Parms File Example
What is a parms file?
“Parms” stands for “parameters”. Parameter is a word borrowed from mathematics meaning something that defines or describes something bigger — a “system”. In this case the system is a census County for a particular year. We are defining it in terms of its parishes with their parish numbers, the divisions of those parishes, the file names we are going to use for the transcriptions and the label that identifies the scan images on CD or film.
A parms file is needed to organise the County transcription on the database. It tells the database system how the transcription of the County is being split into parishes and parts of parishes, so that it can recognise where to place your transcriptions as they uploaded to the database.
The details
Please read the Coordinators Guide (download link on Coordinator resources page) to further understand how to create a parms file.
Click on the links (row numbers 1, 2, and 3) for explanations of the information in the cells of the first three rows. You are welcome to print this and use the example as you create your parms file.
If you need further assistance, please contact one of the Scotland Coordinators, Rena Mitchell and David Robertson.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MMJ | 212 | ABD1841 | |||||
| 2 | 168 | 168 | Aberdeen | 101786 | a | a | ||
| 3 | 1168 | 168 | North | HS411168 | a | b | ||
| 4 | 2168 | 168 | South | HS412168 | a | b | ||
| 5 | 3168 | 168 | East | HS413168 | a | b | ||
| 6 | 4168 | 168 | West | HS414168 | a | b | ||
| 7 | 5168 | 168 | St. Clements | HS415168 | a | b | ||
| 8 | 168 | 168 | Aberdeen | 101787 | a | a | ||
| 9 | 6168 | 168 | Greyfriars | HS416168 | a | b | ||
| 10 | 168 | 168 | Old Machar | 101788 | b | a | ||
| 11 | 7168 | 168 | Old Machar-Burgh | HS417168 | b | b | ||
| 12 | 8168 | 168 | Woodside | HS418168 | b | b | ||
| 13 | 9168 | 168 | Gilcomston | HS419168 | b | b | ||
| 14 | 168 | 168 | Old Machar | 101789 | b | a | ||
| 15 | 1168 | 168 | Bon Accord | HS421168 | b | b | ||
| 16 | 2168 | 168 | Holburn | HS422168 | b | b | ||
| 17 | 3168 | 168 | Landward | HS423168 | b | b | ||
| 18 | 169 | 169 | Aberdour | 101789 | a | |||
| 19 | 169 | 169 | Aberdour | HS410169 | b | |||
| 20 | 170 | 170 | Aboyne & Glentanner | 101790 | a | |||
| 21 | 170 | 170 | Aboyne & Glentanner | HS410170 | b | |||
| 22 | 171 | 171 | Alford | 101790 | a | |||
| 23 | 171 | 171 | Alford | HS410171 | b | |||
| 24 | 172 | 172 | Auchindoir & Kearn | 101790 | a | |||
| 25 | 172 | 172 | Auchindoir & Kearn | HS410172 | b | |||
| 26 | 173 | 173 | Auchterless | 101790 | a | |||
| 27 | 173 | 173 | Auchterless | HS410173 | b | |||
| 28 | 174 | 174 | Belhelvie | 101790 | a | |||
| 29 | 174 | 174 | Belhelvie | HS410174 | b | |||
| 30 | 175 | 175 | Birse | 101790 | a | |||
| 31 | 175 | 175 | Birse | HS410175 | b | |||
| 32 | 176 | 176 | Bourtie | 101790 | a | |||
| 33 | 176 | 176 | Bourtie | HS410176 | b | |||
| 34 | 177 | 177 | Cabrach | 101790 | a | |||
| 35 | 1177 | 177 | Cabrach | HS411177 | b | |||
| 36 | 2177 | 177 | Cabrach BAN | HS412177 | b | |||
| 37 | 178 | 178 | Cairney | 101790 | a | |||
| 38 | 1178 | 178 | Cairney | HS411178 | b | |||
| 39 | 2178 | 178 | Cairney BAN | HS412178 | b |
Notes
- Line 1:
- Line 2 ('a' records):
- Cell A2: The Parish Number
- Cell B2: The Parish Number
- Cell C2: The Parish Name
- Cell D2: Blank
- Cell E2: The Film or CD number
- Cell F2: Blank
- Cell G2: If the parish number has an a/b designation, enter it here. Otherwise leave blank.
- Cell H2: Enter 'a'. The 'a' records will be the name that shows up in the Census Place of the database.
- Line 3 ('b' records):
- Cell A3: The last three or four digits of the file number. If the parish will have more than one file then this cell will have four digits. If there is only one file for the parish, then only the last three digits are needed. (See Aberdour)
- Cell B3: The Parish Number
- Cell C3: Blank
- Cell D3: The name of the sub-division. Most times this will be the same as Cell C2, unless there is more than one file and a more specific name is chosen.This is the name that will be entered in the spreadsheet as the Civil Parish.
- Cell E3: The File Number. This will be the name the file is saved as and will also be entered in Cell A1 of the transcription spreadsheet.
- Cell F3: Blank
- Cell G3: Same as Line 2
- Cell H3: Enter 'b'. The 'b' records are the names of the Civil parish that will show up in the search results of the database.
Special Situations
- Parishes that are split between two
counties.
- Enter sub-divisions with the part in your county as just the parish name. Enter the part in the other county as the parish name and Chapman code of that county. (See Cabrach)
- Parishes with more than one file.
- Column A, 'b' records, will contain the last four digits of the file number.
- The File Number will start with HS411 and rise consecutively, skipping HS420. HS411, HS412, HS413,...HS421, HS422, HS423, etc.
- Note: When converting files for checking and zipping for post validation, be careful to keep the files with the same last four digits separate as you will overwrite the files.
- The name in Column D ('b' records) does not have to be different for each file. If there is something more specific, such as Quoad Sacra or county divisions, then feel free to enter it but all the Aberdeen (168a) files could have been named 'Aberdeen' and all of Old Machar (168b) files could have been named 'Old Machar' without any conflict.
- Parishes with only one file.
- The file number will start with HS410.
- Column A, 'b' records will contain the last three digits of the file number.
- The name in Column D for 'b' records will most likely be the same as Column C for 'a' records.
- Parishes with a Parish Number that has an a/b designation.
- For whatever reason, some parishes were split and, instead of being given a new number, the old number was given an a/b designation. This is different than the 'a' & 'b' records for the parms file. St. Nicholas was split into two parishes: Aberdeen with the number 168a and Old Machar with the number 168b. Remember that the name with 'a' records will be the name that shows in the 'Census Place' search option. Please be sure to fill out column G in these cases and to ensure the parishes are named correctly.
