Creating a Census Candidates List - Filters

In the Venn diagram in the preceding post, all people shown in the blue circle "A" are people known to be living on a given census date; i.e., both a birth date (actual or approximated), or other birth-group event (baptism, etc.), and a death date have been entered. The report filter consists of only two lines. Note that the value is entered as [?]. The report will ask for this value (official census date in this report) before filtering the data. The temporary flag for any person who fulfills these conditions will be reset to "Y".

• (Field) Birth Group... (Subfield) Date (Operator) <= Does not come after (Value) [?] (Connect) AND
• (Field) Death... (Subfield) Date (Operator) > Comes after (Value) [?] (Connect) END

All people shown in the red circle "B" are people who may be living on a given census date; i.e., a birth date (actual or approximated), or other birth-group event (baptism, etc.), has been entered, but the date of death is unknown and no death event has been entered. Assuming a given life span, however, suggests the person might have been alive at the time a given census was taken. This is the report filter. Again, note that the value is entered as [?]. The report will ask for this value before filtering the data. Enter the official census date in line 1. Enter the official census date minus your chosen life span in line 2. For example, enter 1 June 1760 for the 1850 census, if you choose a life span of  90 years. Line 3 specifies that no death tag exists. The temporary flag for any person who fulfills these conditions will be reset to "Y".

• (Field) Birth Group... (Subfield) Date (Operator) <= Does not come after (Value) [?] (Connect) AND
• (Field) Birth Group... (Subfield) Date (Operator) > Comes after (Value) [?] (Connect) AND
  
• (Field) Death Group... (Subfield) # of Tags (Operator) > = Equals (Value) 0 (Connect) END

All people shown in the yellow circle "C" are people who already have a census tag with a year equal to the selected census year, whether they are principals or witnesses to that tag. The temporary flag for any person who fulfills these conditions will be reset to "C". Note that the value is entered as [?]. Enter the census year in question in both lines, e.g., 1850. This report effectively eliminates all people whose census record for the selected census year has been found, as it changes the temporary flag value of people in both the blue and red circles from "Y" or "X" to "C".

• (Field) Census... (Subfield) Year (Operator) Is exactly (Value) [?] (Connect) OR
• (Field) Witnessed Census... (Subfield) Year (Operator) Is exactly (Value) [?] (Connect) END

Now, open the Project Explorer. Filter it for temporary flag value = "Y" to see only those known to be living when the census was taken, but who have no census tag for that year.

 

Filter the Project Explorer for temporary flag value = "X" to see only those who might be living on the census date, but who have no census tag for that year.

 

You can filter for temporary flag value = "Y" OR temporary flag value = "X" to see the known and possible census candidates at the same time. (I give priority to those known to be living on a given census date, so I don't do this.)

 

Consider adding location filters to the Project Explorer. Now, you can limit your search to every candidate in a given county. It makes paging through the census much more productive.