Abstract
Geocoding historical addresses is a primary yet nontrivial application of spatial analysis in historical geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial humanities. We demonstrate our endeavours of geo-referencing and visualising historical census addresses in England and Wales, by matching the residential addresses to a historical gazetteer and a contemporary address database of Britain. The results indicate that it is feasible to standardise and geocode a large share of unique addresses from the historical database. The historical gazetteer and the modern address registers are two complementary data assets that can be used to geo-reference both well-formatted addresses in urban areas and non-standard addresses such as place names or building names in rural areas. The geo-referenced historical census data open up new opportunities for a broad spectrum of geo-demographic research on historical population characteristics at the micro level in England and Wales.
Highlights
Historical censuses, first carried out in the British Isles in 1801, preserve snapshots of population size and characteristics
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We develop a twostage address matching method, employing the geocoded contemporary and historical address
Summary
Historical censuses, first carried out in the British Isles in 1801, preserve snapshots of population size and characteristics They are highly valued sources of information to understand the population and social structure in the past and their transition over time and are today crucial in historical GIS and digital spatial humanities. Some common street names across the country, for instance, “Church Street”, “High Street”, or “Station Street”, create additional ambiguity for the geo-referencing process. Such uncertain and complex scenarios have posed significant challenges to geocoding historical census records and have impeded the spatial analysis of census data
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