Publications

Publishing Approach | Material Needed | Names Found | Occupations |

Publishing Approach

The plan is to make all group publications in an electronic format - with "e-books" and CD-ROMs being the most likely.

The reasons for this is approach are -

• most group members do not meet in person, all communication being by e-mail
• many publications are likely to be specialised in nature; meaning low volumes
• many publications are likely to be originated on PCs
• archive material would need to be copied to microfilm or electronic images for distribution; with microfilm becoming out-dated
• publishing in digital / electronic format handles any future audio and video material as well as current text and pictures
• electronic publishing is already the most cost-effective production method

Material Needed

Some likely sources of suitable material are -

• Boat Registers
• Canal Company Records
• Census Records
• 18th / 19th Century Topical Books
• Newspaper Archives

Other sources are transcriptions of canal information that not already published on the web, on CDs or in printed form.

So if you have something that could be published electronic publishing is probably the best solution.

Names Found

These pages contain the names 19th Century people connected with canals, inland waterways and coastal shipping found so far in Northern England. They have been listed in surname order on these pages - ABCDEF|GHIJKL|MNOPQRS|TUVWXYZ

Many of the initial entries are taken from the 1881 Census but this is not the objective and few extra entries from this source are planned. The reasons for this are -

• The 1881 Census CDs can now be searched on any word (using the Viewer 3 software) - so it is easy to locate people by occupation
• The number of entries related to boatmen, watermen, canals and shipping is very large (30,000 nationally?)- so the lists would be become very long
• The 1881 information has already be recorded and distributed widely - so another version of the same data would add nothing new
• The cost of the 1881 CD set is very small in comparison to the cost of extracting and loading many 1,000s of entries
• Our resources would be better spent adding information that is either not transcribed or is transcribed but not widely available.

Occupations

When searching the 1881 Census CDs you need to consider all the relevant search words - the Viewer 3 software does not search on parts of words i.e. searching on "boat" will NOT include references to "boatman".

Some of the relevant words and occupations to consider are -

Bank Ranger | Barge | Bargeman | Bargee | Boat | Boat Builder | Boat Hauler | Boat Man | Boatboy | Boatbuilder | Boater | Boathawler | Boathanler | Boatmaker | Boatman | Boatman Assistant | Boatman Master | Boatman Mate | Boatman On Seas | Boatowner | Boatsman | Boatswain | Boatwoman | Canal | Canal Agent | Canal Boatman | Canal Carpenter | Canal Carrier | Canal Laborer | Canal Lock Keeper | Canal Mason | Canal Servant | Canal Toll Collector | Canal Waterman | Canalboat Horse Driver | Canalboat Laborer | Captain | Carrier Boat Owner | Coal Heaver On Cotton Boats | Excavator (Navvy) | Inland Nav Service | INS | Lighterman | Lockman | Lockwoman | Marine Boatman | Master Mariner | Mariner (Merchant Seaman) | Mariner Fireman | Mariner Seaman | Mate | 1st Mate | 2nd Mate | Owner | Tunnel Legger | Waterman | Watermans Labourer

In addition there are all the possible occupations related to fishing to consider - but the Royal Navy probably should not be included (best in a dedicated site?).

more to follow