Naval Biographical Database



News

 

27,000 people and more than 250,000 dates - slow but steady progress.   CHD 1 May 2015

The latest index update includes information on 26,000 people and more than 5,000 ships. 

Initial work exploring the possibilitiy of tracking lowerdeck people from ship to ship in the 1740s has shown positive albeit slow progress.  While handwriting has sometimes been difficult, the frequent name spelling changes, even within the same manuscript, have been a real test of the data-capture processes evolved over the years.  

For the first time, work based on this project has appeared in print.  I hope that Warrant Officers of the Royal Navy, 1695-1751, published by the List & Index Society in July 2014, may be of interest, and give some insight into the methods used to extract real value from these challenging sources.

Any suggestions for positive change or improvement are always welcome.   CHD 1 Jan 2015


 © CHD 2015