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Old school electronics engineer who actually used valves in projects. Self taught programmer out of necessity as software engineers where unable to give working systems. Started assembly code on ICL1900 machines and worked through just about every other language on the way. Contributor to Firebird_(database_server), bitweaver and OpenStreetMap projects and also take an interest in PHP in relation to Firebird. In the past I have been active on TikiWiki, osCommerce, PhpGedView and other open source projects. I'm planning to improve content on wikipedia relating to my areas of interest, and will add links here that are appropriate.
Unreliable Sources
editWe have had more than 20 years of people transcribing material from material which is not currently available in an electronic format. I only pick 20+ years as An Internet-Based United Kingdom & Ireland Genealogical Information Service appeared in the June 1995 edition of Family Tree. The UK version[1] rather than the later American one [2]. GENUKI has been my bible for anything both genealogical and map related in the UK ever since. Their policy on accuracy accuracy provides a pragmatic approach to he errors which inevitably arise when human beings are interpreting "ancient documents". But in many cases now, where "double-keying" was simply not practical previously, scans of the original documents are now available on-line in parallel with their electronic index and/or transcription and where appropriate the original document can be re-scanned. As technology has improved, different processing methods are allowing once unreadable material to be re-interpreted and mistaken assumptions corrected. One problem which however persists is the 'correcting' of index entries to fit a model that suits the particular index. Now I need to cite a document which supports that statement, but at this stage I have no proof that these were anything but a matter of convenience rather than a deliberate act.
Having been researching 'Weston Subedge'[3] and the adjacent 'Aston Subedge'[4] to establish when the name of both changed to a hyphenated version it became apparent that different authorities where using different spellings, and documenting the problem has been a rapid lesson in just how wikipedia expects information to be documented. I have no problem sticking with the GENUKI standard for many reasons, but these entries do need extending to include reference to the alternate spellings used. Where I do have a problem is the likes of [The_National_Archives_(United_Kingdom) The National Archive] applying an alternate spelling to names rather than documenting what is actually in the document being indexed. I am still waiting on one key document which is not currently available as an on-line scan, but a number of documents which are available - at a price - show that the original document does not support the index version. Talk:Weston-Sub-Edge has the various links on this and since GENUKI is slowly expanding to cover a freely available index and archive of materials such as wills, no doubt these will be more accurately transcribed and index via that service. One other resource which is proving invaluable is Internet_Archive which has provided original scanned copies of many of the books which are being referenced and against which transcriptions can be checked.
The document I'm waiting on will support the addition of 'Subedge' to Westone and probably also Aston so I can rework the Name section of the Weston Subedge page
New pages to add to Wikipedia
edit- Family Tree Magazine - UK