Forum - Parish News Database on Pluckley

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1. A guest user

   #1 14:09, Tue 14 Sep 2021

   I am just starting a PhD looking at the people of Parish of Pluckley in Kent during the Early Modern Period. I have started transcribing the overseers accounts that start in the 1550’s and are unevenly dispersed through the 17th century. In order to not only be able to use the information in my thesis but also to provide a lasting resource I am attempting to place every person mentioned in a database. Then other information from wills and other records will be used to “flesh out” the individuals hopefully.

   I would welcome advice on how to do this or examples that others have produced. It is currently in Excel and I am trying to format a “main” database that the other individually ones (for wills, deeds, court records etc) can be fed into. I was hoping to do a database course with the Institute of Historical Research, but it was cancelled. Any pointers or help much appreciated.

   Thanks

   Kaye

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2. Beat Kümin Staff History

   #2 18:37, Mon 27 Sep 2021

   Hi Kaye - good to hear of your project. Have you had a look at the resources we recommend in our Writing Parish History section, perhaps the microhistory text in particular? I'll also tweet your news item and hope you'll get further responses. Good luck, with best wishes, Beat  

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3. A guest user

   #3 20:41, Fri 7 Jan 2022

   Really interesting to learn about your thesis project and possible digitisation. I'm just starting a thesis on energy consumption in early modern England, but parish records are a new source to me. I recently learned about Botelho's 'Old Age and the English Poor Law, 1500-1700', where she found (using overseer's accounts from late 17th century Sussex) that about a fifth to a quarter of expenditure went for fuel, which is why I'm interested. So, I wonder if your overseer's accounts also contain such information, maybe even for such early dates as the late 16th century? (couldn't sign in but here's email: john.brolin@ekh.lu.se)

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4. A guest user

   #4 13:58, Sat 8 Jan 2022

   Hi. How interesting. I have sent you an email. Lots of mentions of wood supplied to the poor of Pluckley, often the only thing they got. The regularly could give an idea of usage. Get in touch. 
   Kaye

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5. A guest user

   #5 22:14, Fri 25 Feb 2022

   This is our database on our website www.pirtonhistory.org.uk.      We have a people database which we have linked to our houses. We have put our 18c overseer’s accounts into excel but they are not in the database yet

   http://search.pirtonhistory.org.uk/results.aspx

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6. A guest user

   #6 11:10, Thu 10 Mar 2022

   Hi Kaye,

   The suggestions other users have made are terrific. I wonder if you've considered using Wikidata to help manage your information and then build a custom website for your public-facing resource?

   We've developed a workflow on how to do this on the Mapping the Scottish Reformation project. I've also been playing with the idea of a platform that aggregates parish records across mainland Britain. 

   I've created the following demos to show what's possible:

   Data exported from Wikidata and then formatted automatically into a basic table:

   http://earlymoderndigital.atwebpages.com/blob.html

   Data exported from Wikidata and then formatted into a custom map using Leaflet:

   http://earlymoderndigital.atwebpages.com/Wales.html

   Data queried and visualised in Wikidata:

   https://w.wiki/4qyv

   The technical innovation here is that Wikidata does the heavy lifting (data management etc) and you build the (often lightweight) UI. 

   I look forward to seeing how your project develops!

   All the best,

   Chris R. Langley

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