Reconstituted families of Clerkenwell, London, 1550-1753: Documentation

Description

This data collection contains four comma separated variable files that are the tables of a relational database representing nuclear biological families reconstituted from parish register baptism, marriages and burial events for the parishes of St James Clerkenwell and St John Clerkenwell, London between 1550 and 1753. The reconstitution also contains all marriages of Clerkenwell inhabitants that could be traced in other locations, primarily from the Fleet prison and environs, but also from other parishes and other irregular marriage centres. The family reconstitutions were conducted in a Microsoft Access 2000 database using chains of SQL queries performed (using various intemediary dictionaries) on the transcribed parish registers of the data collection ‘Parish Registers of Clerkenwell, London’. 

This data collection was created by Gill Newton at the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure between October 2003 and September 2006 as part of the AHRB-funded project People in Place. 

An alternative version of this resource together with the related resource ‘Parish Registers of Clerkenwell, London’ exists as a Microsoft Access 2000 database containing user interface Forms for viewing reconstituted families and transcriptions of the underlying parish register baptism, marriage and burial events. This database was created by Gill Newton. The .csv files of this data collection were generated from this database. 

Structure and Related Datasets

MLines.csv	2,152,750 bytes	26034 lines + field names on first line	text values in ""	
HLines.csv	1,230,490 bytes	26034 lines + field names on first line	text values in ""	
WLines.csv	1,054,967 bytes	26034 lines + field names on first line	text values in ""	
CLines.csv	5,283,489 bytes	44052 lines + field names on first line	text values in ""	

There are four tables representing reconstituted families as a whole, their component Wives, Husbands, Children, and, for some of the reconstitutions, Servants and Relatives. The tables are joined by the [FamNum] field of each, as indicated in the table and field descriptions given below. 

The structure and fields of this database are a subset of those used in the data collection ‘Reconstituted families of Cheapside, London’ and all key fields are numbered without overlap with the numbering used in that dataset to facilitate combining of the two datasets for analysis. Most of the calculated fields in that dataset do not exist in this one, and there are some differences between the scope of the fields shared by both datasets.

These tables are also related to the data collection ‘Parish registers of Clerkenwell, London’, which contains full transcriptions of parish register baptism, marriage and burial events for the parishes of St James Clerkenwell and St John Clerkenwell, London. There are joins between the key field of tables in that database and foreign key fields of this database as indicated in the field descriptions below.

Mlines.csv

Each record represents a reconstituted family, stemming from an actual or assumed marriage. There are 7 fields as follows:

FamNum (Integer)
Unique identifier for each reconstituted family.

OldFamNum (Integer)

Unique identifier that overlaps the key field used in the data collection ‘Reconstituted Families of Cheapside, London’

Place (String)
Locational scope of the family reconstitution, ie Clerkenwell. 

datesort (Date)
Duplicates [ActualMarDate] field where not null, or else [DummyMarDate] field, to allow events to be displayed in date order.

ActualMarDate (Date)
Date of marriage, where a link to a registered marriage has been made. Drawn from the marriage Event table record for a family's Husband and Wife. In the Gregorian calendar. 

DummyMarDate (Date)
Date of first Event table record belonging to a reconstituted family, where no marriage link has been made. Usually drawn from the earliest dated child baptism Event table record belonging to a family. In the Gregorian calendar.

MarEventID (Integer)
Foreign key identifying the Event table (from the related resource ‘Parish registers of Clerkenwell, London’) record of marriage for a family's Husband and Wife, where a link to a registered marriage has been made.

FamilySurname (String)
A family’s surname. Usually the same as the field [Surname] in the Hlines table, described below.

Hlines.csv

Each record represents a reconstituted family’s Husband. A reconstituted family must have a Husband record. A Husband is the father (or presumed father) of children linked to a reconstituted family and the spouse (or presumed spouse) of a family’s Wife. There are 9 fields are as follows:

FamNum (Integer)
Unique identifier for each Husband and also a foreign key indicating the reconstituted family (Mlines table) to which a Husband belongs.

OldFamNum (Integer)

Unique identifier that overlaps the key field used in the data collection ‘Reconstituted Families of Cheapside, London’

Surname (String)
Surname of a family's Husband. An unstandardised string usually drawn from the earliest Event table record belonging to a family where the husband's surname is given.

Forename (String)
Forename of a family's  Husband. An unstandardised string usually drawn from the first Event table record belonging to a family where the husband's forename is given. Null where not given in any family event.

BapDate (Date)
Date of a family’s Husband's baptism, where a link to a registered baptism has been made. Drawn from the Person table record of a Husband's baptism. In the Gregorian calendar.

BapEventID (Integer)
Foreign key identifying the Event table (from the related resource ‘Parish registers of Clerkenwell, London’) record of a Husband’s baptism, where a link to a registered baptism has been made.

BurEventID (Integer)
Foreign key identifying the Event table (from the related resource ‘Parish registers of Clerkenwell, London’) record of a Husband’s burial, where a link to a registered burial has been made.

BurDate (Date)
Date of Husband's burial, where a link to a registered burial has been made.  Drawn from the Person table record of a Husband's burial. In the Gregorian calendar.

EarlierFamNum
Foreign key (corresponding to Mlines table [FamNum] field) identifying a subsequent family for which the Husband in this family is also the Husband, but with a different wife, where a link to another reconstituted family has been made.

