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I would like to create a UK street map of 1911 census data and I am wondering if OSM is the best tool to use for this? Firstly I would need to create a UK street map from 1911, any ideas how to do this? Thanks.

asked 29 Aug '15, 09:37

dukeofhertfordshire's gravatar image

dukeofhertfo...
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Hi Take a look here, http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Open_Historical_Map thers some historical knowledge.

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answered 29 Aug '15, 11:34

Hendrikklaas's gravatar image

Hendrikklaas
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Open Historical Map isn't going to be a viable option since it has so little data in it.

Presumably what you want to do is to display census data over the top of a map from that period. The National Library of Scotland has some resources that might be suitable. There's lots of information, including licence details, here.

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answered 31 Aug '15, 12:47

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edited 31 Aug '15, 12:47

Great tip. Thanks. So really what I need to do is to 1) host something like OSM on a server with a map of the UK, 2) overlay the map with historical maps from 1911, 3) obtain the census data from 1911 and match it with addresses from the OSM platform. Sounds like a plan. If only I knew how to do any of this!! Lots for me to learn. By the way, how would you recommend me overlaying the old maps? Would something like JOSM work?

Thanks,

Ian

(31 Aug '15, 13:36) dukeofhertfo...

How to do this depends on what you need. Are you building a website or just need to work with the data? In the second case, I'd recommend working with QGIS.

(31 Aug '15, 14:02) joost schouppe

It is certainly possible to use OpenHistoricalMap BUT it is would be a major project to create a streetmap of the UK for 1911. There are short-cuts, see my post on City Stripping: http://sk53-osm.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/city-stripping-building-historical-road.html.

A second problem is that ideally you need a suitable geocoding engine to work from the census data to relate it to the map. For some places, notably central Edinbugh, existing OSM data is entirely suitable for geocoding historical data (see the MESH project), but this is unlikely to be true for the country as a whole.

The way I would approach this is to select a single current local authority and see how much work is involved in taking current OSM data and adapting it to the situation in 1911. Fairly recently I did this for Helsinki in 1907, which I think took me 3-4 hours altogether. Once one has this kind of baseline one can estimate a) how much work is required, and b) whether the approach as a whole will work.

Note you will need a geolocated street-level gazetteer for 1911 anyway: OHM is one way of creating such data. Because OHM uses the OSM toolset productivity can be higher than with other approaches; and much higher where existing OSM data can be used as the basis.

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answered 31 Aug '15, 20:16

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SK53 ♦
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question asked: 29 Aug '15, 09:37

question was seen: 4,512 times

last updated: 31 Aug '15, 20:16

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum