Behind the Scenes: Tools and Techniques for Historical Research
There are many factors to consider when starting a project of this size. Therefore, I wanted to share a little about my tools and methodology so far. Beginning a substantial research project can be overwhelming but also thrilling for me. The thrill comes from uncovering new information through research and structuring it into something dynamic and valuable. This process engages my brain's User Experience Design aspect, a task that I naturally enjoy.
Ordnance Survey (n.d.). Hampshire and Isle of Wight Sheet LXVI. OS Six-inch England and Wales, 1842-1952. Available at: https://maps.nls.uk/view/102343125 [Accessed 28 Aug. 2024]. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland. Using and sharing maps is one consideration in organising your one-place study research. This map from 1871 shows some of the area of my study interest, but the sheet that contains Land's End isn't available on the National Library of Scotland and is only viewable on commercial sites.
Organising My Research
As I'm still in the early stages of my research, I've outlined a few key activities for this research below.
Census Analysis
One activity is analysing census data from 1851 to 1891 for the Jolly Sailor pub and the surrounding Land's End Road area. This will involve creating a database of residents, identifying long-term residents, and examining family relationships. I've already started this task and have completed three census years, with the information partially transcribed and available on the site.
While I can't share images of the census records, I can provide them in transcription form. I'm initially adding them to the site in a static table format, but I may consider making them more interactive.
Additionally, I'm adding records from the entire village, not just the area where I believe Land's End is located. This is because the census records themselves don't contain any address or street information, so the only way to know where the enumerator was for each household is to plot their journey on a map. I've already started with the 1871 records, so these will be available for the entire village when this post goes out.
You can find a link to my Census Transcription pages on my site. I am still determining how to organise and display the individual census transcription pages, as I’m not happy with how they are backend organised on my website. I may migrate these to Notion pages instead, but I would like to maintain the landing page on my website. The Notion app is a good solution because my notes are already here, which I will detail below.
Family Relationships
I employ genealogical methods to uncover potential family connections between households and construct family trees. My research may extend beyond Bursledon, so I must be cautious about delving too deeply into each individual's background. I contemplated investigating parents and siblings to aid in locating pertinent records about a person. However, if these individuals don't have ties to the area of interest, I will handle their details more lightly than I would if they were from Bursledon. Additionally, in cases where I initially can't find records about a person, I've noted that individuals with the same surnames further down my list may prove more valuable to my research and may only necessitate waiting to develop their relationships further.
Local History Research
I plan to search local archives and libraries to locate maps, photographs, and news articles related to the pub, its residents, and the people living in nearby cottages. Last week, I was thrilled to discover that up to four listed buildings are in my research area, with two located next to the pub! Did you know that Historic England has an archive in Swindon? I only found out about this recently myself! I was recently in touch, and while their image archive is a little less helpful for me and this area, it could be useful for others. The archive has a lot of images of the historic brickworks, and it also has modern photos of some of the listed buildings I’m interested in in my research area; however, for artefacts from the period, I will probably have to visit the Hampshire Archives instead (located in Winchester). If you are interested in searching the Historic England photographs, there are two resources to try. The catalogue already has many images online, but if not, you can visit the archives to view them yourself. There is also the Architectural Red Box Collection, which is organised by place name. Sadly, there is not much for Bursledon here, There are a few interesting photos of the church, but I noted some areas had results in the few hundred!
Occupational and Economic Study
I plan to conduct an occupational and economic study, which involves categorising and analysing residents' occupations and researching typical wages to understand the commercial landscape. These studies provide a holistic view of the community's economic situation. I have noticed clusters of occupations related to the industries I mentioned in my previous post from the census records. Apart from the apparent maritime efforts, the recent discovery of strawberry farming and brickworks indicates that they, too, play a significant role in the community's economy.
Considering the area's proximity to the River Hamble and the prevalence of merchant marines in Land's End, I will still investigate the connections to maritime industries and their influence on the resident population.
Contextual Research on Pubs and Inns
In my research, I aim to explore the broader role of pubs and inns in 19th-century communities by comparing them with similar studies on other licensed buildings. One of the pubs I plan to examine is the Jolly Sailor, which still operates as a pub, and is a listed building in the area. I also intend to investigate two other inns to gain a more comprehensive understanding. I recently came across the New Inn (later Greywell), a significant public house at the top of Land's End. At the bottom of Land's End, I found a reference to the Ship Inn, which appears to have ceased operation after the 1880s. There was also one other public house in Bursledon, at the junction where the bridge comes across from Swanwick (originally called the Swan Inn), that I may consider including in this, too. Bursledon had plenty of public houses or inns for such a small village!
Starting the Research
I started my research by examining the census records of 1861, 1871, and 1881. These records offer insight into the occupations of the residents during this significant period. Selecting a reference point is challenging because specific landmarks are sparse in these censuses. The New Inn, Jolly Sailor, and Hatchett's Farm are essential reference points. However, the Ship Inn poses a mystery that I intend to investigate further, as I have only been able to locate it on a map rather than in a census return.
