Family
History
-
Data Base
Heritage Group Family History Database
Anyone who is interested in tracing their family tree will appreciate
how time consuming the process of searching old census records and
documention can be. Therefore the idea of having a computer database
containing all this information providing easy to use search methods,
is of considerable benefit.
Stonehouse Heritage Group started the process of creating a Family
History Database in 1991 when it was decided to document the 1891
census for Stonehouse. The traditional method and only way census data
could be accessed was via an address. If you did not have an address
then you could spend hours searching through census material. The data
capture of the 1891 census took approximately eight months to complete
and transcribe on to the Family History Database, with search routines
taking a few weeks to write and test. These routines consisted of
searching the 1891 census using surname, address, full name, a
combination of surname and address etc. Therefore anyone wishing to
search the census data only requires as little information as the
surname of an individual they wish to trace and still have a successful
search. The main advantages of storing and searching census data in
this way is that the traditional tedious rule of needing to know the
address before initiating a Search was removed and that the data could
be accessed in a number of different ways.
This project proved a great success during the Heritage Groups first
exhibition in 1992 with over 500 searches being initiated during the
week. This encouraged the Heritage Group expand the Stonehouse Family
History Database to encompass other family history information. This
was done for the groups second exhibition where another two censuses
were added; 1841 and 1881. Since then all census years after 1841 have
been recorded.
Other information including the old school records for Townhead Public
School (1880-1890) and the old parochial records for
Stonehouse (1696) have also been added to the Family History Database.
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