[4h]

FreeCEN Field Descriptions

Spreadsheet
Column letter:
"Field" name 		Whether
Mandatory
Description & Rules
Birthplace & Sundries
Column T

Where born
County

Yes -
Approved
Code only		 Three characters, which must agree with FreeCEN's sub-group of Chapman County Codes [4k].
This sub-group caters for all GB & Ireland Codes:
Overseas entries are coded OVB where the person is stated to be a British Subject, or was born in one of the British Empire countries of the time;
OVF is used for all other Foreign birth-places.
Use UNK only as a last resort!

Unless there can be no doubts, type only what is written on the census page: "Brighton" is in SSX; "Cambridge" (with no other clue) could refer either to the city or to any other place in the county.

The 1841 Census requires different treatment since the information is merely "Born In This County? Yes/No"
Permitted entries will be limited to the FreeCEN Chapman Codes List [4k]. Any extra information (e.g. "France") should be entered as a Note (column Y) not into column U.

Column U

Where born
Place

Yes Up to twenty characters
Enter as written on the Census Page (spelling mistakes included!):
Exception: do not enter any variant of "N.K.", "Not known", etc. (type a hyphen/dash).
Avoid abbreviating where-ever possible.
It is permitted to rearrange a lengthy birthplace so that the principal town can be written in full at the start of the line.

If, for example "Wales" is all that has been written; you would have "WLS" as the County Code and a hyphen in this column.
If born "Notre Dame, Paris, France"; then "OVF" and rearrange the place "Paris, Notre Dame" (there isn't any more space!)

If you believe it to be incorrectly spelt then put 'x' in Column V and your suggested correction in Column Y.

  • The reason for this is that the Validation routine is capable of saving both the original entry and any chosen "alternative". If the place-name is substituted ("corrected") prior to to Validation then we lose this "double entry" facility - and we may have made an incorrect assumption!
    • Column V

    Query

    		. One character
    Enter an x if you have doubts about the entries in Columns T or U
    Column W

    Disability

    		. Up to six characters
    While the Census asked only for "Deaf, Dumb, Blind"; many Enumerators also wrote such comments as "Imbecile", or "Cripple since birth", etc.
    We can record these options, abbreviated if necessary (enter the full wording in Column Y).
    "Df&Dm", "Imbcil", "Crippl" would be acceptable abbreviations.
    Column X

    Welsh
    Spoken

    		. One character
    Do not enter anything in this field unless the census page was been specifically designed to ask the "Welsh spoken?" question. It applies only to Welsh County censuses.
    Use W E or B if needed (Welsh, English or Both spoken).
    Column Y

    Notes

    		. Up to fortyfour characters
    This cell is provided to qualify any query raised and is intended as a brief indication of the nature of the problem.
    It may also be used for "additional Information" which would be beneficial to include on the FreeCEN Database.
    See also Notes & Comments [7a]
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