FTA, CENS and NOTE

[PhilGee]

I use Linux for most of my computer activity, so I have only recently installed FTA on my "Win 7" virtual machine. I now wonder why I delayed as it has found quite a few errors already! I should add that my underlying database is actually spreadsheet based, for personal reasons, and I generate GEDCOM files of families/family groups in a number of different levels of content, such as full or "internet".

For LostCousins data, I have been developing a special "combined families" generator and run the output through FTA, giving the added benefit of checking for anomalies in the database. As part of the CENS data, I add a note

2 NOTE [Census Name: Henry Scott; Age: 15 (1886)]

though for Ancestry I add it to the CENS entry instead to make it visible

1 CENS Reference: RG13, Piece 2123, Folio 51, Page 4, Schedule 26 [Census Name: Henry Scott; Age: 15 (1886)]

However, I have found that FTA objects to the NOTE with the 1911 census, flagging an "unknown census ref", but seems happy with it attached to the other years. The "Ancestry" format is always accepted.

I'm not yet familier with FTA, so not sure if this is intentional.

Phil

 

[Bryman]

I think that the 1911 census has caused all sorts of problems due to the change of format for the references. It is not just FTA that has been affected, I noticed a problem with FMP searches a few weeks ago and am still waiting for that to be corrected.

I recall that Alexander worked on this for a reported issue some time ago so perhaps you have found an oversight. I am sure that Alexander will see your post and investigate so just have a little patience.

 

[PhilGee]

Thanks, Bryman, I'm not in a hurry as I'm still developing things to be more consistent and produce GEDCOM compliant output suitable for online (Ancestry etc) and local (FH/FTM etc) use, as I also have different "age" cutoff levels and address detail depending on the destination.

Phil

 

[Alexander Bisset]

The "unknown census ref" report shows any notes it was unable to find census refs in. These will be ANY notes. The idea was that as different combinations of dots, commas, semi colons, ED, Enum Dist, Enumeration District, Edistrict, page, pg, Folio, F, etc etc were entered that I might not have covered some relatively obvious combos.

So that report shows all the notes where no census ref was found so that users could report "you missed a bit" for a particular format!

As Bryman correctly points out the 1911 format is radically different from other years so needs special combinations of searches to identify them. Can you list the formats that are failing so I can investigate why. It may be a simple format to add or it may be a tweak you could make in the output.

 

[PhilGee]

Alexander,

The following is a short block for the same person. The NOTE gives the person's name and age as on the census image and the implied birth year with the census reference in the PAGE entry.

1 CENS
2 DATE 5 Apr 1891
2 PLAC Devonshire, England, UK, (St Thomas)
2 NOTE Census Name: Robert Henry Scott; Age: 5 (1886)
2 SOUR @S1891@
3 PAGE Class: RG12; Piece: 1679; Folio: 27; Page: 8; (Schedule: 43)
1 CENS
2 DATE 31 Mar 1901
2 PLAC Devonshire, England, UK, (Okehampton)
2 NOTE Census Name: Henry Scott; Age: 15 (1886)
2 SOUR @S1901@
3 PAGE Class: RG13; Piece: 2123; Folio: 51; Page: 4; (Schedule: 26)
1 EVEN
2 TYPE LostCousins
2 DATE 1911
1 CENS
2 DATE 2 Apr 1911
2 PLAC Glamorganshire, Wales, UK, (Swansea)
2 NOTE Census Name: Robert Henry Scott; Age: 25 (1886)
2 SOUR @S1911@
3 PAGE Class: RG14; Piece: 32766; Schedule: 183

FTA reports

Found 2111 census facts in GEDCOM File (2111 good, 2111 usable facts loaded)
Created 0 census facts from individuals notes and source references in GEDCOM File
Found 2162 residence facts in GEDCOM File (0 treated as census facts)
Found 1868 census references in file and 0 facts missing a census reference and 243 references that were unrecognised
Found 604 Lost Cousins facts in GEDCOM File (604 good, 604 usable facts loaded)

with all 243 unrecognised entries the 1911 NOTEs.

FTA appears to recognise the PAGE census refs for all but 1911 where it seems to only look for a NOTE.

Phil

 

[Alexander Bisset]

No Phil, those examples are for CENS records, whether it recognises a census ref for them or not is irrelevant for this purpose as references for actual CENS records are treated as simple comments with no other useful function as it by definition already has a census record.

What is important for identifying census records is where you don't have a census record and it's had to create one from the notes. That's your 1868 created records. It's the 234 unrecognised records that are the important ones as tweaking the search criteria might identify the missing records. There should be a report to show unrecognised census references this will generate s text file that will tell me what it searched but didn't recognise as a census reference. It's the lines in this file I need to see rather than the GEDCOM source.

That said there is perhaps some merit in identifying the census refs where you have a CENS records but it's for completeness sake rather than adding anything extra to the equation.

