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A lot of work has already been undertaken over the years on people and buildings. See the Building Occupants link which identified notable buildings and the surnames of people who had lived there. The Building Occupants concentrated on the village. The outlying areas were not worked on. However there is still lots to be done and the Building Occupants findings need to be worked into the Parish and People database. In addition the baptisms, marriages and burials databases can be used to find out birth dates partners and death dates. The Tithe database and map for 1845 may give some further clues. Finally the wiki school photo’s may give further clues. Especially the Fredric Bonney photo of Miss Mansell’s 1898 class where we know the names of all the pupils and where they lived.
This is an on going project to map the people in Colton parish between 1841 and 1939 to the houses they lived in. The basic information being used are the census years 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911 and the 1939 identity card data. The amount of information collected by each census is different. They have been standardised into one format and merged into the census database. This database can be searched and when houses and people have been identified the census database will need to be updated. Census returns are normally in two districts, the village for one and the outlying parts of the parish for the other. The 1871 census failed to record the outlying district. The 1921 census has yet to be included. Although it can be accessed the format does not allow it to be collated into the merged form at present.
Houses are not identified in every census return. To complicate matters further house numbers are defined by the census enumerator and should not be taken as being a valid identification of an order within a street. In fact some returns appear to be almost random in the census ordering as if the enumerator collated them as they were returned. Brook Street is now named as Bellamour Way. It is not known when the name changed. Most census returns still call it Brook Street. Only the 1881, 1911and 1939 returns identified addresses with the latter two naming the house. All is not lost though as there are copied of the census forms in national census information (see below). These identify the street defined by the enumerator which may be helpful. The 1881 census was used to seed the various databases as it appeared to be the best ordered return. The 1911 has better house identification but appears to be random in the return. Hence it is difficult to identify adjacent properties.
People and Houses
This database records all identified people with the houses they live in. Note only identified people with houses are displayed. Hence in the early stages of this project only the 1881 return will be displayed. When residence in other years are identified and the census database updated they will automatically appear.
The 1881 return identified 682 people and 147 houses. These were automatically generated each with a pid and a bid to start the system going. It is this starter which will be used to identify people and build up residences in earlier and later years. Entries for the wife’s partner, father and mother for sons and daughters have been automatically filled in where applicable. This information will need to be added when new people are added to the database. Some people will have been visitors so will not appear again. Others will have died or are yet to be born. Some houses will have been demolished, others yet to be built. Hence people and houses will need to be added to the respective people and buildings databases. No entries will be deleted and we should avoid duplication of both people and buildings. The people and building database entries are shown below.
| building_id | Street count | Address | Built | Demolished | Latitude | Longitude | Notes |
| 84 | 840 | 1 Bellenson End | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Notes |
The street count is an attempt to order houses up a street when known. Currently they are set to being 10 times the bid. The street count value can be adjusted so to place the house in the correct place. If latitude and longitude are set the location of the house can be displayed on the parish map. See below for further information.
| People_id | Surname | Firstname | Born year | Gender | Fath id | Moth id | Part id | Maid id | Death year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 388 | Alcock | Florence | 1874 | Female | 383 | 384 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Notes |
This entry is from 1881 so most of the fields have been automatically filled in. If Florence marries and her partner has a pid that can be filled in. Her maid id currently is redundant as she is only 7, however if she appears in a subsequent census return her pid (ie 388) can be used to identify her maiden name.
Houses and People
This database records who lives in each identified house. Like houses and people only those identified will show, hence again only 1881 will appear until other years are identified for that person.
People and Census
This is the main search database to be used. It allows people to be searched for all census returns. It displays them in each census year.
| census_id | pid | Surname | Firstname | Relation | Birth | Age | Gender | Status | Occupation | Birthplace | Buildin id | Address | Source | Notes |
| 2334 | 5 | Williscroft | John | Head | 1837 | 44 | Male | Married | Agricultural Labourer | Colton Staffordshire England | 2 | 2 High St | 1881002 | notes |
The above is one line of a return from a search of the people and census database. It is for 1881 so all fields will be filled in. Most of the columns are easily identified but two need to be explained. The pid is a unique identifier for that person. The building id (or bid) is a unique identifier for the building. These are the identifiers which are used to add to the census database when a person or house is confirmed. They drive the whole system. A zero in either of these places indicates the they have yet to be identified. The source field identified the national database return page and can be used to check up what was entered in the census return.
