DBSIG: German Pork Butchers

[Spidermonkey]

Ok, following on from the main Pork Butchers thread, I would like to bring up the topic of changed names.

I think being able to keep a record of Anglicised names may help in tracing those who have dropped from sight - especially as the new name is not always an obvious choice.  It would also be interesting to see whether whole families changed their name to the same name, or whether different branches changed names in a different way. For example, did all the descendents of George Schmidt get together in 1915 and decide to use Cole from now on, or was it only the children of Leonard Schmidt?

Also a note of when the name change appears to take place would be interesting - my example above change sometime between 1915 and 1922 (electoral roll evidence) but I guess some people decided to change earlier and some maybe never changed.

[Berlin-Bob]

Thanks Spidermonkey

I'll be interested to hear other opinions on this.

Another question, while we're at it ...

I am just tackling Histres' data list (reply #26), to convert it and load it to the database. 
He has the following columns (I've numbered them for convenience):

- 1) Name and Forename   
- 2) date of birth or emigration
- 3) place of birth or domicile
- 4) Married to    
- 5) Addresses in England or Ireland   
- 6) Sources

1), 3), 5) and 6) are OK and can be transferred to the the relevant fields.
4) can be transferred to "Biographical info.

The first part of 2) can go in 'dob' but the second part - emigration ...
Would there be enough interest in having this as a seperate field or can it just be added to 'Biographical info.' ?

regards,
Bob

[Spidermonkey]

On the basis of my lot, the emigration field would only be relevant to one person (good old George Schmidt) who arrives ?1850ish.  His children and grandchildren who also were pork butchers were born in England.

[Berlin-Bob]

Some new additions:

• I have now converted the data lists from Histres and RichardFunk. 
  (thank you, both, for making them available to everybody )
  
  We now have 1699 names in the database !!!
  Some of the Umlauts look funny (you'll recognise what I mean, when you see them  ). There is a problem with converting from ASCII to UTF8 formats, but that's minor. If you see any in your own records, you can use the EDIT function to kick them out
  
  
• The ADD new records function is now available.
• The german SOUNDEX is also "up and running", but I don't really understand all it's workings.

For instance, clicking on BRUECK finds all BRÜCK too, but clicking on BRÜCK doesnt find BRUECK ???

• I am differentiating between Contributors and Researchers. 
  A Contributor is anybody who enters data in the database.  In the ADD and EDIT functions you can now (as 'Contributor') say whether you are also a Researcher, i.e. whether you also have family links to this name, or not.
  To make this clearer, I have changed the heading of the 'Researchers' column to 'Family Links'.
  
  The next step will be to add this to the page-view, so that members can record that they have family links to people already in the database, rather than creating a new record.
  
  

I won't have a lot of time next week, so I am going to leave everything "as is" for a while, so you can all test it without any disruptions from me  ;D

I have a copy of the present database, so if it all goes pear-shaped, that won't be a big problem - I can just reload it.  BUT ... if you all try it out and it's stable enough, then we can simply keep the present database plus your additions and - perhaps next weekend - go live !!

Keep up the feedback please, or I'll feel I'm working in a vacuum :)

Still to come:

• Advanced Search
  
  
• Paging (30, 50 60 results per page ???)
  This is becoming more important now we have so many more records available to search.
  
  
• I think columns for name changes will be a 'must' for later; I've noticed that histres had quite a few in his lists. I'd arrange things so that name searches would be on both original and changed names.
  

Bob

ps. I've added a family under 'S' but this is just to test various things.
Don't try and work out if you are related or not, 'cause I invented them all  ;D

http://surname.rootschat.com/lexicon/dbsig/index.php

[Spidermonkey]

aaaaaarrrrggghhhhh!  The edits I made haven't been carried forward! 

[Berlin-Bob]

Sorry about that, but I did warn you:

If anybody has any data in the database, please feel free to edit it, just to see how it works, and so I can get some feedback.  But don't change too much, as I shall be re-loading the database now and then.

The reason for reloading was because I was preparing to add the data lists from histres and RichardFunk, and sometimes needed to restructure the database in the light of what I was preparing. I then used database commands to reload everything.

The GOOD NEWS is that now this data is loaded, I shouldn't need to reload it again. 
Some of their data needs further editing, but they can now do this using the EDIT button.

More good news: 

I am going to leave everything "as is" for a while, ...

I lied !!! On reflection, I decided it was very important to be able to add your own research interests to existing records, so I have now implemented this function. Look at any record in the "page view" and you can add or delete your interest (family links) there.

regards,
Bob

[Spidermonkey]

excuse my ignorance - still suffering baby brain from the birth of Spider#2 3 months ago - so if we add/edit now, that data will remain even if you tinker with the database?

[Berlin-Bob]

Yep, all data should now remain in the database. If I do need to tinker with it, I will make a copy of any existing data, and insert it in the reloaded data.

Congratulations on Spider#2,
that should take your mind off pork butchers for a while (the first 18 years ??) 

regards,
Bob

[SwissGill]

Bob

If I were to reply in Swiss German, I would say your efforts are "pretty nice" but, in my mother tongue I would exclaim "bloomin' good"!!

I am slowly adding my family and am really excited to be doing this.

I am an avid searcher (with Jack Russell tendencies) but a hopeless organiser.

However, I am perservering with the help of my Family Tree....

I also have data sheets for PBs that I have searched for for others!!

I wonder if it would be necessary to combine a DOB with date of baptism. On researching my english ancestors, I was astonished (at first) at how many twins and triplets were born, until I realised that their parents had "saved up" the registrations!! This doesn't seem to be so apparent in the German ancestors. This obviously could result in very different birth years. (West Yorkshire Baptisms and Liverpool Baptims).

What, at the moment, is really going through my head is the connection from Germany to England!!! We could obviously enter the ancestors if known (under the biographical notes). Maybe we could re-title this "history" or "parentage in Germany".

With many thanks for your work
Gill