Jeff, As I understand it the district list in WinBMD is generated automatically from the list of canonical districts. It sounds like adding some common aliases would be useful but we would need to find a mechanism for defining which those should be. It feels like adding a "common alias" marker to the district data would be the "best" option but I suspect that changing the format of the district data would cause the District Aliasing Team a headache. The alternative would be to have a separate list of common aliases but this will raise problems of keeping the two lists in step. I suspect that the problem with this proposal will be the floodgate effect. Whereas there are about 1100 canonical districts, there are current about 16,000 "correct" aliases all potentially "common aliases". How will we decide which of these should actually be common aliases? Barrie > -----Original Message----- > From: freebmd-scratchpad-admin@mailman.aldigital.co.uk > [mailto:freebmd-scratchpad-admin@mailman.aldigital.co.uk] On > Behalf Of Jeff Coleman > Sent: 15 February 2009 10:26 > To: freebmd-syndicates@rootsweb.com; > freebmd-scratchpad@mailman.aldigital.co.uk > Subject: [FreeBMD-scratchpad] Re: Revised district lists for WinBMD > > Might we also discuss including some specific alternative > district names in > the list of searchable districts? > > Queries that have come in to the FreeBMD-admins 'mail for > review' include > -St Pancras not searchable before 1901 [ you have to realise > that you > search on 'Pancras] > -London City not searchable before 1870 [you have to realise > that you search > on 'City of London'] > > Given that St. Giles usually shows up as Bloomsbury in the > 1840s, should > Bloomsbury be a searchable district? > Similarly, Highworth usually shows up as Swindon from 1838 to > 1846, so > should Swindon be searchable before 1899 when it became the > official name? > > If you do a search on a moderately common surname (I used > WHITE) in 'City of > London' , or in 'St.Giles' or 'Highworth' or 'St Pancras' you > find that the > alternative name is more or less widely used. > > By all means have 'London City - see City of London > (1837-1869)' and so > on. > > I realise that if people are really interested in a district > they can follow > links to the UKBMD GENUKI pages maintained by Brett Langston, but not > everyone thinks of that. > > Jeff > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Archer Barrie" <Barrie.Archer@uk.fujitsu.com> > To: <freebmd-syndicates@rootsweb.com>; > <freebmd-scratchpad@mailman.aldigital.co.uk> > Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2009 7:34 AM > Subject: Revised district lists for WinBMD > > > >I am discussing with Ian Brooke how the next version of WinBMD can be > > enhanced to address the problem of the district list getting out of > > date. > > > > The issue is that the District Aliasing Team are > continually revising > > the district information on the system but transcribers > using WinBMD are > > working with an out of date version of this information. The current > > proposal is that when WinBMD uploads a file to the system > it will also > > download a new version of the district file if one exists. > This means > > that subsequently the transcriber will be working with the > new districts > > list. > > > > The transcriber's locally added districts will not be affected by > > downloading the new districts list. > > > > If anyone can see any issues with this, or would like > clarification of > > the proposal, please let me know. > > > > Barrie > > > > ------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > > FREEBMD-SYNDICATES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' > > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > > _______________________________________________ > FreeBMD-scratchpad mailing list > FreeBMD-scratchpad@mailman.aldigital.co.uk > https://mailman.aldigital.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/freebmd-scratchpad >

Hello Barrie Why not add the accepted 3 pseudonym districts St Leonards (Shoreditch) Bloomsbury (St Giles) Swindon (Highworth) into a starter Supplementary Districts list then the purity of an auto-generated district list would not be affected. cheers Bob Phillips ----- Original Message ----- From: "Archer Barrie" <Barrie.Archer@uk.fujitsu.com> To: <freebmd-scratchpad@mailman.aldigital.co.uk>; <freebmd-syndicates@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2009 4:24 PM Subject: RE: [FreeBMD-scratchpad] Re: Revised district lists for WinBMD > Jeff, > > As I understand it the district list in WinBMD is generated > automatically from the list of canonical districts. It sounds like > adding some common aliases would be useful but we would need to find a > mechanism for defining which those should be. It feels like adding a > "common alias" marker to the district data would be the "best" option > but I suspect that changing the format of the district data would cause > the District Aliasing Team a headache. The alternative would be to have > a separate list of common aliases but this will raise problems of > keeping the two lists in step. > > I suspect that the problem with this proposal will be the floodgate > effect. Whereas there are about 1100 canonical districts, there are > current about 16,000 "correct" aliases all potentially "common aliases". > How will we decide which of these should actually be common aliases? > > Barrie > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: freebmd-scratchpad-admin@mailman.aldigital.co.uk >> [mailto:freebmd-scratchpad-admin@mailman.aldigital.co.uk] On >> Behalf Of Jeff Coleman >> Sent: 15 February 2009 10:26 >> To: freebmd-syndicates@rootsweb.com; >> freebmd-scratchpad@mailman.aldigital.co.uk >> Subject: [FreeBMD-scratchpad] Re: Revised district lists for WinBMD >> >> Might we also discuss including some specific alternative >> district names in >> the list of searchable districts? >> >> Queries that have come in to the FreeBMD-admins 'mail for >> review' include >> -St Pancras not searchable before 1901 [ you have to realise >> that you >> search on 'Pancras] >> -London City not searchable before 1870 [you have to realise >> that you search >> on 'City of London'] >> >> Given that St. Giles usually shows up as Bloomsbury in the >> 1840s, should >> Bloomsbury be a searchable district? >> Similarly, Highworth usually shows up as Swindon from 1838 to >> 1846, so >> should Swindon be searchable before 1899 when it became the >> official name? >> >> If you do a search on a moderately common surname (I used >> WHITE) in 'City of >> London' , or in 'St.Giles' or 'Highworth' or 'St Pancras' you >> find that the >> alternative name is more or less widely used. >> >> By all means have 'London City - see City of London >> (1837-1869)' and so >> on. >> >> I realise that if people are really interested in a district >> they can follow >> links to the UKBMD GENUKI pages maintained by Brett Langston, but not >> everyone thinks of that. >> >> Jeff >> >> >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Archer Barrie" <Barrie.Archer@uk.fujitsu.com> >> To: <freebmd-syndicates@rootsweb.com>; >> <freebmd-scratchpad@mailman.aldigital.co.uk> >> Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2009 7:34 AM >> Subject: Revised district lists for WinBMD >> >> >> >I am discussing with Ian Brooke how the next version of WinBMD can be >> > enhanced to address the problem of the district list getting out of >> > date. >> > >> > The issue is that the District Aliasing Team are >> continually revising >> > the district information on the system but transcribers >> using WinBMD are >> > working with an out of date version of this information. The current >> > proposal is that when WinBMD uploads a file to the system >> it will also >> > download a new version of the district file if one exists. >> This means >> > that subsequently the transcriber will be working with the >> new districts >> > list. >> > >> > The transcriber's locally added districts will not be affected by >> > downloading the new districts list. >> > >> > If anyone can see any issues with this, or would like >> clarification of >> > the proposal, please let me know. >> > >> > Barrie >> > >> > ------------------------------- >> > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> > FREEBMD-SYNDICATES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' >> > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> > >> >> _______________________________________________ >> FreeBMD-scratchpad mailing list >> FreeBMD-scratchpad@mailman.aldigital.co.uk >> https://mailman.aldigital.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/freebmd-scratchpad >> > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > FREEBMD-SYNDICATES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.0.237 / Virus Database: 270.10.23/1953 - Release Date: 02/14/09 18:01:00