SEMQDB Databases for Historians Autumn 1998.

Exercise 2 Weeks 4-6.

The results for question 3 should be handed in on Thursday 5th November 1998.

1.         You will need your own 3.5" disc for this and later exercises. Make your own copy of the Sidbury database from the file server in the Aston Webb Cluster 1. You will need to run the database from your copy on drive a into order to add the queries needed to extract the information.

            Click on "start" and then on "programs" and then choose "ComputerScience Applications". Click on "Refresh all Class Files" to ensure that you have loaded the latest version. Then the database will be found in c:\ClassFls\semqdb\sidbury.mdb

            Open Access and create a new database (using the name "sidbury" or something else if you prefer) on your disc on drive a. Then choose "File" and "Get External data" and "import" the data from sidbury (you will have to follow the path on drive c to locate it) selecting all three tables as part of your new database. You will also need to change the "properties" from "read-only".

            You will then be able to create and run queries in your own database.

2. (Unassessed practice) Write and run queries for the following:

            (a) The baptisms of all children christened "John".

            (b) All marriages where the bride's name was "Anne", "Ann" or "Anna".

            (c) All the baptisms, in chronological order, of the children of John Hamond (vicar of Sidbury from 1565-1572).  Having listed these, extend your query to indicate the burial dates of any of his children who died during their first year of life.

            (d) For all couples married in Sidbury, write a query to list the children resulting from that marriage who were also baptised in Sidbury. If the father was married twice, then check for the burial of the first wife (look for reln = wife and husband's Christian and surnames being equal in the Burials table) and restrict the period of that marriage to dates after the first marriage and before the wife's burial.

3.         The Purslowe family were lords of the manor in the early period and later (after the break in the records) the lordship was transferred to Richard Cresswell who had married Anne Purslowe. It then remained in the Cresswell family until recent times.

            What can you find out about the members of these families from the sidbury database? Can you extract suitable information to produce a family tree (not necessarily drawn on the computer) and comment on the life expectancy of the members of these families ?  What other records might you look for to fill in some of the gaps in these records ?

Susan Laflin. 20-Oct-98