Properties

Negative duration values, in the case of 11 records in the VW_trans_composite_eth_prop view, have revealed some data entry errors in the "preceding titles" and "related titles (newer)" fields. This suggests that there may be other such errors which are not apparent, because their dates happen to be in the correct sequence. Therefore we propose creating an automated check on the data, to locate such inconsistencies. This is an outline of how the check would be done:

• For each distinct property:
  • List all the titles for that property in date order. For each title:
    • Check that its preceding-title links (there can be more than one) point to titles which precede it in date order.
    • Check that its related-title-newer links (again, multiple) point to titles which follow it in date order.

However, I see a problem with this. If a title is created as a result of a merger of two or more preceding titles, each of which has a different date, it will be impossible to tell whether there is an error or not. Ditto in the case of subsequent titles, in the case of a subdivision. Waiting for word from JS-R on how to handle this.