and Happy Christmas and New Year wishes to everyone. The FreeCEN database is updated every four weeks, while our Newsletter is every month so there's a time lag developing between the updates themselves and our reporting of them.   Another four pieces went on line just after our last letter: 559(Ore), 561(Hastings St Mary Magdalen), 563(Bexhill) and 564(Ewhurst). Again we say thankyou to those who've worked at transcribing, checking and validating them.  Well done! A nice Christmas present for researchers with Sussex connections.
Although we are concentrating on getting the 1861 finished as soon as we can, there is also progress on the 1871 Census as you can see from the figures on the right.
We welcome Trish back to the team after her break with health problems. However we also have to say "Goodbye" to Michael who says that his octogenarian eyes found the 19th Century handwriting too much of a strain.  Thanks for what you have managed to do, Michael, and good luck with your other transcription work.
Keep up the good work, everyone.  Let's see if we can make 2010 the year we finish the 1861 Census!

Simon and Chris

Pieces in the Census                          74
Pieces that have survived                  73
Pieces on Line at FreeCEN.org.uk      59 (55)
Percentage of population on line        80 (74)
Pieces being transcribed                    8 (12)
Pieces being checked                          5 (2)
Pieces being validated                        0 (0)
Pieces waiting to be checked               1 (0)

(numbers in brackets show the situation last time we wrote)

1871 Census

Who are the other people working with you to put the 1861
 on the web for free?

We've had three or four questions recently about what happens to your transcription after you've sent it in, and in particular what happens to your queries and the comments in Column Y.

Before the piece is sent off to one of the checkers on the team it is put through a quick technical check to make sure all the information has been entered in the format used by the FreeCEN database (for example that the entries do not overflow the columns and that all the Folio and Page numbers are accounted for).

The Checker will later go through all your entries one by one, looking for any omissions and checking the accuracy of the transcription - spellings especially. He or she will take a closer look wherever you have put an X or put a note in column Y. Sometimes it may be necessary to compare a name or place with other available records such as the IGI or FreeBMD to help decipher the enumerator's handwriting.

The Validation process includes a final look at anything the Checker is unhappy about, the Column Y comments from the Transcriber, (which the Checker cannot alter) and any placenames that are not on the Genuki list of British towns and villages. Often the Validator can suggest the name of the place the enumerator meant,  but the original spelling is always left on the entry as well so a researcher can make up their own mind. (This is why Transcribers and Checkers must copy entries "as is" even if they are wrong.)
 Again the piece will be run through a technical check for a final tidy-up before it is uploaded to FreeCEN to be added to the database.
Phew! No wonder it sometimes seems to take a long time for your work to appear.

There! You wish you'd never asked now, don't you?  You can find all these details and more in the file called MANUAL that comes on your CD. (Take a look sometime; it pays to remind yourself of the FIELDS instructions.)