Important Update Information Regarding This Article

December 1, 2000

In the Waiting Room – Where This Started

When I know the occupations of my ancestors, I try to read up on what the occupation entailed. In the case of my dental forebear, the best books on the history of dentistry in the United Kingdom have been authored by Christine Hillam of the University of Liverpool's Dental History Research Unit. I was able to strike up an e-mail correspondence with this expert on British dental history and, while asking for information on how to further research my dental ancestor, I was also trying to determine how I might assist this historian in her ongoing research into the profession.

Genealogists are rarely considered to be "serious" researchers by academic historians. Our methods and standards of evidence are simply not rigorous enough and our scope of interests (our own families) are too narrow to be of much assistance to historians. However, because I had found Christine Hillam's books to be so useful in understanding my 3rd great grandfather's dental career, I wanted to try to "give something back" to Dr. Hillam.

At about this time, the 1851 British Census CD-ROM for the counties of Norfolk, Devon, and Warwickshire had just been made available from the Family History Department of the LDS Church. I told Dr. Hillam about this resource and mentioned that it allowed the transcribed census returns for the three counties to be searched by occupation – see Figure 1.

Figure 1: Household Search Window for the 1851 British Census CD-ROM including Occupation search field.

Further, the 1851 British Census CD-ROM includes a Query function under Search, Query. This function allows for searches on any keyword – such as dentist – see Figure 2. Inclusion of this feature made searching for any element of data on the entire disc very simple. Simple boolean commands such as OR, AND, or NOT can be used to obtain different combinations of results from keyword searches.

Figure 2: Search, Query Window for the 1851 British Census CD-ROM.

At US$5.00 per copy, the 1851 British Census CD-ROM made an ideal "thank you" gift and I sent one to Dr. Hillam along with some notes on how to easily search for all the dentists, dental surgeons, etc. listed in the census for the three counties covered. I also mentioned that the 1881 British Census on CD-ROM was expected out in the near future (and now available). As the 1881 project covered the entire UK, I extolled its potential usefulness for a dental historian. Imagine being able to extract all the self-described dentist in the entire UK from 1881, complete with PRO reference numbers to research them further on the actual census. That was the point at which I placed my foot firmly in my mouth – a dentists' area of special interest!

In the Dentist's Chair – Don't Make Promises You Can't Keep

Figure 3: 1881 British Census – Individual Search Window showing no native ability to search by Occupation.

The 1881 British Census search capabilities were limited to searching by given name, last name, birth year, birthplace, and census place only – see Figure 3. I suggested searching by Occupation field as an enhancement and was told that they had been forced to make hard decisions about what fields on the 1881 CD-ROM discs would be searchable. The Occupation field did not make the cut. Nor had the Family History Department included the Search, Query function available on the 1851 product. I was crestfallen. I had previously told Dr. Hillam that the 1881 Census CD-ROMs would be as useful as the 1851 Census CD-ROM. This was based on the assumption that they could be searched in a like manner. I realized that this would not be the case. How could I search for all the dentists in the UK if the Occupation field was not searchable?

I was not satisfied with a "can't be done" answer regarding searching the Occupation field on the 1881 Census CD-ROM discs. The Occupation field was clearly included on the discs as a detailed view of the results of an individual search clearly shows – see Figure 4.

Figure 4: 1881 British Census - Lancashire Disc 1 – A Detailed View of an Individual Search with the Occupation field shown.

The Occupation field was there, so there must be a way to search on it. A few more inquiries of the Family History Department provided some possible options.

Drill, Fill, & Bill – Getting To The Data

I ordered the Folio Views software and informed Dr. Hillam of the lack of a native search capability for Occupation field information within the 1881 Census product. I promised that I would attempt to find a method to search the 1881 CD-ROM set for all the dentists in the UK as transcribed and would provide her with a listing of their census information. Embolden by my promise, I received the Folio Views software and immediately put it aside for four months.

I approached the prospect of attempting to use Folio Views on the 1881 CD-ROMs with some trepidation. In my professional career, I am not known as a "database guy". Frankly, I find database queries boring and although I am schooled in the use of Access, DB2, and other database products, I avoid using them somewhat like people avoid the dentist's chair. Would I have to define the database structure used by the 1881 Census to the search tool? Would I have to be cognizant of field lengths? Was I going to have to get into the dirty details of the data in order to find what I wanted? I wasn't very thrilled at the prospects and thus I wasn't in any hurry to apply Folio Views to the 1881 Census.

Easy As Pulling Teeth – Using Folio Views

As expected, you first must inform Folio Views of where the data you wish to search is located. In the case of the 1881 Census, it is on the 16 individual discs which comprise the Census portion of the set (exclusive of the National Index).

Figure 5: Folio Views 4.2 File, Open Window – Showing the contents to the 1881 British Census - Lancashire Disc 1.

Folio views recognized the files with the suffix .nfo as what it calls "infobases". There are four such files on each of the Census discs. It is the files using the naming pattern nnndtlaz.nfo which are the infobases holding the transcribed census detail – see Figure 5.

After selecting the correct file, Folio views displays the data on the disc very much like the Family History Resource Viewer provided with the 1881 Census does – see Figure 6.

