Berkshire
1871 Census Transcription Project
Progress
© Phil Wood, 2002
(to join in, send me an email -
)
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS
- First transcription passes thse half way
mark!
- Cookham Reg. Dist. "sold out" -
all allocated to transcribers, the seventh of
the twelve RDs. to be fully allocated. Very
little remains for the Windsor RD.
- First returns from North Berks as a number
of parishes from Faringdon and Wantage RDs.
are transcribed.
REMINDER: Sample
Data from our work will form a dataset in the
forthcoming Family History Online website trials
(Berks FHS members, Cornwall FHS members &
Berks 1871 transcribers only).
A big thank you
to Oxfordshire FHS who have made their name index
for North Berkshire (in Oxfordshire since 1974)
available to this project.
Progress can be
measured in many ways, the graphical approach used
below gives a fair indication of how far we have gone
- and how much further there is to go!
Despite appearances the colour key
for this chart has six colours!
| |
Ready for allocation |
| |
Allocated |
| |
First transcription complete |
| |
Checked |
| |
Validated |
| |
Part allocated / transcribed
- more still available |
Turquoise shows areas
available for allocation, yellow then shows that the
area has been allocated to a transcriber and green
indicates that first transcription is complete.
Later red will show the area has been checked and
blue that it has been validated and is ready for
publication. The dubious orange colour
indicates large parishes where major allocations and/or
transcriptions have been achieved but parts remain
available for allocation.
The index will encompass Berkshire
1871, not parishes or areas that have been added
since (e.g. Caversham, Slough) or those removed
earlier (e.g. Little Faringdon, Shilton).
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
Population of Berkshire in 1871 - 196,475
(source Census
2001 leaflet)
The chart above does not show
everything. In the chart Reading St Mary's and
Reading St Giles can be seen in yellow - far from
completed. However transcriptions from these
parishes make up a significant proportion of the
returns to date! As these parishes are so large
(around 15,000 people in each) it takes a long time
to complete them.
Other
parishes appear on the chart as large expanses but
only have a few hundred inhabitants - expect to see
some of these change to green more rapidly.
Another way to measure progress is to
consider the task in terms of census pages:
A total of 8766 data
pages make up the Census returns identified
to date.
Of these 4598 have
been transcribed (52.5%), a further 2198
are with transcribers leaving 1966
still available for any volunteers!
Still plenty to do!
And then we have to check it all!
TABLE OF "PIECES"
Finally I show the progress using the
table format beloved of other Census projects. The
use of the word Partial in the allocated/transcribed
columns indicates that one or more of the Enumeration
Districts in that Piece has been allocated/transcribed.
| Registration District |
Sub District |
Piece |
Allocated |
Transcribed |
Checked |
Validated |
| Newbury |
Thatcham |
1247 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
| Newbury |
Thatcham |
1248 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
| Newbury |
Newbury |
1249 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
| Newbury |
Newbury |
1250 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
| Newbury |
Speen |
1251 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
| Newbury |
Speen |
1252 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
| Hungerford |
Kintbury |
1253 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
| Hungerford |
Hungerford |
1255 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
| Hungerford |
Lambourn |
1256 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
| Faringdon |
Shrivenham |
1257 |
Yes |
Partial |
|
|
| Faringdon |
Faringdon |
1258 |
Partial |
Partial |
|
|
| Faringdon |
Buckland |
1259 |
|
|
|
|
| Faringdon |
Buckland |
1260 |
|
|
|
|
| Abingdon |
Fyfield |
1261 |
|
|
|
|
| Abingdon |
Abingdon |
1262 |
|
|
|
|
| Abingdon |
Abingdon |
1263 |
|
|
|
|
| Abingdon |
Cumnor |
1264 |
|
|
|
|
| Abingdon |
Sutton Courtney |
1266 |
|
|
|
|
| Wantage |
