Victorian Britain - Address Geocoding
This guide contains tools and sources for geocoding addresses in Victorian Britain. It was developed for the Victorian Literary Sociability project.
Geocoding is the process of adding geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) to an address.
Historic geocoding can be particularly challenging due to possible changes over time: streets disappearing or being modified; street names being changed; buildings being demolished; postal geography changing; villages and towns being absorbed into cities; and, administrative boundaries being changed. The other major issue is incomplete addresses. In the case of an incomplete address it is often necessary to go back to other reference sources to try to locate clues that will enable one to narrow the address to an acceptable level of geography.
This guide contains sources for finding the latitude and longitude for an address as well as other sources and tools that will help with understanding British addresses, verifying addresses, and working with incomplete addresses.
Please contact me with suggestions or comments: Peter Peller ppeller@ucalgary.ca