Contact Details
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BackgroundSince 1994 I've been writing software utilities for family history. The first program was a simple MS-DOS utility called IGIREAD, originally released as shareware in 1995. This was designed purely for converting files extracted from the CD-Rom version of the IGI, to database and Text formats. LDS Companion, launched in 1999, was a development of the same program, but with additional features and designed to deal with many more of the LDS products. Being interested in maps, work began in 1995 on a program to plot individual points on a map of England. This initial MS-Dos prototype was followed by a Windows version, culminating in GenMap UK, launched in May 1997. After several years of intermitent development, v2.0 of the program was released in late 2002. This was followed in spring 2003 by a British Surname Atlas on CD-Rom, containing surname and forename maps derived from the 1881 census. I have also been involved for several years in writing front-end search tools for CD-Rom databases. The first of these was an index of Welsh data published by S&N Genealogy Supplies in January 2000. Then in April 2001 the First Edition of the National Burial Index (NBI) was launched (5.4 million burial entries, England & Wales), for which I developed the search program. Next, in Spring 2004 the Sussex Marriage Index on CD-Rom was launched by the Sussex Family History Group, for which I again developed a search engine, followed by a revised edition in 2008. In 2005 I developed a series of 1851 Census products on CD-Rom for the North West Kent FHS, i.e. a name index linked to page images. The 2nd Edition of the NBI (13m entries) appeared in Sep 2004, then the 3rd Edition (18.4m entries) in Feb 2010. In 2005-07 I developed a program for creating crosswords - see Puzzle Workshop. Another area of interest has been the problem of how to locate surname variants in computerized databases, especially of genealogical data. Starting in 2008 I developed a new matching system for British surnames, see Nominex for more information. In 2009-11 I created a Batch Number website, listing the batches of records that formerly appeared in the IGI and have more recently been made available from the LDS's New FamilySearch website. I've also been a member of N.W.Kent Family History Society since 1979 and ran the Society website 1998-2015 and was a member of the Society's publications committee 1986-2015. This website was launched in April 1997, and extensively re-vamped in 2000.
Steve Archer |
