TMG-L Archives

Archiver > TMG > 2000-01 > 0946817005


From: "Ken Nelson" <>
Subject: Re: TMG-L: Another newbie - census data
Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2000 07:43:25 -0500


If you have a lot of census data I would suggest looking at the process of
entering census data as outlined by Diana Begeman at the following website:
http://www.halcyon.com/begeman/TMG_Main_Page.htm
I say this at the risk of discouraging you as a newcomer. It looks and reads
much more difficult than it is. In the US census there is a head of
household and others in the household. The head is entered as HOH and the
others as witnesses, But anyway if that does not apply to Canadian censuses
you might have to modify.
What I do, however, after using ALL info from the census in different tags
is represented by the following memo sentence: "Benjamin is listed as a 33
year old male farmer. His real estate is valued at $1200 and his personal
estate at $305. He was born in New Hampshire. || B.F. Reed"
What this does is use ALL info from the listing in the memo whether I have
found a place to use it in the program or not. For instance, I do not
usually deal with occupation tags, but this memo uses the data that he was
listed as farmer in that census. You may not want to enter a religion tag,
but your example clearly lists John as a 72 year old Irish Roman Catholic
farmer. And his birthplace is clearly listed as Ireland. In my memo above,
the name after the two pipestems is the name as it was listed in the census.
There can be all sorts of variations in that name listing from one census to
another. So I am very specific about using the listing just as it reads. In
your example, you may find out later that this John Welsh is not your John
Welsh, from reading the accompanying data.
I hope I have helped more than hindered. Census data can be a gold mine of
info, especially when the people you are researching are not the prominent
socialites that get written up in recorded histories.
Ken Nelson


-----Original Message-----
From: Hugh Campbell <>


>New to TMG, as well as genealogical research ... when I find an entry such
>as the following in the 1871 Census of Canada, what information should I
>keep and how best to enter it?
>
>Family Name
>WELSH
>Given Name(s)
>JOHN
>Age
>72
>
>Birthplace
>IRELAND
>Religion
>RC
>
>Ethnic Origin
>IRISH
>
>Occupation
>F
>
>District & Subdistrict
>71
>C
>Division / Page
>3
>11
>County & Location Description
>DUNDAS
>Williamsburgh Twp.
>
>Thanks very much for any pointers.
>Hugh
>Ottawa ON


- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TMG-L The Internet Mailing List for The Master Genealogist
To unsubscribe: Send an e-mail to with 'UNSUBSCRIBE TMG-L'
or... if you get the digest version: 'UNSUBSCRIBE TMG-L-DIGEST'
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

This thread: