Other Data Tables

The following tables hold raw data from sources other than the Annual Reports: These are particularly important as sources of members' ages.

reg_book: Information from the SEM's Registration Book for new members.
rb_event: Information about later events taken from the Registration Book.
ase_reg: Information about SEM members from the Amalgamated Engineers' Registration Book.
d_cert: Information from deaths certificates of SEM members.

Table 'reg_book'

Function: Holds information taken from the SEM's manuscript Registration Books, containing information on age, trade and marital status for members on their admission to the unions.

Coverage: All pre-1900 entries in the first of the five volumes. The period covered is unclear, as most of the initial entries are for 1853 but the book includes men joining as early as 1836; similarly, the main sequence of entries run up to 1893 but others from the 1900s were not input.

Size: 5,322 records.

Notes:

We thank the Modern Records Centre (Warwick U.) for loaning the volume.
These data were input into Filemaker Pro then bulk-loaded into the main database.

Field Name	Contents	Usage
rb_id	Integer	Unique identifier for each entry in the book. Indicates order of entries and permits related information in the 'rb_event' table to be linked.
book	Integer (all current entries are '1')	Volume from which entry was transcribed. All current data comes from MRC Accession number MSS.259/SE/2/1/1.
br_name	Text (70 chars.)	Name of branch where admitted.
branch	Branch	Branch where admitted (standard code).
[name]	Name	Member's name.
age	Integer	Age at admission.
trade	Text (70 chars.)	e.g. 'fitter', 'turner'.
m_status	Text (1 char.): legal entries are: S Single M Married W Widowed	Marital status, as given in Registration Book (NB 'W' code is unused).
[date]	Date	Date of admission.
comment	Text (512 chars.)	Comments relating to initial entry (NB for info. re. subsequent history see 'rb_event'.
rb_seq	Integer	Unique key value, added while bulk-loading the data; runs in sequence, unlike rb_id, and used in checking data.
mem_rec	Record_ID	The RECORD_ID of the entry in 'members' for the year/branch first joined.
member	Record_ID	Unique ID for member, added later.

Table 'rb_event'

Function: Holds information concerning subsequent events listed in the SEM Registration Book. Most entries in the books contain no such information, but in some cases information about up to five subsequent events appears. This table can be used to make further linkages.

Coverage: All pre-1900 entries in the first of the five volumes.

Size: 2,125 records.

Notes:

These records add information to records in the 'reg_book' table to which they are linked by the 'rb_id' field. Some events, such as death or re-admission, can be used to extend the linkage of major clusters of records, most obviously where a man left and re-joined - without the Registration Book, there would be no certain way of knowing it was the same man, not two different men with the same name.
Much of this information is messy and incomplete, so use with care.

Field Name	Contents	Usage
rb_id	Integer	Unique identifier for each entry in the book. Links 'rb_event' to 'reg_book'.
event	Integer (1-5)	Sequence number indicating placing of this event within those given for this entry in the Registration Book; to be used to present data in the original order.
type	Single character. Legal entries are: D Died E Excluded L Left the trade M Miscellaneous P Payment R Re-admitted S Superannuated W Wife died	Nature of event. NB 'Miscellaneous' is rare, as the more specific codes are comprehensive.
[date]	Date	Date of event. NB in many cases only the year, or the month and year are given.
place	Text (70 chars.)	Place where event occurred; usu. indicates moves to another branch.
detail	Text (512 chars.)	Other details given in register. NB many entries would be fully covered by the code in the type field and the date.
mem_rec	Record_ID	The RECORD_ID of the entry in 'members' to which the event can be connected; to be added by linkage
cluster	Record_ID	Cluster ID, copied from the entry in 'members' pointed to by mem_rec.
member	Record_ID	Unique ID for member, added later in linkage.

Table 'ase_reg'

Function: Holds information taken from the Amalgamated Society of Engineers' Registration Book. Many members of the SEM transferred to the ASE on the creation of the latter union in 1851 (which explains the disruption to the union in that year and the break in the sequence of Annual Reports). In principle it includes all such ex-members of the SEM, plus a selection of men joining the ASE by other routes; these latter were included to permit research on other early unions.

Coverage: A complex sampling strategy was adopted, mixing a strict random sample to characterise the book as a whole, an alphabetical sample of pre-1852 members and all members listed as having been initially admitted into the 'Engineers' or the 'SEM' (see the 'random_s', letter_s' and 'in_sem' fields). The last criteria was intended to include all men who are relevant to the SEM database, although some SEM members may have left the SEM and then joined another union and be listed there.

Size: 800 records.

Notes:

In 1978, I located a Registration Book covering the early years of the ASE in the AEU offices at Peckham and transcribed some of the entries, including those of former SEM members; the book lists members by their initial admission to either the ASE or any of its predecessors. These records provide ages, and appear to be the only source of admission dates for the SEM pre-1850.
The data were loaded into the SEM database and this description written in June 1995. At the same time, the Registration Book was found again at Peckham and some further data entry work carried out, covering all men who joined any component union before the end of 1841.
Strictly speaking, only records with a value of 'in_sem'=1 should be seen as part of the SEM database.