I suspect the 234 unrecognised are variants of an existing 1911 pattern that needs a little tweak at my end. So if you could list a few lines from the unrecognised report please I'll be able to find out why. I won't be able to fix it this week though as when I power up my laptop it crashes the "medieval" wifi I have at this holiday cottage I'm staying at so I have to stick to just using iPad.

 

[PhilGee]

Alexander,

Firstly, as far as I'm concerned, you can leave this on the back-burner until you are home. However, the first five lines of the report (the rest are the same "data" for the ref) are:

"Icon","IndividualID","Surname","Forenames","DateofBirth","SurnameAtDate","TypeOfFact","FactDate","Relation","RelationToRoot","Location","AgeAtFact","LocationIcon","GeocodeStatus","FoundLocation","FoundResultType","CensusReference","CensusRefYear","Comment","SourceList","Latitude","Longitude","Preferred","IgnoreFact"
"System.Drawing.Bitmap","I0330","Baker","Alfred","ABT DEC 1892","Baker","Census","2 APR 1911","By Marriage","","Glamorganshire, Wales, UK, (Pontadawe)","18","System.Drawing.Bitmap","Not Searched","","","Unknown Census Ref: Census Name: Alfred Baker; Age: 18 (1893)","2 APR 1911","","1911 England & Wales Census [2 April 1911] (FMP)","0","0","False","False"
"System.Drawing.Bitmap","I0439","Baker","Alice","ABT MAR 1894","Baker","Census","2 APR 1911","By Marriage","","Devonshire, England, UK, (Torrington)","17","System.Drawing.Bitmap","Not Searched","","","Unknown Census Ref: Census Name: Alice Baker; Age: 17 (1894)","2 APR 1911","","1911 England & Wales Census [2 April 1911] (FMP)","0","0","False","False"
"System.Drawing.Bitmap","I0323","Baker","Arthur Richard","9 APR 1909","Baker","Census","2 APR 1911","Blood Relation","1st cousin once removed","Glamorganshire, Wales, UK, (Pontadawe)","1","System.Drawing.Bitmap","Not Searched","","","Unknown Census Ref: Census Name: Arthur Baker; Age: 1 (1910)","2 APR 1911","","1911 England & Wales Census [2 April 1911] (FMP)","0","0","True","False"
"System.Drawing.Bitmap","I0322","Baker","Gladys Elizabeth G","17 NOV 1906","Baker","Census","2 APR 1911","Blood Relation","1st cousin once removed","Glamorganshire, Wales, UK, (Pontadawe)","4","System.Drawing.Bitmap","Not Searched","","","Unknown Census Ref: Census Name: Gladys Baker; Age: 4 (1907)","2 APR 1911","","1911 England & Wales Census [2 April 1911] (FMP)","0","0","True","False"
"System.Drawing.Bitmap","I0324","Baker","Henry","ABT JUN 1856","Baker","Census","2 APR 1911","By Marriage","","Devonshire, England, UK, (Torrington)","54 to 55","System.Drawing.Bitmap","Not Searched","","","Unknown Census Ref: Census Name: Harry Baker; Age: 56 (1855)","2 APR 1911","","1911 England & Wales Census [2 April 1911] (FMP)","0","0","False","False"

and shows the data from the "NOTE" entry under CENS (as shown my previous post).

The "Census reference report" lists the 1868 non-1911 entries and shows the content of the PAGE text as the reference - the only entry with that data - (and correctly shows the corresponding FMP page) having ignored the NOTE text, that is why I don't understand the failure to use the same data for 1911.

Phil

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Phil that looks like you cut n pasted from a grid rather than exporting the data from the the text file created by the unrecognised census ref report. The button is on the census tab at the bottom of the form. It will save a text file that contains the unrecognised data.

 

[PhilGee]

Alexander,

Right, I opened the report and did an !export to csv" to get a file, then cut and paste. I missed the alternative, but the following is an extract from "export" option of the same records (by C&P to give the same 5 people).

Unknown Census Ref Census Name Alfred Baker Age 18 1893
Unknown Census Ref Census Name Alice Baker Age 17 1894
Unknown Census Ref Census Name Arthur Baker Age 1 1910
Unknown Census Ref Census Name Gladys Baker Age 4 1907
Unknown Census Ref Census Name Harry Baker Age 56 1855

I also tried removing the word "Census" from the note, but the result is unchanged.

Phil

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Ok fixed the issue for the next version. It was expecting SN or Schedule Number or Schedule No not just Schedule on its own. Thanks for the info.

A perfect example of how someone does something perfectly valid but slightly different and the search criteria isn't picking it up. This is what makes census reference pattern matching so tricky.

 

[PhilGee]

That's me being lazy and not including "Number" or "No" with any of the reference elements (so I am, at least, consistent)! That's what comes of generating my own GEDCOM files from data in CSV files.

Thanks,

Phil