Reporting Missing Census Information

One report that would be a great boon to RM users is one that would look at the recored information for each individual and work out where Census entries were missing. Of course this would vary by country of user but I am approaching this from the point of view of a UK User where 95% or more of his people records are for UK family.

For example we can assume at the moment that potential Census records exist for viewing for every tenth year between 1841 and 1911. The logic require is, therefore, to look at the birth/baptism/christening and death/burial dates of the individual as well as the existing Census entries on the Rootsmagic database and determine which Census entires are likley to be missing. We would also need some logic to cope as well as it could with individuals for whom no birth or death dates are known. The following “selections” would pull together what I want:

a) Individual has Birth Date earlier than 2nd April 1911 and Death Date no earlier than Sunday 6th June 1841:

Look through the Census entries on RM and if any are missing over the period the person was living between 1841 and 1911 then highlight this fact.

b) Individual has Birth Date earlier than 2nd Paril 1911 but no recorded Death Date:

In the absence of any other data – proceed as for a) above from date of Birth to 1911.

c) Individual has no Brith Date and a Death Date recorded after 1841:

In the absence of any other data proceed as a) above from 1841 to date of death.

d) Individual has no birth date and no death date:

Clearly we do not want to report on the many people who were “obviously” born after 1911 or “obviously” dead before 1841. One solution might be to look at Parents or Children of these individuals and try and determin whether they should be included in the report. Or perhaps just an option to include everyone in this category or exclude everyone in this category. Or to see if there are any Events of any type recorded for the individual between the period 1841 and 1911.

Or perhaps others have a better idea?

In a) b) c) and d) above I think the code should determine a birth date from the presence of either a Birth entry or in its absence a Baptism entry or a Christening entry. Similarly the Death entry should be used or in its absence a Burial entry.

I would envisage the report looking something like:

Name of Individual Birth/Chr/Bapt Death/Burial Potential Missing Census References
xx xxxxxxxxxxx xx/xx/1837 xx/xx/1902 1851, 1861, 1881
xx xxxxxxxxxxx xx/xx/1794 xx/xx/1852 1841, 1851
xx xxxxxxxxxxx xx/xx/1878 N/K 1901, 1911

Clearly for RM Users in other countries, where a different ranges of Census data isavailable, the start and end year parameters would have to be different.

MVS.

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