Maps
I have a detailed map from the OS 1:2500 County Series, First Edition maps, published from 1855 to 1896. It guides my research, but I can't share it due to copyright restrictions for any of my digital images. I want to recreate this map using data from this census to track families' movements for each census year. I use a commercial tool called Historic Digimap for most of my map-based research, but it's only available to academic network users. I prefer it because it lets me easily view map products in different scales and by decade. However, I know this will not be available to more casual researchers. The National Library of Scotland has excellent map resources, but the maps I need for this area of research still need to be scanned. Luckily, I live near the British Library, which has a fantastic map room. Even closer to me, the National Archives also has these county series maps, so I'll probably photograph these myself soon. I'm excited to create my map based on my research. The actual maps in question should be out of copyright, but sharing digital images of anything that falls under Crown Copyright is complicated at the best of times.
Databases and organisation
I've also created a detailed database to organise information on residents, using tools like Notion and Airtable for data management and analysis. This structured approach helps identify patterns in residency, family connections, and economic roles.
Tools and Techniques
RootsMagic: My research does not rely solely on genealogical software. I diversify between tools because I have developed specific sourcing and researching methods. However, I prefer RootsMagic as my main genealogy database and a combination of online database subscriptions, including Ancestry and FindMyPast. When creating family trees, I often draw these myself in Adobe Illustrator, which makes it easy to rely on something other than a genealogical software package.
Notion: I use Notion to keep my primary notes and maintain a database of people, integrating pages into database views. My favourite part about Notion is that it is flexible and free for personal use. Many people like to keep their research notes in their genealogy databases, but this has never worked very well for me, mainly because these tools are not good with formatting. One of the best features of Notion is that I can type and format as I like, and if I need to copy and paste text someplace else, it copies in Markdown. If you’re unfamiliar with Markdown and do a lot of writing with different tools (I also use Word and Scrivener), I recommend learning more about it. The best use case for Markdown is that it supports tables, which I use a lot in transcriptions, so having my notes in simple formatting language makes it much easier to copy and paste between programs that may have their weird table markup.
Airtable: As a paid subscriber, I use Airtable to analyse data and create citations using my pre-built formulas. Its features overlap slightly, but I think it complements Notion’s, giving me even more flexibility in managing my research. Because I use this tool for various other tasks, I am more than willing to pay for it, but a free version is also available. I believe Airtable’s database features are more potent than Notion’s, but I use both for different tasks. I look at Airtable as a necessity when I am working with larger structured datasets. I have also developed my citation creator using Airtable because their formulas are robust and easy to use. Notion’s databases are good for structuring content because I can create pages on any number of items, so, with Notion, I use databases here to organise notes and large chunks of writing in more meaningful ways.
AI tools (various): I'm sure there's a future blog post about how I use these tools, but the primary way I use them these days is for transcriptions of documents. The two stand-outs for transcriptions are Gemini for transcribing from images (and even translating when dealing with documents in a different language). I also use Chat-GPT for census transcriptions. Over the last year, I have developed a method that has cut down the effort in transcribing standard records like census, birth, marriage, or death. However, it has also allowed me to create templates that take simple language prompts that give me complete transcriptions. Since I cannot share images from census records (again, copyright in this country is a minefield), having these transcription tables is necessary. Transcription is my least favourite task, but having created these templates for transcribing records means I have more than halved the time it takes me to do them. Given the number of records, I will need to transcribe for a project this size, this takes some of the struggles out of a task I otherwise loathe. As an aside, I only use this method for non-living people, and I do opt out of options that ask you to contribute back by training the model; while I appreciate the ease of use with these tools, I am mindful that the data in these records are of real people. Although that said, many, if not all, of the genealogy database companies are already using these tools. They are undoubtedly built on the same models we’re already using in things like Gemini and Chat-GPT, as these are some of the largest and commercially available to them right now, and it might not be clear in their policies how they’re using sharing their data back to third parties either. It is good practice always to understand the terms of conditions and privacy policies of any tool you use, including commercial genealogy databases.
My main research database has started in Notion and is currently organised by household, with fields for names, census years, occupations, and relationships. This digital approach allows for adaptability and efficiency, eliminating the need for paper records. I know many genealogists swear by their paper files. However, I have never preferred keeping paper records, so my digital organisational style and need for flexible systems have primarily echoed this.
Next Steps
Currently, I'm transcribing census records to track the enumerator's path and sort out which households lived where on the map. I have also signed up for my Archives Card to visit the Hampshire Archives, and I need to go in and get my reader’s card soon; I hope to get to that in the next month. After that, I plan to spend a working day in the National Archives and visit the map room, which I don't usually frequent. I typically work in the research library instead. However, the map room at the National Archives is closer and more accessible, even though it's less comprehensive than the British Library. Speaking of the National Archives, I find their Discovery Catalogue useful as a federated archives search, which means I can easily see resources that might be relevant across archives all over the country.
As I continue my research, I am excited about the prospect of uncovering more fascinating details about the history of the Jolly Sailor pub and the surrounding community. I look forward to delving further into the archives, connecting the dots between residents and their occupations, and gaining a deeper understanding of Bursledon's social and economic fabric. This project has already been an enriching journey, and I am eager to see where it leads next.