Sources & methods (1): Analytical Approach (1)

Introduction

Sources & methods (1) refers to how official sources combine with trade directories, war diaries, and press accounts to take snapshots of the past.

Sources & methods (1): sources

The analytical approach employed on this website takes for primary source material the following:

• Census listings (‘official’ information)
• Baptisms-Marriages-Burials (‘official’ information)
• Other ‘official’ records (Central Government, Local Government, Ecclesiastical)
• Trade Directories (commercial information: Kelly, Post Office, Pigot, etc. for 1849, 1851, 1855, 1859, 1865, 1871, 1875, 1878, 1880, 1885, 1889, 1895, 1898; also see Dennis R. Mills, Rural Community History from Trade Directories (University of Hertford, 2001)
• Newspapers (civic and commercial information)
• War diaries (official and personal)
  

Some of the posts appearing on this site have perhaps a hundred primary source references to support them, but the SEO facility used on the site baulks at this. Where possible, sources having online access form the majority of analyses conducted and published on this site. In some cases, however, for example, a few of the trade directories, no online access exists.

As a result, references no longer appear either in the posts or on the Knowledge Base. For those interested in checking a reference, please contact direct. See here and here (subscriptions needed) for primary source access. Also, go here.

Sources & methods (1): Bio-Digs

The overall analytical approach involves identifying people of interest, collecting as much of their established factual data as possible, and then linking it together over time. Hence, it attempts to reconstitute as much of the individual’s life as possible. The same approach applies to the individuals’ families.

• Identify an individual of interest found in a census listing to start a Bio-Dig file.
• Based on recorded age and place of origin, search for the individual’s baptism, marriage(s), and burial records.
• Track census appearances over time.
• Find relevant information in ‘other records’ and Trade Directories (if appropriate).
• Source press references if they exist.
• Based on the reconstituted life and linkages, discover and map the individual’s kinship connections and friendship or associate networks.
• Distil findings into a file format and add to a spreadsheet for aggregated Bio-Dig file analysis.

For references and engagement, please get in touch. Main primary sources: here and here (subscriptions needed).

Sources & methods (1): street biographies

For a period, the Bournemouth Guardian published residential directories that detailed house numbers and occupants. Tracking the street entries over the paper’s project allows insight into how a street’s community has changed its members or remained stable. In some cases, the construction of certain streets took several years. This provides evidence of the evolving built environment. This source enables a much more detailed study of continuity than the decennial census.

The census, however, provides a foundation to extend the directory information. This creates a rich, social street biography viewed through a genealogical perspective. Categorising the occupations of each resident makes it possible to place the street on a social continuum.

Contemporary press references to a street’s incidents and events reveal glimpses of its community life.

For examples of Street Biographies, see here (Oxford Road) and here (Waterloo Road).