Table 'ase_reg':

Field Name	Contents	Usage
br_name	Text (40 chars.)	Name of branch where admitted.
branch	Branch	Branch where admitted (standard code).
[name]	Name	Member's name.
age_y	Integer	Age in years at time of admission
age_m	Integer	Any months stated as part of age at time of admission
age	Float	Age at time of admission; calculated from age_y and age_m.
u_name	Text (24 chars.)	Name of union originally joined. (NB 'union' is an INGRES reserved word)
trade	Text (16 chars.)	Branch of trade (skill) to which man belonged. NB where the record comes from the original sample gathered in 1978, this was originally entered as a single letter code and has been converted back to a full statement when the data were loaded into INGRES, so may not be an exact transcription.
m_status	Text (1 char.): legal entries are: M Married S Single W Widowed	Marital status.
[date]	Date	Date of event. NB in many cases only the year, or the month and year are given.
random_s	Integer (Flag: 0 or 1)	Value=1 if record was included as part of random sample (208 entries selected by page and line number).
letter_s	Integer (Flag: 0 or 1)	Value=1 if admission was before 1/1/1852 and surname begins with 'S' (all such entries were transcribed).
in_sem	Integer (Flag: 0 or 1)	Value=1 if record was included because man was apparently an SEM member (all entries where union='ENGINEERS' or 'SEM').
pre_1841	Integer (Flag: 0 or 1)	Value=1 if record was included because the man joined before the end of 1841; all such records are being transcribed.
comment	Text (128 chars.)	Other information from the original register; usu. indicating subsequent history, e.g. death or expulsion.
ar_seq	Integer	Unique identifier, added when data loaded into SEM database.
mem_rec	Record_ID	The RECORD_ID of the entry in 'members' to which the event can be connected; to be added by linkage
member	Record_ID	Unique ID for member, added later.

Table 'd_cert'

Function: Holds information taken from Death Certificates of SEM members, including age and cause of death.

Coverage: Most SEM members dying whose death was recorded in the union's reports but without age or cause of death information.

Size: 167 records.

Notes:

The SEM reports gave the name of the members, the date of their funeral and the branch they belonged to, permitting registered deaths with the right name, date and locality to be identified in the indexes to the registers of deaths available at St. Catherine's House. The only way to obtain further information (age and cause) was to buy the certificates. Where members had common names, multiple certificates had to be bought and the correct one identified by occupation (some form of engineer) and age (SEM members were adults while many duplicate certificates covered infants).
Each death certificate cost £5.00 in 1989, so this may be one of the most expensive data sets of its size in existence! Purchase of the certificates was funded by the Wellcome Trust.
The 'cause' field often ends with 'CTD.' or 'NOT CTD.', indicating whether or not the information was certified by a doctor.

Field Name Contents Usage

[name] name The name of the person dying.

[date] date Date of death (NB this may be different from the date of the funeral).

reg_dist Text (40 chars.) Name of Registration District where death occurred.

age Integer Usually a round number of years.

occup Text (60 chars.) e.g. 'Fitter', 'Turner'.

place Text (140 chars.) Place of death: may be precise street address.

cause Text (140 chars.) Cause of death

dc_seq Integer Unique identifier, added when data loaded into SEM database.

mem_rec Record_ID A pointer to the entry in the members table for the relevant member in the year and branch where he died; used to associate the data with the main database.

member Record_ID Unique ID for member, added in linkage.

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Function:	Holds information taken from the SEM's manuscript Registration Books, containing information on age, trade and marital status for members on their admission to the unions.
Coverage:	All pre-1900 entries in the first of the five volumes. The period covered is unclear, as most of the initial entries are for 1853 but the book includes men joining as early as 1836; similarly, the main sequence of entries run up to 1893 but others from the 1900s were not input.
Size:	5,322 records.

Function:	Holds information concerning subsequent events listed in the SEM Registration Book. Most entries in the books contain no such information, but in some cases information about up to five subsequent events appears. This table can be used to make further linkages.
Coverage:	All pre-1900 entries in the first of the five volumes.
Size:	2,125 records.

Function:	Holds information taken from the Amalgamated Society of Engineers' Registration Book. Many members of the SEM transferred to the ASE on the creation of the latter union in 1851 (which explains the disruption to the union in that year and the break in the sequence of Annual Reports). In principle it includes all such ex-members of the SEM, plus a selection of men joining the ASE by other routes; these latter were included to permit research on other early unions.
Coverage:	A complex sampling strategy was adopted, mixing a strict random sample to characterise the book as a whole, an alphabetical sample of pre-1852 members and all members listed as having been initially admitted into the 'Engineers' or the 'SEM' (see the 'random_s', letter_s' and 'in_sem' fields). The last criteria was intended to include all men who are relevant to the SEM database, although some SEM members may have left the SEM and then joined another union and be listed there.
Size:	800 records.

Function:	Holds information taken from Death Certificates of SEM members, including age and cause of death.
Coverage:	Most SEM members dying whose death was recorded in the union's reports but without age or cause of death information.
Size:	167 records.