Kent History Forum

The following is from the Family History Directory: "Kent History Forum is the place to discuss all things history related in Kent. You’ll find many others discussing all manner of topics from aircraft to dockyards to POW camps. It’s also possible to make family history look-up requests from other users." I've recently joined the forum and one of the first posts of interest I discovered was about upcoming archaeological studies in Cobham.

 

On the subject of Kent Genealogy I am reminded of a recent letter to my Computer magazine where someone wrote that he had, or was about to, exceed the number of rows in an Excel document having used a total of 693,000 and needed to add 700,000 more and wanted to keep them in one Worskheet! . He had only been able to reach this total by switching off both 'auto calc' and 'auto save' but was being warned within Excel he would soon be approaching the worksheet maximum.

His letter drew the response expected: 'what on kind of data base needed to use 693,000 rows of data, never mind 700,000 more' and quite honestly that was my question as well. So this week came the answer, he was compiling a " record of deaths and burials in Kent". A Herculean task if every there was one (for one person at least) which makes me wonder if he intends to publish his Data Base when complete. He says he has contacted Microsoft Office for advice on whether or not the extended data can be achieved. My thoughts are why not just open a second Worksheet, but he may have his reasons. I may live in Kent but have little or no ancestry connection for the county, but I am sure there are many who do which is why I post of the matter.

 

Amazing what people get up to, isn't it? Re the Kent History Forum, the surprising thing about it is the length of time (many many days) it took for my registration to be accepted. I think I remember that registration for the Lost Cousins forum and Great War Forum was accepted immediately. I couldn't help wondering what they were checking.

 

Good point Tim and I see another correspondent (to the magazine) recommended the data base program 'PC-File' which he says is only limited by the amount of storage you have on your device and he currently uses a commercial data base compiled in PC-File with over 3,000,000 lines! (Mind you he does comment on using PC-File in Windows 7 so not sure whether compatible with W10?). I was surprised there was no editorial comment about MS Access being a better data base medium.

 

I am sure that will be the response from Microsoft too.

The trouble is that everyone learns how to use a simple spreadsheet application so that is what they tend to stick with even when it is not appropriate. A database application like Access is more complicated to set up and use initially so most people do not go that route even if they know that they ought to. When the initial small amount of data gets as large as in this case, it might seem too big a job to convert to another format but that is exactly what computers are good at doing.

Perhaps someone with database skills and ancestors from Kent might offer some help with appropriate design guidance in return for access to the data? I would not expect these needs to be very complicated.

Although born as a Kentish Man (Bromley), I have few ancestors from that county and might not be in the ideal location now for such assistance but would be happy to assist remotely if there is nobody else willing to help out. Alternatively, there might be someone else who has already created something similar for other areas?

 

Thanks Gillian. I have used this site before and forgotten about it. I live in Kent and have ancestors from there.

 

Whereabouts where your ancestors from, Kate? Mine were from Cobham and other villages in that area.

 

Mine are from Leeds, Kent and Sutton at Hone originally. Then they came to Crayford, Dartford, Belvedere and Erith. Luckily I live in that area so it has been easy to look at original records.

 

Lucky you - living in the area I mean. I have to rely on people 'on the ground' so to speak, but, lucky me, they're incredibly helpful.

 

Was it worth the wait? I haven't really investigated the Kent History Forum as I'm reluctant to join too many forums, but I do have quite a lot of Kent ancestry. Like Bryman I was born in Bromley but I haven't lived in Kent since I was about 8.

 

Actually I'm not sure (that it was worth the wait). The only use I've made of it (so far) is to enquire about an archaeological project being held in Cobham this summer and that someone posted a notice about. However, I could have reached the project without joining the forum as the link to it was sent to me by one of my Kent contacts, who only mentioned the forum in passing. I joined it for good measure, thinking it may be useful some time.