Talk:England Census

How Can the England Census be improved? Leave your comments

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The goal is to write about topics and and create subtopics when necessary and when anything becomes to lenghty create a new page and link to it. If someone on the web has created a page on the subject matter then link to it. This 'England Census" page becomes the main reference that highlights the important points. and links to all the pertaining subject matter.

Writing is a developing process. Often after writing something it is wise to review the words and sentence and paragraphs to improve upon them. With your own website you are the sole contributor but with a wiki others may change your contribution. Chances are no one will improve upon your work, so review your own writing often. There is no doubt that if you read your work often you will see how it can be changed and improved.

The main thing to remember is to keep everything on topic. More to follow...

A few things that would be worth adding:


 * The exact dates of the census for each of the years for which it's been published. This is often very important to genealogy (eg it can narrow down when a person was born or died).                                              There is a link in the 'Understanding the Census' section that goes over all these details.  It is quite a lengthy page,  if we wanted to we could create our own page and link to it but I think the likley thing to do it to expand on the sentences so a person can find that link or perhaps create a Link Section at the bottom of the page.
 * Expand this paragraph "The census details have changed little from year to year. There is a detailed listing of the changes made to the census over the years starting in 1841. At GENUKI website you will find an excellent explanation of the census records and availability. (Examples of Census - 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871) NOTE: Many of the websites have not yet updated their pages to include the 1911 census."
 * At least a mention of the pre-1841 censuses. Very few records of these survive, but the few that do can be gold dust! Kent FHS have published a few on fiche for instance.                      Which section does that fit into?  I think that a new section or subsection in 'Undertanding the Census'  If there is enough info then we could create a new page and link to that.
 * Some of the reasons that information in censuses may be wrong. Ages are often wrong (for instance, people who take much younger spouses often find that the years fall away from themselves as well!) Places given as the birthplace may be approximate and may not be the same place as the person was baptised. Often the further people are living away from their birth place, the less precise they are.
 * Perhaps it's also worth mentioning that the way it worked, at least in the earlier years, was that the head of household wrote down the information about all the people therein. Some were more conscientious than others; some felt it indelicate to ask ladies their ages; some with lodgers seem to have guessed.     When we start talking about all the given situations  that may or may not apply to a persons situation then I think it could be quite lengthy so a new page would need to be created called ' Census Search Strategies'  or smoething down those lines.  If someone can't find there ancestor then they would have a page to go to see what other options they have.

I could add some of the above if it would be useful. Stevewest 15:11, 6 March 2009 (UTC) I hope I have given some ideas that will be of use. Creating a new page is very simple in fact it is to simple In fact you can change the name of a page you do not like as well.

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The reference to the Family History Librart edition of ancestry.com is not a correct statement. The site ancestryInstitution.com is available to any library wishing to subscribe. The sentence should be revised to refer to ancestryinstitution is available for use in the Family History Library or the library has subscribed to it. I can make the change if you don't mind.

I added two short, general articles about the census. The titles are England Census: Information and Description of the Contents and the other is England Census: What It Is and How It Was Gathered. My purpose in adding them is to allow an individual who has no knowledge of the census, or a teacher of a class, to learn about the census on their own. I have others I want to add but before I do, I want your opinion as to the value of the ones just added. Some of the information is in the England Census article and perhaps separate articles are not necessary. They are not linked yet. If I didn't know anything about the census, I'd prefer to get a quick explanation and a few links rather than reading the entire England Census article. Anne 18:10, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

I assume that you are having trouble incorporating your content into the current census page. I think that much of it fits into what is already there. If your aim is to create another page for another purpose an it would serve a purpose to that group of people then I would create it. Feel free to take anything on the page and put it in different words. If you do not have the confidence to do so then seek advice from a collegue. Don 1 May 2009

Could someone put the directions on how to create a date stamp on this page and put it in the search engine as well.

The best way to drive writers away is to nit pic at there writing.

Good comment about adding name and time stamp. I was told verbally that if I typed 3 tildes, it adds my name. If I type 4 tildes, my name and the date is added. I would be nice to have it in an article on the Help with the Wiki page. On my keyboard, the tilde is on the left side above the tab key.

Two reasons to create separate census were to 1) keep from adding a lot more to the already-too-long England census article; and 2) be stand-alone articles that people teaching beginners. I've added and edited many articles so I'll look at the England census article to see where information could be inserted. Thanks for your suggestion. Anne 17:16, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

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To Barbara Baker - I see that you have been working on the format of the England Census page (at least, I think it's you). I very much like what you have done. The previous version just went on and on. Now it is divided up into more meaningful units. I'm glad I was able to add a few small items that were of value. Ellisgj 19:13, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

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I haven't been to the page for a while and was surprised at what I found. It took me a while to click through the links to see what was there. For a minute I thought somethings had been deleted. I really didn't see a problem with the old format.