| UK
Surname
Distribution Analysis |
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| UK
Surname
Distribution Analysis |
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Answers |
| Q1 | I'm
trying to paste the records I copied from the National Index into
Notepad/Excel/Word but nothing happens. What's the problem? |
| A | You
have tried to copy too many records and have given the Windows
Clipboard indigestion. Return to the LDS Census National
Index and manually select half the records by scrolling up to the
top of the list and clicking to the left of the first record and
dragging downwards until you have selected half the records
returned by your search. Copy these to the clipboard and try
pasting into Notepad/Excel again. If you get the same result
then try selecting a quarter of the records and so on. Paste
the first batch of selected records into Notepad/Excel/Word then
go back and select the next block of records and so on until you
have copied all the records from your National Index search.
On my laptop which has 384Mb of RAM (memory) and is running Windows 2000, I can copy about 8,000+ records into the clipboard. Your mileage may vary. :-) -Top- |
| Q2 | I've
copied and pasted the National Index data into an Excel
spreadsheet and saved the spreadsheet as a Text (Tab-delimited)
File with the name bloggs.nif. But when I look at the files
in the folder I see the file is now called bloggs.nif.txt.
What's going on? |
| A | Excel has decided that if you are going to save your data as a text file, then the file WILL have an extension of .txt, whether you like it or not. Either rename the file, removing the .txt extension, or leave it as it is. Although the filename looks a little odd (particularly to Windows users), it is perfectly valid. -Top- |
| Q3 | I'm
trying to create my own Aggregated Distribution File and have data
for my name for London, but these are not showing up. What's
going wrong? |
| A | This facility was designed as a way to display Distribution Mappings based on the LDS 1881 Census CDs. Unfortunately the classification used in the National Index seems to lump London and Middlesex together as London. The aggregation of the National Index data when uploaded to this facility converts all these 'London' records to Middlesex. The solution is to merge your Middlesex and London data. -Top- |
| Q4 | What
about errors in the LDS 1881 Census National Index? Does
this facility correct these errors? |
| A | This facility does not correct errors indexing the Census, a task which can only be achieved by human effort. For a good article on the different sorts of errors in the LDS 1881 Census CDs see The 1881 British Census on CD ROM, Problems and Solutions - ENGLISH & WELSH ROOTS, August 12, 1999 Vol. III, No. 13 -Top- |
| Q5 | I
have several sets of data that I want to plot. Some have data
for the Channel Islands as a whole, but others have data for the
individual islands. Do I have to combine the data for the individual
islands into one entry for the Channel Islands? |
| A | No. When you upload
a file it is examined and if it contains a county code
CHI,
then it is assumed that the file only contains data for the
Channel Islands as a whole and the map will be plotted as such. If no
county code
CHI is found, then it is
assumed that the file contains data for the individual islands.
If you are creating your own Aggregated Distribution File, you should take care that you use either CHI or the individual island codes, JSY, GSY, ALD and SRK. If you do include CHI and any of the codes JSY, GSY, ALD or SRK then the data for the individual islands will not be plotted and will appear as Other in the Legend. -Top- |
| Q6 | I
use a Mac, not a PC running Windows. All the examples refer
to Windows. Can I use this facility on my Mac? |
| A |
You won't be able to extract data from the LDS Census CDs on your Mac, as there is no Mac version of these. However, if you can extract the data from the LDS on a PC and can transfer the resulting National Index file to your Mac, you can upload the file to this facility from there. You can also save Aggregated Distribution Files to your Mac and upload them in a later session. You may also create an Aggregated Distribution File from your own data on your Mac and upload it to this facility via your web browser. The utility for aggregating National Index Files on a PC will not work on a Mac. The same constraints apply to other operating systems such as Linux and other flavours of Unix. -Top- |
| Q7 |
Why is the default distribution
map image a PNG file? Wouldn't a GIF file be better? |
| A |
The PNG format has the advantages of being a better format and of having an even better compression algorithm than the GIF format, resulting in smaller file sizes. The PNG image format is supported by all modern web browsers and many graphics packages. -Top- |
| Q8 |
Why does the map take
so long to display when I select the JPEG format? |
| A |
The compression algorithm used for the JPEG image format was design for and works best with photographic images. The algorithm does not work well with line-drawing type images like the Distribution Map, either in terms of compression, or image quality. The JPEG images are some eight times the size of the equivalent PNG image. As a consequence, download times are eight times longer, on average, than the download time for the equivalent PNG image. The JPEG format is provided for the convenience of those using browsers which do not support the PNG image format, or are not configured to correctly display dynamic PNG images. If your browser supports PNG image format, then this is the best format to use, both in terms of image quality and file size. For more information about the PNG image format see http://www.libpng.org/ -Top- |
| Q9 |
When I upload a file and click on the 'Plot the Distribution Map' button I see no map, just a broken image icon. Is the Distribution Mapping facility broken? |
| A |
If you have successfully uploaded a file then it is unlikely that the Distribution Mapping utility is broken. The most common reason for the distribution map failing to display is you are running software that is blocking the display of the image, such as a personal firewall, Like Norton Firewall. Try turning the firewall off and changing one of the map display options at the top of the page, to refresh the map. If the map now displays, turn the firewall back on, and check the configuration options that control the display of images. Alternately you may be able to add this site to a list of 'trusted' sites. e.g. in Norton Firewall see Internet Options -> Advanced. -Top- |
| Q10 | I'm
having problems. I've read all the Help info here and all the
info in the FAQ, but I'm still getting nowhere. What can I
do? |
| A | Email me at distribution.support@wykes.org with a description of the problem, the time and date it occurred and the country and surname you are mapping the distribution for. Please do not send any files in the first instance. If I need to see your files I'll ask you to send them. -Top- |
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