FLHIG

Family and Local History
Indexing Group

Selected articles from the Newsletter

This article first appeared in SIGGNL 10  (August/Nov 1995)

Indexing on the Fly
by Anne Hewes,
Colne Engaine History Society
 

Introduction

The Colne Engaine History Society was established to collect and preserve our local history before it disappeared.  It seemed a simple enough task: we intended to interview the older people to record their memories, make a collection of old and new photographs of the village and its people, and collect any other information that came our way.  Our collections were to be for the use of anyone interested  in the village, and possibly to answer enquiries from people outside the village researching local or family history.  Ten years on we are a flourishing society who: have organised exhibitions, outings and talks on local history; have published books; have made a video film on a year in the life of our village; and are the proud possessors of a History House (well, a double garage actually), and a large collection of documents and photographs.

Starting up - card index

From the very beginning it was decided that all documents  must be indexed to provide easily available information; this would require a very detailed index including all mentions of personal names and addresses, and also a general subject index of use to researchers of specific topics: education, farming, domestic life and the like.  It was always intended that eventually computers were to be used; we might be recording the past but we intended to make every use of modern tools.  Home computers were in their infancy, software was very expensive and none of us had any experience of indexing, so we began with a simple manual system for immediate use.  Having devised a system that suited us we consulted the Essex Record Office for their "approval" and went ahead using the "shoe box and post card" system.

Actually we had three indexes: names, addresses, and general topics.  The system was simple: each document was given a catalogue number and then indexed onto the appropriate card by writing the catalogue number onto the card; one card for each surname, one for each address with the indexes being sub-divided into road names, and one for each subject.  Easy!

We very soon learnt the two great truths that must be the nightmare of all indexers: one is, that spelling is totally unimportant.  Until this century most people were illiterate, those who did write spelt the names as they thought fit.  Even in our typed records of interviews with village people today, the spelling of names is variable; John Brown may have known Charlie Tokely for seventy years but has never seen Charlie's name written down, or not since they were at school.

The other is, that history is not static.  In our village the names and numbers of the houses have changed, often several times in the last century; before that most of the small houses had no numbers or names, being simply known by the names of the people who lived in them.  The same applies to the bigger houses although some names have, in some cases, been in existence for several years, with new houses replacing the old, but keeping the old names.  The names of the roads have changed, some of the roads have disappeared, even the village itself has had several names over the last thousand years.  Added to this we have to cope with fields and woods whose names change, houses and sites not on roads, roads with no names, changing village boundaries, houses that used to exist (often with no name) but don't now.

Anyway, as the appointed cataloguer and indexer (idiot who volunteered), I began at the beginning and resolutely ploughed on adapting and inventing as I went.  "Mr Brown of Brook Street was a shepherd and Mrs Browne baked bread to sell."  The catalogue number was entered on the Brown card.  Brook Street, no number, I'd better start a card just called Brook Street.  Do I put shepherd on a card called shepherd, or sheep farming, or agriculture, or occupations...  does baked bread go under bread, baker, bakery...  the possibilities are endless.  Hang on, Mrs Browne is spelt with an e on the end, better start a new card, make a note on the new card saying see also Brown, make a note on the old card saying see also Browne.  "Mrs Cook lived at Leggs", where on earth is Leggs?  Better start a new card and a new division in the address file for miscellaneous.  Later I found that Leggs is now called Brook Farm, and has also been known as the Manor House Court, Fallifants, and The Brook House: do I transfer the Leggs cards references to Brook Farm?  No, too time-consuming, but I do note the various other names that the house has been known by on each card and start up cards for the other names.  The miscellaneous division grows at an alarming rate and now includes everything that isn't a current address even if I know the road where it stood; it also includes the old names for houses still existing but called something else.  Who said this was going to be an easy job?  When will we get our computer, that magic machine that will solve all our problems?  Will it solve all our problems?

Moving to a computer index

It's a long story, but suffice it to say we now have a workable system on computer with over 7,000 records.  We use a 486 computer made up from a kit - you can use a less powerful computer if you have fewer records, or more time to spare.  After a period of experimentation, a system was devised, using Lotus Approach, that suits us and can readily be adapted and altered as the need arises, or transferred to updated software when we acquire it.  Our experience with the original system paid dividends, in that we knew some of the problems and could work out how to avoid them.  One of the main problems that we had yet to solve was the importance of the information.  Say we had an enquiry from someone researching their family name, Courtauld.  In our village the Courtauld family played a prominent part, and there are hundreds of mentions of them, all duly noted on the Courtauld card with just a series of reference numbers.  The researcher then had to plough through dozens of documents, often just to find something totally irrelevant to them.  We needed more detail.

Catalogue design

For those of you who may like to undertake a similar task, this is how we now catalogue and index each of our documents.

