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C E M E T E R Y R E C O R D I N G P R O G R A M VERSION 0.63 by Martin Zöllner and Stephen Hayes PROGRAM DESCRIPTION The Cemetery Recording Program (CEMREC) is designed for recording monu- mental inscriptions with biographical and genealogical information. These inscriptions are found on tombstones, war memorials and memorial tablets in churches and other places. Though these inscriptions are usually on durable material, such as stone or metal, many are threatened with destruction by pollution, vandalism or redevelopment. Local and family history societies and genealogical societies have been recording the inscriptions in order to preserve the information they contain, and to make it available to researchers. In many places the inscriptions recorded in this way are stored on computers. A data capture tool, not a research tool The purpose of this program is data capture for monumental inscriptions. It is primarily intended for the use of members of societies that have undertaken, as a project, the recording of all the inscriptions in a particular churchyard, cemetery or other burial place. The aim is to make it easy to enter the information in a consistent format for com- puter storage. Though the program does have some search and retrieval functions, these are mainly to check the information, and not to analyse the data. While the program might be useful to a genealogical researcher, that is not its primary purpose. A test version This version of CEMREC is also a test version. It is being distributed so that people who might be interested in using such a program can try it out, and report on its usefulness to the authors, so that it can be improved. This version of the program is almost certain to have bugs. It should be used with test data only, to see if it is suitable for the task. A bug report form is included with the documentation so that reports can be made to the authors. Please do NOT use it for recording cemetery data as part of an actual project. The history of the program In distributing this program for testing, we are asking for comments on how it works as a program, and also on how it works as a tool for recording monumental inscriptions. We don't only want the opinions of computer experts. We also want the opinions of those who have had expe- rience of recording cemetery data. It is impossible to foresee every kind of situation that may arise in recording monumental inscriptions. We may have overlooked something vital. We hope that it will be useful to explain something of the background of the program. Some years ago the Genealogical Society of South Africa supported a cemetery recording project. The coordinator of the project was Peter Holden, who encouraged individuals and branches of the Genealogical Society to record the data in cemeteries, and to send him the results. He typed these into a standard format, and passed them on to the South Version 0.63 Released 1993-03-10 Page 1 African Archives, where the data were keyed into a mainframe computer running the Stairs program. The information that has been entered in this way may be consulted on computer terminals at the archives depots in Pretoria, Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Pietermaritzburg. Bound printouts may be consulted in many university and municipal libraries. In September 1990 a conference was held to review the project. One of the problems that became apparent was that there was a tremendous duplication of effort in the transcription. In at least once instance the data were transcribed by hand at a cemetery, entered into a computer by the organisation that arranged the recording. A printout was sent to Peter Holden, who retyped it in a standard format and sent it to the archives, where the data were once again rekeyed into the mainframe com- puter. In effect the same data were transcribed four times - thus multi- plying the chances of errors creeping in quite apart from the quad- riplication of effort. The conference asked a subcommittee including members of the Computer Interest Group of the Genealogical Society to try to devise a better system. The first question to be decided was whether we wanted a transcription or an index. There were many different opinions about the matter, but eventually we decided to design a transcription program, rather than an indexing one. An index can always be made from a transcription, but a transcription cannot be made from an index. The program does, however, provide for indexing as well as transcribing. We also decided that there was no point in reinventing the wheel. We therefore tried to make contact with people in different countries and to find out how people in those places transcribed cemeteries. In 1991 the question was discussed at length on the genealogy data networks between various countries, especially the International Genealogical Conference on Fidonet, and the soc.roots newsgroup on Usenet. We went through the same debates about transcriptions versus indexes, and col- lected opinions from the UK, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. We moved to the genealogy software conference on Fidonet (GENSOFT) for discussion of database fields and structures. In July 1991 the fields in four sets of tables were proposed and discussed. By Sep- tember 1991 we had a working prototype in Paradox. More discussions and meetings followed, including meetings with the South African archives, which showed that the prototype would be able to store the information on disk in such a way that it could be imported directly into the Stairs program without retyping. Paradox was fine for the prototype, but could not be used for the data entry program, as it was far too expensive, and its fields could hold a maximum of 255 characters - many tombstone inscriptions were bigger than that. We decided to use Clipper for the data capture program, as it could be compiled as a stand-alone program, which could be distributed free of royalties. Future developments This data capture program is only part of a wider project. In addition to capturing data, there will need to be a progam to merge data from different sources, and there will need to be one to move the data to other computers (such as the ones running the Stairs program in the South African archives). Eventually it might be possible to distribute the data on CD-ROM or similar optical media. Version 0.63 Released 1993-03-10 Page 2 HOW TO USE THE PROGRAM The program is started by typing CEMREC at the DOS command line. It should preferably be run from a hard disk, though it should be possible to run it from a floppy disk of at least 720k. The program and documen- tation are in a compressed file, and should be uncompressed in the directory from which the program will be run. Adding records There are four main "tables" or files in the database. The central one is the Inscription table. This is where the actual tombstone inscription is entered. But before entering data in the inscription table, the Recorder and Cemetery tables need some information. The recorder is the person who transcribed the data from the inscrip- tions. The table should have