The Past's Digital Presence, February 19-20, 2010
20 - How-To Digital Humanities: "Accessing Wills: MS Access as a Tool for Historians"
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-20-2010
Abstract
My paper is divided into four sections. First I describe why I chose Access as my research tool and how I developed my Wills’ Format. Second, I illustrate, through a tour of my data base, how I used Access’ data-crunching ability to generate the raw material I needed to answer questions posed by my dissertation. Third, I discuss how Access, in general, or the S/T format developed to analyze wills, in particular, might be adapted for use by other scholars. And finally, I touch upon the issue of bias, posing a series of questions that I hope will spark a discussion: does the very act of placing data in searchable “boxes” of our own creation, in fact, bias our results?
Recommended Citation
Teague, Sharon, "20 - How-To Digital Humanities: "Accessing Wills: MS Access as a Tool for Historians"" (2010). The Past's Digital Presence, February 19-20, 2010. 21.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/beinecke_pdp/21
This Article is Open Access