If Full Census List is clicked on this page all census records for each year will be displayed. This will allow, albeit a lengthy search, miss-spelt or unidentified people to be found. They are displayed in enumerator order in the raw form from the National Census returns.
Census Name Search
This will search all census returns for specified surname. Don’t forget to capitalise the first letter of the surname. It will only return exact matches so miss spellings will not be returned. The search will return all names even if their pid has not been specified.
National Databases
These are copies of the national census returns for all the years. They contain an image of the census page and a table of the information in the image. This information may not necessarily be correct. There will be spelling mistakes, years entered incorrectly, entries missed altogether. No attempt has been made to correct these omissions. In order to automatically process the returns some entries have been added to. Hence you will find blanks, question marks and the number 0 in places.
This large database is to be used to clarify problems. For example it may be useful to identify houses as some returns contain a column identifying the house. Note that numbers are the prerogative of the enumerator and may not necessarily be a house number. In some cases the house name has been specified on the form but it has not been identified in the text. It is worth going back to this source to glean information although some writing may be hard to decipher.
This database will not be updated. Only the people, buildings and census databases will be updated.
Updating Entries and the Parish Database
Search about people and their houses for each of the census years from 1881. In some cases families will still be residing in the same house. Armed with this information the people, buildings and census databases need to be changed. For people their partners id may need to be updated. Also their fathers and mothers id can be added. If death year is known, which may be in the burials database. Marriage and baptisms databases may also be useful. The more information which can be gleaned about a person the more change it can be matched to other census records.
In order to progress this project when people, houses and census entries have been identified various entries need to be updated. These mainly being the pid and bid numbers. You will need to register for access to the Parish Database. When editing entries you will need to log in to the Parish Database to trigger editing permissions.
When permission is granted to edit some of the pid, bid and census_id entries on pages become active. This is shown by the number being underlined. If the entry is clicked the fields are displayed on a page and can be changed as required. Pressing the save button will update the entry. These actions are part of the parish database routines and are available to make updating more easy. Do NOT press the back button as you will go into the full database access for the table being manipulated. To get back to your correct place use the web browser back arrows. These are usually at the top left of the page.
With a little practice most of the editing can take place using this mode of working. It may be advisable to write down pid, bid and census_id values when changing pages. Incorrect values being entered will cause many problems as people could end up living in the wrong houses for example.
The best mode of working to assign people to a house is to identify the head of the household in a census record. Using the census_id go into the parish database/census table and work down to the census_id record. Here you will now have all those living at that address listed. Go down each in turn changing the bid from 0 to the building id value. Stop before you get to the next head in the table. This way all those living at that address will be identified and changed. Working with surnames will not identify visitors, lodgers or servants and hence could be missed when changing the bid.
The only other place where full parish database access will be needed is when new people or new buildings need to be created.
The pid and bid cannot be changed. These are unique numbers for each person and building and are allocated automatically. All other fields can be change so edit with care. Never delete a record.
The latitude and longitude for a building is obtained by going into google maps via your browser for Colton. Enlarge the map and click your right mouse button on the location of the building. Record the two large numbers, best by highlighting and doing a copy. Then go to the building record and paste the values into the latitude and longitude positions. Remember to remove the comma separating them. Save the record. An option will then appear automatically when the building is selected on the house-people page.
A similar, but a little more complex approach can be done for pictures. A suitable picture needs to be located and uploaded into the parishdb/housepics directory making sure that the file name is unique. The an entry needs to be made into the pictures database. Here the building id bid needs to be known and the picture filename (just that) needs to be entered. Like the location feature above the option will be given to display pictures if they are found. Use filezilla to upload pictures.