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Archiver > PENNINGTON > 1999-05 > 0926543513


From: Leah Chance <>
Subject: [PENNINGTON-L] Re: PENNINGTON-D Digest V99 #113
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 14:11:53 -0700


> >Subject: 1881 British Census on CD-ROM

> >1881 British Census Available on CD-ROM
> >
> >The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) made
> >a major announcement this week:
> >
1881 British Census Available on CD ROM - Largest Ever
Automated Census With Over 30 million Names
Salt Lake City, UT - After 11 years and more than two-and-a-
half million hours of volunteer labor, the largest census ever
to be automated is now available on CD-ROM for home use.=A0 The
automated 1881 British Census, which contains information for
over 30 million individuals, was announced today by The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.=A0 The data comes from
England, Wales, and Scotland.=A0 (Note: the 1881 census for
Ireland does not exist.)

"The story behind this project is one of tremendous individual
participation and the cooperation of literally thousands
largest census database ever created to date," said Elder D.
Todd Christofferson, executive director of the Family History
Department.
Begun in September of 1987, the automated index is the result
of a collective effort of volunteers from the Federation of
Family History Societies in the United Kingdom and The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints.=A0 "Every effort was made
to reproduce the information as it was originally recorded by
the British census-takers in 1881.=A0 Even obvious errors were
left to allow users to make their own evaluation of the
information," Christofferson added.
"Each page of the census (over one million pages) was
transferred to microfilm and photocopied," said Richard E.
Turley, Jr., managing director of the Family History
Department Turley explained that each letter and name of the
census was painstakingly copied twice by transcribers, often
from almost illegible photocopies or microfilm, then double-
checked for accuracy.=A0 To protect the integrity of the data
during this transfer of historic information, every entry was
carefully evaluated a third or fourth time by trained
individuals prior to entering it on computer.
Project Factoids:
11 years to complete
1,211,695 pages of the original census
1,400,000+ hours to transcribe
10,000+ volunteers and transcribers
369 computers
11,266 floppy diskettes were submitted, containing all of
the census entrie
Among the 30 million entries, users will find the following
interesting entries along with a host of others:
Charles L. Dodgson (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll)- a "M.A. Student &
Lecturer" at Oxford University.

Joseph R (Rudyard) Kipling - a 15 year old attending school in
Devon.
Master Winston Churchill - Six year old son of Lord Randolph
Churchill, Member of Parliament.
The census will be published on 25 compact discs, including an
eight-disk national index and viewer that allow users to
quickly search across the entire database of 30+ million
names To make the census indexes more manageable and easier
to use, the data has been divided into eight regions: East
Anglia, Greater London, Midlands, North Central, Northern
Borders and Miscellany, Southwestern, Wales and Monmouth, and
Scotland.
"Users will be delighted to find that the census includes
enumerations for the Royal Navy in 1881.=A0 That means it lists
all people living, working, or traveling on a boat or ship at
the time the census was taken," said David Rencher, president
of the Federation of Genealogical Societies.=A0 "The Miscellany
Region even includes people who lived in 'poor-houses,' mental
institutions, workhouses, schools, hospitals, and other non-
traditional residences when the census was counted."
It includes the FamilySearch(r) Resource File Viewer 2.0,
which allows powerful and flexible search capabilities.=A0 Users
can tag and make notes for records and download the data into
RTF (Rich Text Format).
The census is available for purchase in its entirety or by
region through the distribution outlets of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints.=A0 The cost for the entire census
(25 CDs) is only $33 U.S.=A0 To order, call 1-800-537-5971 in
> >=A0=A0=A0 the U.S. or order on-line at
> <http://www.familysearch.org/>http://www.familysearch.org.
1-801-240-2584
or 1-800-346-6044.

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