1. Each document is examined; if it is difficult to read a transcript is made (using a word-processor). Sometimes notes are made of the contents of the document; for instance it may be possible to draw up a small family tree, or list the inhabitants of a particular house.  Our range of documents is vast, including perhaps something as small as a death notice from a newspaper, or as large as a typed transcript of a school managers' minute book.  It also includes transcripts of interviews, wills, notes compiled whilst researching, abstracts of title, transcripts of newspaper reports etc.

2. Each document is then allotted a sequential catalogue number which will be used to link the actual number with the catalogue and index entries.  From then on all the work is done on the computer in the following manner.

3. Go to the catalogue sheet screen and enter the relevant details.  On this screen are several fields which are used to describe the actual document.  Each field is filled in, or left blank in turn.  The catalogue number field, after that the information is entered into the fields as appropriate.  This will give a detailed description of the document, the date, how many pages it comprises, the source of the document, who collated it, and any extra notes that might be thought necessary.

4. Go to the catalogue list screen and enter the relevant fields.  This screen eventually provides a list of the documents; on it will be entered the catalogue number, what the document is mainly about (agriculture), what the information is contained in (Brown: interview), and the date.  We do not use the date field on any of the indexes as a field to search on, because the dates are so variable, and are only used as an approximate guide.  The date may say 8th June 1644, 16th C, circa 1950, between the wars, megalithic, 1850-1860.

5. Go to the index screen and enter the information into the various fields where appropriate.  There is no need to write in each field.  This is where the work really begins, and any number of index screens may be completed for each document to give a detailed list of all information contained in that document.  Each screen becomes one record in the index database.  The fields are as follows.

Catalogue number.  This is the only field that must be entered, all the rest are optional.

Surname.  Double-barrelled surnames may be entered with both names or just the last name.

Other names.  (John and Mary, Mr & Mrs, J.T., Johnny, Old Man, family, John Snr, Sir John, etc.)

Address.  For addresses in Colne Engaine enter the number and or house names, or any other description (Fern Cottage, 13, house with green gates).  For addresses outside Colne Engaine the whole address is entered (The Villa, London Road, Wimbledon).

Location.  This field may only be entered with an entry from a %pick-list$.  The list is composed of the present-day names of the roads in Colne Engaine, and Miscellaneous.

Subject.  (School minute book, blacksmith, etc.)

Group.  As with location this field has to be entered from a pre-arranged %pick- list$.  (School minute book would be entered as education, blacksmith as occupation, etc.)

Comment.  This is a long field - 250 characters - which allows a brief note (John Brown appointed headmaster after 2 years teaching junior class.)

Date.  Often there is no specific date or time-span, but if possible I try at least to enter some indication of time (18th C, pre-WW I, etc).

6. Repeat index screen entries until the whole document has been completed.

7. Press print button.  This automatically prints out two copies of the catalogue sheet which uses the information from the catalogue screen followed by the list of names, addresses and subjects included in the document.

8. One copy of the catalogue sheet is filed in a lever arch file with all the other catalogue sheets; the other is included with the document and filed in the relevant file.
 

For those of you unused to dealing with computers, it is necessary to explain that the information may be viewed and/or printed out in any format you - as the user - may desire: surname first, address first, street first or whatever.  We very soon decided that to print out the whole index was a wast of time and money, seven thousand entries uses an awful lot of paper, and will need to be updated next week.  What we do is to print out only the records relevant to the enquiry.  Hence an enquiry for any information of the Linnet family is handled by doing a search in the surname field for the name Linnet, and names beginning or ending with Linnet, or names that sound like Linnet.  (I told you computers were magic!)  We could come up with a list of twenty records including the surnames Linnet, Linet, Lynet, Linot, Lane-Linnet, Linnet-Lane. It is then possible to temporarily hide any that may not be needed - for instance, the enquirer may only be interested in those prior to the present century - and print out the list.

On reading our list we may discover that Susannah Linnet married William Mannering in 1850, so we start again and find all the Mannering records..  For two hundred years the Linnets lived at Grange Farm: extract the Grange Farm records to find out the size of the farm, crops grown, employees. Samuel Linnet was a blacksmith: extract the blacksmith records to find out who else may have worked with him. Ann Linnet was a straw plaiter: search for straw plaiter on the subject and comment lists to see if there is any explanation of how straw plaiting was organised.  David Linnet died of smallpox in 1746: how many other epidemics could have affected the Linnet family, was he the only one to die?  Robert Linnet attended the village school in 1919: what was school life like, and who taught him?  The possibilities are endless and quick; within a short while, the enquirer has a comprehensive list of possible sources, and can then start to research the actual documents.

The computer program offers other possibilities:

* entering INFO as the catalogue number, I can enter information as we acquire it that will help point to other names eg:
- for Tolridges see Tolleridge, Totheridge;  
- Hillcrest was called John Green's cottage by the church, and the cottage on the waste;
- Mill Lane was called Bells Road.

