Re: BMD Certificates

On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 20:06:24 +0100, "Don Moody"
<dpmoody@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


"Charles Ellson" <charles@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1u9233dsog79purj3uhacu9chdfjtj81gl@xxxxxxxxxx
Keeping a transcribed copy in the original layout preserves much
more
of the original nature of the records and makes cross-checking of
original and copy easier. By removing one stage of mutation there is
less opportunity for transcription errors to be introduced or
continued. The end product becomes readable both by humans and
computers (from the text-search POV).

Not true. unless you've got OCR and you've 'educated' your set up to
deal with the characters used in the print-out.

The computer searchable bit is actually on a computer, surprise
surprise. The existence of a print-out in any format is wholly
irrelevant to the success or otherwise of computer searching of data
held on a computer.

If you have an 'original layout' from which you transcribe into the
computer, then what does print-out in any format achieve which isn't
more easily achieved by simple photocopying without using a computer
at all? Furthermore there is no need to check the accuracy of the copy
against the original in any detail. It is only necessary to see from a
cursory glance that a clean copy has been made.

So we come down to one situation only. Information is obtained from
some source other than an 'official copy', is entered in the computer,
and is then printed out in a faux-certificate form. Why? The process
does not add anything to the information gathered and put on the
individual's computer. The faux-certificate is not more machine
searchable than what is already on the computer, and is probably less
machine searchable for most people. So the 'use' can only be to
pass-off the faux-certificate to some other human being who will read
it by eye. What is the point of doing that? It will at least mislead
that other human into thinking they are looking at something official,
and at the worst that misleading will be for some dodgy if not
downright criminal purpose.

Don, when you're in a hole, stop digging. Nobody, particularly the OP,
has suggested entering information from anywhere other than a BMD
certificate. The OP hasn't suggested that he, or anyone else, plans
top print out a "faux-certificate" form of any kind -0 indeed, I've
re-read the OP's original post and he doesn't mention printing at all
- all he was looking for was the layout of the various BMD forms over
the years. The fact that you can extrapolate such behaviour such as
passing off some faux-certificate says more about you and your
apparently defective intuitive process than it does about the OP. The
fact that you appear to have an obsession with "criminal process" must
be a worry for your family and probably your doctor.

The OP has not shown, and no proxy for him has shown, that there is
some positive creation of genealogical information by doing all this
work and worrying about accurate formatting. There is a very simple
analogy. It is possible to measure the depths of water in a river,
keep that data on a computer, look at it and get no clear
understanding, print it out as a table of figures and still have no
better understanding; and then put the data into a graph printer. That
'forms' the data into a graph, which is new information from which
events affecting the river can be deduced. Note the 'forming' is NOT a
process of reproducing a table as a table, which process creates no
new information. It is the very fact that the formatting is different
which produces from the data information not otherwise available. So
if the OP has a flood of data in an Excel table, making from that
faux-certificates produces nothing new, but making new formats of the
data could create information which is new.

The OP is under no obligation to provide any such "proof" that there
is a "positive creation of genealogical information by doing all this
work and worrying about accurate formatting" - it's his hobby - do try
and consult a dictionary as to the meaning of the word "hobby".
Perhaps then your paranoia will ebb and you will be able to take the
OP's question at face value.

I've asked what is new. There is no answer. So the faux-certificates
are being produced for some non-genealogical purpose. The presumption
is that the purpose is unstated and unjustified because it is in some
way intended to be deceptive and declaring the purpose would destroy
the deception. It remains open for the OP, or any of his apologists,
to show that the above argument is mistaken. All that has to be done
is to provide a rational description of what new genealogical
information is created by entering data from an official copy
certificate into a computer and then printing it out in exactly the
same format as that of the official copy; and that new information
would not be created if the data were printed out in any other
format - including official copy formats of earlier or later date than
the source data format. Such an explanation would fly in the teeth of
all I know and have read about the theory and practice of information
handling, but that shouldn't stop anybody who can produce a rational
argument. Science advances by falsifying what was previously believed
to be true.

Oh dear, there are no faux-certificates being produced (unless of
course you have evidence of such?). What proof have you that were any
to be produced that they would be uised for a non-genealogical
purpose"?

Wherer has the OP suggested that "new genealogical
information is created"?

Best that you don't assume anything without proof - you have described
yourself as a scientist haven't you? Try and behave like one.

Probably best that you sit and think before hitting the keyboard in
future - you are making a complete arse of yourself - admit that you
may be wronmg, that you've jumped to a completely unnsustainable
conclusion - you could even try apologising.

--
Cheers

Peter

Please remove the invalid to reply
.

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