Figure 6: Folio Views 4.2 – Initial Display Window of 1881 Census detail.

The detailed census data is shown "as enumerated" and shows a total of 764,853 records on this single disc. Each record represents an enumerated household. Surprisingly, Relationship to Head of Household and Occupation information is not shown. These turn out to be "hidden" fields which can be revealed using View, show Hidden fields in Folio Views. This was an inexplicable design decision on the part of the Family History Department. As anyone familiar with the 1881 Census set knows, the user must choose to turn on View, Details in order to see the full information from the transcribed record. Why information such as this would be hidden from genealogical researchers is a mystery.

After a first look at the data using Folio Views, I was ready to begin searching for dentists. The Search, Advanced Query is quickly locatable from the menu bar. Comparison of the 1851 CD-ROM's Search, Query seen in Figure 2 and the Folio Views' Search, Advanced Query seen in Figure 7 shows that they are nearly identical. It is, in fact, the same software. The Advanced Query works with simple boolean commands just as the 1851 Query function does. Now I wanted to keep my search simple. I merely wanted all records containing any use of the word "dent". This would cover all possible forms of dentist, dental, dentist's assistant, teacher of dentistry, etc. The query for this is "dent*" using the asterisk as a all-inclusive wild card. Without even conducting the full search, Folio Views told me that I would get 4,752 records – in this case households on the census - as a result of this search – see Figure 7.

Figure 7: Folio Views 4.2 – Advanced Query Window showing potential results for "dent*".

After some head scratching, I realized that this would include records which contained the common surname Dent and the place name Denton along with other non-dental related results. I modified the original query to "dent* not dent not denton" which produced a much more manageable result of 722 records – see Figure 8.

Figure 8: Folio Views 4.2 – Advanced Query Window showing potential results for "dent* not dent not denton".

This was the search I decided to actually run. Folio Views is extremely flexible and powerful in its search capabilities and a more elegant query could, no doubt, be formulated for this purpose. But after less than an hour with the product, the results of this search were suitable to my needs.

Figure 9: Folio Views 4.2 – Detailed Query Results Window from the 1881 Census – Lancashire Disc 1.

I did decide to change the view presented of the results of the query by using View, Records with Hits so that the detailed results returned only included records which matched my search criteria. Now I was getting some interesting results. Although there was the occasional Dentith or Dentry surnames, these could easily be filtered out by a more refined query. One of the returned records which immediately caught my eye disproved the common conception of Victorian dentistry as a "man's profession". The eighth record returned by the query shows that Louisa Newman is practicing dentistry in Liverpool and that her son is following in his widowed mother's footsteps – see Figure 9.

A quick copy and paste into a plain text document put the results of this search into a simple format from which Dr. Hillam could easily extract any information of interest. She could print out the information, convert it into a database of her own liking, or do whatever she wished with the information. Repeating this process on all of the16 detailed census discs which comprise the 1881 British Census soon produced a listing of all dentists, dentists assistants, dental surgeons, etc. shown on the 1881 Census. Thus was I able to fulfill my promise to the dental historian. Below they are broken down by the regional divisions of the 1881 Census CD-ROM set:

Slightly over 5,000 dental practitioners out of 6.7 million households. Bear in mind that the above query results include the occasional Dentry surname, etc. However, the incidence of these non-dental results is low enough that the distribution of dentistry-related records can be seen by region. The results are unsurprising – high concentrations of dentists in the largest urbanized areas of the time and low numbers of dentists in the predominately rural areas.

Let's Look at the X-Rays - What Else Can Be Searched For?

• the names of vessels
• the names of institutions such as workhouses and schools
• specific military regiments
• various occupations of significance to social historians such as "prostitute" or "cotton mill owner"
• individuals listed as unemployed at the time of the census
• the stock of housing enumerated as "uninhabited"
• farmers by number of acres farmed
• handicapped status such as deaf or blind.

For the genealogist, the increased search power of Folio Views over the native 1881 Census search facility will be most useful in the case where all that is known is a relatively common surname plus a trade or occupation. In the prior example of a female dentist, by combining the search for the Newman family (for which there are 290 records on the Lancashire disc including 6 Louisa Newmans) with their profession of dentist (for which there are 514 records), the single Newman family of dentists in Lancashire is quickly identified by Folio Views.

Your Next Appointment – Other Uses of Folio Views

Folio Views 4.2 can be used to easily extract data from other Family History Department products such as the Vital Records Index-British Isles and the Vital Records Index-North America, among others. Irregardless of what search capabilities are provided with these products, Folio Views will allow for additional and more complex query results.

With the Family History Department's continued use of the Folio suite of database tools and the expected release of the 1880 US Census on CD-ROM, those of us with US research may look forward to applying Folio Views to the 1880 Census discs as well. No longer limited by the search tool which comes with the data, users of Folio Views will be able to search for any combination of data elements they choose. I wonder how many dentists were in Poughkepsie in 1880?

Additional information on Folio Views products, including access to a newsgroup specifically for users of Folio Views, may be found at NFOWEB Folio Support.

Bibliography

Hillam, Christine, editor, The Roots of Dentistry, The British Dental Association, 1990. ISBN 0-904588-25-4.