Nominal record linkage of historical data : procedure and applications in a North Wales parish

Davies, Hywel Rhodri (1993) Nominal record linkage of historical data : procedure and applications in a North Wales parish. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

During the late nineteenth century, Britain experienced two demographic phenomena of great importance. First, there was a substantial and irreversible fall in fertility rates; a phenomenon referred to as the fertility transition. Second, there was large scale population movements from rural to urban areas; this phenomenon was also largely irreversible.

Aggregative analyses of census data and to a lesser extent family reconstitution methods have been used to investigate these events. However, both are deficient in the questions that can be answered about these occurrences, because of the techniques and the data employed. To adequately study both phenomena, individual-level longitudinal data of sufficient quality is required. Little has been done in this field due to fears about the quality of ecclesiastical registration data during the late nineteenth century. This is overcome in this study by using civil registration data. Also the technique employed to obtain individual-level longitudinal data known as record linkage is extremely laborious when done manually. This can be overcome by automating the linkage process.

This thesis considers the development of an automated record linkage system using a computer database. The issues involved in automated record linkage are discussed at length; especially that of the problem of name variations on original manuscript sources. In this study the problem is overcome through the development of a program which combines the use of well established name standardisation procedures to identify name similarities.

The record linkage process itself mimics the actions of a manual record linker by employing probabilistic making rules. This is achieved through the assignment of weights to specific agreements and disagreements of identifying items on compared records. The calculation and assignment of these weights are discussed in detail. The problem of determining the accuracy of the linkage process is discussed and the results of an investigation into any inherent bias in the process are presented.

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