LaterFamNum
Foreign key (corresponding to Mlines table [FamNum] field) identifying a subsequent family is also the Husband, but with a different wife, where a link to another reconstituted family has been made
Wlines.csv

Each record represents a reconstituted family’s Wife, who is the mother (or presumed mother) of children linked to a family and the spouse (or presumed spouse) of a family’s Husband. A family must have a Wife record, though some wife records are devoid of any details beyond [FamNum]. There are 9 fields as follows:

FamNum (Integer)
Unique identifier for each Wife and also a foreign key indicating the reconstituted family to which a Wife belongs. 

OldFamNum (Integer)

Unique identifier that overlaps the key field used in the data collection ‘Reconstituted Families of Cheapside, London’

PreMarriageSname (String)
Surname of a wife prior to marriage. An unstandardised string drawn from the Person record of the wife's marriage, where a link to a registered marriage has been made, or drawn from a Wife’s baptism Person record where a link to a registered baptism has been made. Null where not known.

Fname (String)
Forename of a family's Wife. An unstandardised string usually drawn from the first Event table record belonging to a family where the Wife’s forename is given. Null where not given in any family event.

OwnBapDate (Date)
Date of a family’s Wife's baptism, where a link to a registered baptism has been made. Drawn from the Person table record of a Wife's baptism. In the Gregorian calendar.

BapEventID (Integer)
Foreign key identifying the Event table (from the related resource ‘Parish registers of Clerkenwell, London’) record of a Wife’s baptism, where a link to a registered baptism has been made.

BurEventID (Integer)
Foreign key identifying the Event table (from the related resource ‘Parish registers of Clerkenwell, London’) record of a Wife’s burial, where a link to a registered burial has been made.

BurDate (Date)
Date of family’s Wife's burial, where a link to a registered burial has been made.  Drawn from the Person table record of a Wife's burial. In the Gregorian calendar. 

EarlierFamNum (Integer)
Foreign key (corresponding to Mlines table [FamNum] field) identifying a previous reconstituted family for which the Wife in this family is also the Wife, but with a different Husband, where a link to another reconstituted family has been made.
LaterFamNum (Integer)
Foreign key (corresponding to Mlines table [FamNum] field) identifying a subsequent family for which the Wife in this family is also the Wife, but with a different Husband, where a link to another reconstituted family has been made.

Clines.csv

Each record represents a Child that has been linked to a reconstituted family. A family may have one, many or, exceptionally, no Child records. There are 16 fields as follows:

FamNum (Integer)
Foreign key identifying the reconstituted family (Mlines table) to which a Child belongs, and also the Husband and Wife of that family.

OldFamNum (Integer)

Foreign key identifying the reconstituted family (Mlines table) to which a Child belongs that overlaps the key field used in the data collection ‘Reconstituted Families of Cheapside, London’

Datesort (Date)
Repeats information in a Child’s [BapDateNS], [BirthDateNS], [BurDateNS] or [DeathDateNS] field to allow the Children to be sorted into date order. 

Type (String)
Type of link that has been made between a reconstituted family and a Child, used to indicate a number of inferences that may have been made. CBAP is the standard and most common type, representing a link to a registered baptism (which may or may not also be linked in turn to a registered burial, registered marriage and/or subsequent family). All registered baptisms except foundlings, parentless parish children and children without surnames have been assigned to a family even where no other events belong to that family. The full list of options and their meanings is:

CBAP	link is to a registered baptism	
CBAPADULT	link is to a registered baptism that took place in adulthood	
CBUR	link is to a registered  burial for which no corresponding baptism has been found. The burial date fits into the sequence of baptisms belonging to a family, with acceptable birth intervals, so the child may be considered to have died in the interval between birth and baptism.	

Sex (String)
The sex of the Child. Usually as given in the Person table record of a Child’s registered baptism or burial. M for males, F for females, X where the sex is unknown.

BapEventID (Integer)
Foreign key identifying the Event table (from the related resource ‘Parish registers of Clerkenwell, London’) record of a Child’s baptism, where a link to a registered baptism has been made.

BapDateNS (Date)
Date of a Child’s baptism, where a link to a registered baptism has been made. Usually drawn from the Person table record of a Child’s baptism. In the Gregorian calendar.

BirthDateNS (Date)
Date of a Child’s birth, where a link to a registered baptism has been made and the date of birth is stated. Usually drawn from the Person table record of a Child’s baptism. In the Gregorian calendar.

BurEventID (Integer)
Foreign key identifying the Event table (from the related resource ‘Parish registers of Clerkenwell, London’) record of a Child’s burial, where a link to a registered burial has been made.

BurDateNS (Date)
Date of a Child’s burial, where a link to a registered burial has been made. Usually drawn from the Person table record of a Child’s burial. In the Gregorian calendar.

DeathDateNS (Date)
Date of a Child’s death, where a link to a registered burial has been made and the date of death is stated. Usually drawn from the Person table record of a Child’s burial. In the Gregorian calendar.

Forename (String)
Forename of a Child. An unstandardised string usually drawn from the Person table record of a Child’s baptism, or else from the person table record of a Child’s burial. Null where not stated in any registered event.

OwnFamID (Integer)
Foreign key identifying a Child’s own family (Mlines table), ie the family of which he or she is Wife or Husband, where a link to either a registered marriage, or a registered baptism(s) or burial(s) that name the Child as a parent, has been made.

MarDateNS (Date)
A Child’s date of marriage, where a link to a registered marriage has been made. In the Gregorian calendar.
 
Status (String)
A field which partially duplicates the most pertinent information from the Condition table record of a child’s baptism or burial, and from the Person table record comments or memo fields.