Wantage |
1267 |
|
|
|
|
| Wantage |
Wantage |
1268 |
Partial |
|
|
|
| Wantage |
Ilsley |
1269 |
Yes |
Partial |
|
|
| Wantage |
Ilsley |
1270 |
Partial |
Partial |
|
|
| Wantage |
Hendred |
1271 |
Partial
|
|
|
|
| Wallingford |
Cholsey |
1272 |
Partial |
|
|
|
| Wallingford |
Wallingford |
1274 |
|
|
|
|
| Bradfield |
Bucklebury |
1275 |
Yes |
Partial |
|
|
| Bradfield |
Mortimer |
1276 |
Yes |
Partial |
|
|
| Bradfield |
Tilehurst |
1277 |
Yes |
Partial |
|
|
| Reading |
St Mary's |
1278 |
Yes |
Partial |
|
|
| Reading |
St Mary's |
1279 |
Yes |
Partial |
|
|
| Reading |
St Mary's |
1280 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
| Reading |
St Lawrence |
1281 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
| Reading |
St Giles |
1282 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
| Reading |
St Giles |
1283 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
| Reading |
St Giles |
1284 |
Yes |
Partial |
|
|
| Wokingham |
Wokingham |
1285 |
Yes |
Partial |
|
|
| Wokingham |
Wokingham |
1286 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
| Wokingham |
Wokingham |
1287 |
Yes |
Partial |
|
|
| Wokingham |
Wargrave |
1288 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
| Wokingham |
Wargrave |
1289 |
Yes |
|
|
|
| Cookham |
Bray |
1290 |
Yes |
Partial |
|
|
| Cookham |
Bray |
1291 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
| Cookham |
Cookham |
1292 |
Yes |
|
|
|
| Cookham |
Bisham & Hurley |
1293 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
| Easthampstead |
Bracknell |
1294 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
| Easthampstead |
Bracknell |
1295 |
Yes |
Partial |
|
|
| Easthampstead |
Sandhurst |
1296 |
Yes |
|
|
|
| Windsor |
Egham |
1298 |
Yes |
Partial |
|
|
| Windsor |
Windsor |
1299 |
Yes |
Partial |
|
|
| Windsor |
Windsor |
1300 |
Partial |
|
|
|
| Windsor |
Windsor |
1301 |
Yes |
|
|
|
| Windsor |
Windsor |
1302 |
Yes |
Partial |
|
|
Small portions of Pieces 1236 (Basingstoke),
1425 (Henley) and 1437 (Oxford) are also in Berks,
these are all allocated and partially transcribed.
HISTORY OF THE PROJECT
The idea for a transcript of the
various Censuses for my local town of Newbury struck
me as a useful contribution I could make to the
growing mountain of family history data available to
the researcher. In November 2001 I received
permission from the Berks FHS to use their well worn
films to make a start on the 1871 returns.
At the beginning it was purely a
personal project for Newbury data, however, all my
plans went awry when someone heard of my little
project and asked if they could join in. Before
I knew it I had a County-wide project on my hands and
the first few volunteers where beginning to send in
data. Early in 2002 the call went out for more
help and a number of generous souls responded, since
then more have been joining in as they hear of the
project. There are now over 20 volunteers
working at home on the transcriptions. Their
homes are in five countries (six if we give in to
Cornish calls for independence), the USA, Australia,
Canada, Wales and even England. The largest
cluster reside in Berkshire, I guess this is no
surprise, but almost as many reside in Ontario!
Transcribers work at their own rate
doing as much as they can find the time or
inclination to do, contributions vary from over 1000
down to 16 pages - all are most welcome. Three
transcribers have passed the 500 page mark and five
more have done over 100 pages each. With such
contributions progress has been excellent and
completion of the first transcription can be
envisaged by the end of 2002 (though vision and
reality often fail to match).
A big thank you to all who have
contributed.
A process for checking the
transcriptions is being developed, access to better
films will be of key importance - if anyone has ready
access to such films through a local library or FHC
and would like to be involved in the checking process
- please get in touch.
And if you have had the interest to
read this for - and you're not already involved,
please get in touch and eMailfor details of
how you could help us complete this project.
And for a few more words on the 1871 Census
Phil Wood
Berkshire Family History Society
- 1871 Census Project Coordinator
with any queries