* names extracted from records held elsewhere, maybe at the Essex Record Office, are entered under the catalogue number FH (Family History) with whatever details we may have - this allows us to keep trace of information, even when we do not have copies of the actual documents.

* unusual words (seisin, dugget, settlement paper, Camulodunum) are entered under the catalogue number WORD, allowing us to print out a word-list, not only explaining the meaning of words, but also where they might be used in our records.

* books referring to Colne Engaine, or of interest to researchers of our local history, are entered under the catalogue number BOOK.

* by designing another entry screen using the same fields as the index entry screen plus a few extra, I can enter the details from the census returns, and print out any portion of each census.

From the beginning we kept a separate index for photographs, and we also have indexes for the parish registers and parish magazines; all these are kept on computer and are now linked.  By using these linked indexes, we can search again for the name Linnet, and instantly see that we have entries in all or some of the indexes.  By switching from one screen to another, we can see that James Linnet was baptised in 1901, married in 1920, buried in 1965; we have a photo of him taken in 1930; he was mentioned in the parish magazine as winning a school prize in 1910; and he is also mentioned in three documents, one of which is the transcript of an interview with his son.

Is there anyone who isn't hooked on computers for indexing yet?

Our village is relatively small; only just over a thousand people live here, and up to 30 years ago the population was much smaller.  Over much of our history the population fluctuated between 250 and 500.  We define the History of Colne Engaine as anything that happened here or to any of our people before today.  Colne Engaine is taken as anywhere within the present day boundaries, or any other boundaries than we know to have existed, or places generally accepted as being "ours", even if not technically within our boundaries - this last point covers a number of houses between the villages.  Our "people" are taken to be the inhabitants of Colne Engaine, or anyone connected with it - this covers the many people who owned property here, visited here, etc.  I realise that a system like ours would be totally impossible for a city the size of Manchester, but the computer offers endless possibilities. Its main advantage is the listing of information in different formats.  In our system we can list by surname alphabetically, Christian names, addresses, street names, subjects.  We can choose to list all records, or just a few specific records. We can select all records referring to a specific surname (Linnet), or all records referring to a specific surname living at a specific address (records including both Linnet and Grange Farm), or a specific surname and a specific address (all records for Linnet, and all records for Grange Farm).  We can include all the information on each record or just list some; perhaps the catalogue number and surname.  We can draw up lists of several hundred names or just one in a few seconds.  As for the woman (well, sometimes it just has to be a woman) who invented the sounds like button, she has my utmost admiration.  Mind you, don't put your trust in it absolutely: does it use English or American pronunciation, Geordie or Suffolk?  It certainly won't find Synott as a variation of Linnett, and it is very easy to misread Lynett as Synott when transcribing documents.

We decided not to use a ready-made indexing program, as we did not want to be confined to using other people's ideas of what we wanted.  Instead we designed our own.  If you are going to undertake a similar task, and have never used a computer, you certainly need some sort of expert to get you started, to help design the system and be available to offer help and advice.  Our village has several experts, mostly those who have taught themselves; they are brilliant. I am sure also that there are numerous other experts willing and eager to pass on their knowledge and advice in your area.  If you get into a muddle and the expert help is not available, almost any child over the age of seven will get you out of that muddle.  It may be annoying that they find it so easy whilst you are struggling, but it disproves all those complaints about the state of education today!  Once set up, computers are easy to use; you don't have to be able to type, but it helps, and the delete button erases any errors.  Of course it takes time to learn your particular program, but not too long.  Computers and software are very expensive, but more and more people have home computers; try using a friend's if you really are totally without experience.  Personally I would never recommend buying a computer just to use for indexing, unless it was going to be used a lot, but if you already have one and can fit in the time when other members of the family are not using it, learn how to use it now.  Start with something simple, perhaps make an index from your address book; in a short while you can start indexing something really interesting. Now are you hooked on computers?  If you are and would like some help, you are welcome to contact us.

If I were still using card indexes, how would I index Roger Bishop of London?  Was he a man called Roger, surnamed Bishop living in London; or a Bishop of London named Roger; or a man from London called Roger who was Bishop of somewhere else?  How would I index John de Engayne, William von Glehn etc?  Was de Engayne really John's surname, or did he merely come from Colne Engaine, and also bear some totally different surname?  The village of Colne Engaine was named from the Engaine family who were lords of one of our manors, but we have other manors. Was the Goldington family named from the manor of Goldington, or the manor named from the Goldington family?  How do I index that?  Use a computer; with its complex search facilities it really doesn't matter, you will still find them.

Tom Hewes writes: I would recommend everybody to buy a computer, preferably one each. Ours is fought over by every member of the family! Don't forget you  will also need a printer.

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