To allow online searching of data from either the IGI, VL or 1881 census a machine readable summery of the relevant files is needed. The Converter tool, which can be downloaded from this page, can read the output files from most of the IGI, VL or 1881 census and create this summery file. Please download a copy if you wish to add data found in either of these two sources to the online search.
When the Converter is run a small window appears, from the File | Open menu use the file browser to find the required file. When the file is opened the program will use either MS Word, for 1881 files, rtf doc for VL, or MS Excel, for IGI files, to extract the data which will then be converted into the summery file automatically. NOTE do NOT have MS Word or MS Excel open before operating the converter as it will cause them to close and some virus scanners may detect the program closing MS Word and show an alert. If this happens please allow the program to close MS Word.
While the program is converting the file a green 'processing' window will show, when the operation is complete this will disappear. After a file has been converted there will be a new file in the same directory as the source with the same name and an extension of '.csv'. This file can be opened in MS Excel and will contain a series of records extracted from the source. Please check the conversion contains all the records. If there are any problems please email Rod.
When ready please upload both the original source file and the '.csv' to the system. For security and to ensure the data archive is not corrupted the uploaded data will appear in the search within a few days after it has been authorized for inclusion.
Note the program will try and convert any file selected as neither the IGI, Vl or 1881 census use a distinguishing file type, while other file types should not crash the program, the '.csv' files created will not contain useful information and can cause massive output files.