FreeCEN Administration Tools—dat2csv WEB mode

The -w WEB switch requires four additional files

CHAP1841.txt which is a file of pseudo County codes for 1841 data
CHAP1891.txt which is a file of County (Chapman) codes with additions based on the file for In-CENS and is used for all other years (not just 1891).
template.htm which is a template HTML file into which the data is inserted.
The latter file contains %x escapes (repeated as required) where x =
- p = piece number (displayed in the form RGnn/nnnn followed by the parish name for CON 1841)
- v = program version number and (todays) date
- y = year of census
- f = the input file name
- r = a code for the CON 1841 parish in the format “<small>COCP code xxxyyy</small>” where xxx = the piece number and yyy = the parish number. This is especially designed for the Cornish project and may not be applicable elsewhere (see below). Leave out the %r code if this is not required.
- d = the location where the data is inserted. This can occur only once and must be outside of any containing block elements except <body></body>.
The template supplied was designed for the Cornwall project but can be edited by co-ordinators to suit their county. I would prefer if the basic structure (including the credit line) remained the same. Note that it is in XHTML 1.0. Currently it is strict, but this can be relaxed to transitional if required, and can be downgraded to any earlier versions of HTML. Please, for the reputation or the project, make sure that it is valid markup. BEWARE: —Keep a copy of this template file safe as it will be overwritten by the default copy each time you download an update to the FCTOOLS package. SCT files are not yet supported for WEB output.

The appearence of the web page is determined by the fourth file

census.css which contains a style sheet. This can be edited by co-ordinators to give any “look and feel” required. The folowing elements and classes are used by the generated code
- h3—this is used for the Enumeration Districts.
- h4—this is used for the page and folio numbers.
- p.big—this is used for the Civil and Ecclesiastical parish names.
- pre.data—this is used for the contents of each census page in CSV format.
- pre.data em—this is used for highlighting error flagged data fields.
Any others are as used in the template.htm file.

Notes

The output file name is based on the piece number omiting the PRO class prefix but has a single digit year prefix to avoid name clashes between census years. A suffix is added for partial pieces. See below for the CON 1841 census.

The design of the program is to re-create, where ever possible, the original format and structure of the enumeration books. In addition to inserting basic HTML tags, the program

Divides up the data into Enumeration Districts and extracts the ED number and parish from the first record of each.
Divides the data up into pages and extracts the page and folio number from first record of each page.
Each page is put out in CSV format to conserve space both on the screen and the web server.
Removes all “-” dashes for blank fields.
Puts a “1” in the inhabited/uninhabited/building column if it is otherwise blank (except 1851).
Reverts the surname to mixed case and reverses the order into one field “Forenames Surname”.
Removes the dummy names “Vacant premises” etc..
Splits the ages back into two columns as per the original and drops the sex field.
Extracts the strings “(Em'ee)”, “(Em'er)” and “(Notem)” from the end of the occupation field and creates a new column with Employed, Employer and Neither. This is not always successful due to typing errors in the original. I think this is important because “Neither” does not necessarily mean Not-Employed. Sometimes it means out of work, other times it means self-employed or retired.
Reverts the county code back to the full county name and puts it after the place of birth.
Highlights fields flagged as uncertain.
Decodes the special ED flags for institutions and shipping.

CON 1841 output

This is rather a special case. The Cornish project decided early that the PRO pieces were too large to send to a transcriber so they divided them up into separate parishes. These were each given a unique number over the county and were inserted into the Registration District field in the data file because this was not used in 1841. Following this pattern, dat2csv generates a web page for each parish, the name of which is included at the top rather than on each ED through the file as is the case for other years. The file name is 6 digits with the piece number and the parish number combined.

Since that was done, a common format for splitting 1841 and 1851 pieces has been devised.

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