the person's name, and the sponsoring organisation if any (such as a local or family history society). There is also a unique code for each recorder. We suggest that the person's initials should be used, followed by a number made up of the year, month and day of the recorder's birth - so Gavin Edward Jones who was born on 6 March 1945 would have a code of GEJ450306. The cemetery information should give the cemetery a unique code (this will be discussed later, then give the name and location of the cemetery, and a description of the cemetery (is it a municipal cemetery, or a farm cemetery, or in a church yard?) The Inscription table begins with information from the Recorder and Cemetery tables. These are the codes that will link the data to those tables. Then there is a location field. This is not the location of the cemetery (that was included in the Cemetery table). It is the location of the grave WITHIN the cemetery. The way it is described will vary from cemetery to cemetery. It may be a grave number, or a block and row num- ber, or it may be something like "south of the church ten metres from the fence". Then comes the Inscription field. This is the most important field in the database. The inscription on the tombstone should be entered IN FULL AND VERBATIM. If the inscription is partly illegible, the gaps should be indicated by underline characters. Do not abbreviate terms that are given in full on the tombstone, and do not expand terms that are abbreviated on the tombstone. If the tombstone says "Wm" or "Jno" do not write "William" or "John". If the tombstone says "doctor" do not write "Dr". Copy the wording as exactly as you can. If the tombstone says "In loving memory", include it. After the inscription comes another field for cross reference. Here you can enter information from other sources - possibly a cemetery register or church burial register, which might give more information about the person. Note the information and the source. Finally there is a remarks field. Here you can include any information that might be relevant - such as an apparent relationship with the per- son in the next grave, the style and condition of the tombstone etc. If it appears that the person is not buried there, this could be noted (for example a soldier serving overseas might have a memorial erected, even Version 0.63 Released 1993-03-10 Page 3 though buried in another country). When you have completed the entry for the inscription, you will be offered the fields of the People table. This is the index to the inscriptions. Initially one would put in the name of the person buried and details such as the date and place of birth and death, if known. Other people mentioned on the tombstone could be indexed in this way. Editing records The editing records section is similar to that of the adding records section. One can edit the main tables - Cemetery, Inscription, Recorder and People. The main purpose of the editing section is so that one can index more people for each inscription. If, for example, you use the program on a laptop machine at the cemetery, your main object is to get as many inscriptions recorded as possible. Indexing all the people mentioned on the inscriptions can be done later at home. So you could edit the people for each inscription. Editing is also one of the areas where things can go most wrong in a relational database. One of the important things is to maintain referen- tial integrity between the tables. If you know anything about working with databases, please test this out - there is one thing that the pro- gram should NOT let you do - change, for example, the code for the cemetery or recorder without also changing it in the Inscription table. If it lets you do this in any circumstances, please report it. This can cause the inscriptions to "forget" which cemetery they are in. Because we want this to be tested by different people in different circum- stances, we ask that you only use test data in this program. Don't enter information that you don't have a copy of elsewhere. Housekeeping This is for deleting records, packing the database etc. Printing This will let you print reports based on the search criteria you enter in the search section Search This is a "bonus" feature - not really necessary in a data capture pro- gram, but included as a reward for those who give up their weekends to fossick around in cemeteries recording all this stuff. It lets you search for records using words you are interested in, and then print out the results. Note that the results are not displayed on screen, but you can print them. Help The help feature is more unfinished than a lot of the others. Some code in the program has been reused from other projects, and so some of the help screens may be way off. There is still a lot of work to be done here. Version 0.63 Released 1993-03-10 Page 4 FEEDBACK At the end of this document you will find a bug report form. Please use it for sending feedback to the authors of the program. As we pointed out earlier, we don't only want feedback on the program itself, but also on the methods used in the program. For example, the Cemetery codes. These need to be unique for each cemetery recorded. What is the best way of ensuring this? Should a national genealogical society or other body keep a register of all cemeteries, and assign a code to each of them? Version 0.63 Released 1993-03-10 Page 5 USER REPORT CEM-REC VERSION 0.63 If you have looked at this program at all, please complete this form and return it to: Martin Zöllner Steve Hayes P.O. Box 36052 P.O. Box 7648 Menlo Park Pretoria 0102 South Africa 0001 South Africa or to: Fidonet: Steve Hayes of 5:7101/20@FidoNet Martin Zoellner of 5:7101/20@Fidonet Internet: Steve.Hayes@f20.n7101.z5.fidonet.org Martin.Zoellner@f20.n7101.z5.fidonet.org hayesstw@risc1.unisa.ac.za --------------------------------- Name: ________________________________________________________ Postal Address: ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Postal or Zip code: ___________ Country: _______________________________ E-mail address: ________________________________________________________ Affiliation: ________________________________________________________ (e.g. Family History or genealogical society you belong to) Have you recorded cemetery inscriptions before? ________________________ (i.e. before you saw this program) Where did you get a copy of this program? ______________________________ (e.g. give name of BBS you downloaded it from, user group, friend etc) Would you be interested in participating in discussions on standards for computer recording of genealogical data? ________________________________________________________________________ In the space below (or on a separate sheet of paper) please write your impressions of the program - what you found good about it, what you found bad about it, how you think it could be improved etc. You may return this to one of the addresses above, either through the post, or by electronic mail. You may also participate in continuing dis- cussions about it in the GENSOFT conference on the Fidonet network or in the soc.roots newsgroup on Usenet. Version 0.63 Released 1993-03-10 Page 6