the MACH software. As a result every
data entry has been allocated a mappable census place and where
possible birth places have been allocated to map locations. However,
this has not always been possible as the information given in the
census is sometimes incomplete. The majority of these cases are where
people gave their birth place as only part of the place name such as
Kingston. There are two Kingston parishes in Berkshire — Kingston
Bagpuize and Kingston Lisle as well as the hamlet of Kingstone Winslow.
Thus the actual birth place cannot be determined.
The data has not been altered in any way to accommodate the mapping
process and the enumeration book pages, householders schedules and maps
can all be printed out for use in your family trees. The ability to use
wild cards, extended and compound searches as well as a Soundex
facility means that you should be able to find that long lost ancestor
if he or she was in Berkshire on the night of 30th March 1851.
It is inevitable that in a project of this magnitude a few errors will
have crept in and researchers should always check queries against the
microfilms. BFHS would be glad to hear of any errors, so that changes
can be made to future editions. It should be noted that the aim is to
provide an accurate representation of the information available in the
census enumerator’s notebooks - errors in these will not be corrected.
Simple
search - opening image
- click image to see full size version (50Kb) with true colours then use back
button to return to this page.
Search facilities within the program are comprehensive — as are the
ways you can choose to view this data: the maps are a fascinating
viewpoint not available within other census search engines, but the
traditional views are also available. The complete search can be
printed or an individual selected and the enumeration of their
household shown; it is also possible to view a census page and to then
step through the pages of the book to see who the neighbours were and
perhaps find further pointers to the location of the house (often very
difficult to determine in a rural location).
NOTE: The 'as enumerated' and
Gazeteer images given below do not appear in the original article.
with any
queries
