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        wa.gov.au WALIS Capture WA Land Monitor Urban Eye
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      4. Western Australian Biographical Index (WABI)

      Western Australian Biographical Index (WABI)

      The Western Australian Biographical Index (WABI) is a highly used resource at the State Library of Western Australia. A recent generous contribution by the Friends of Battye Library (FOBS) has enabled SLWA to have the original handwritten index cards scanned and later transcribed.

      The dataset contains: several csv files with data describing card number, card text and url link to image of the original handwritten card.

      The transcription was crowd-sourced and we are aware that there are some data quality issues including:

      • Some cards are missing
      • Transcripts are crowdsourced so may contain spelling errors and possibly missing information
      • Some cards are crossed out. Some of these are included in the collection and some are not
      • Some of the cards contain relevant information on the back (usually children of the person mentioned). This info should be on the next consecutive card
      • As the information is an index, collected in the 1970s from print material, it is incomplete. It is also unreferenced.

      It is still a very valuable dataset as it contains a wealth of information about early settlers in Western Australia. It is of particular interest to genealogists and historians

      Work began on WABI in the early 1970s when information was sought on people who lived in Western Australian prior to 1914. Publicity was sent out through local libraries, historical groups and in publication such as the West Australian. Western Australians were asked to provide genealogical information, not only on prominent identities, but also from their family records including the arrival in Western Australia, occupations, dates of birth, marriages and deaths of their ancestors. Historical material such as diaries, letters, business records, minute books, maps, family trees and photographs, were also sought for copying. Entries for the index closed in December 1979, and were filed at the Battye Library for reference.

      We were recently delighted to discover that the WA Genealogical Society has made use of this dataset. You can view their use here: http://membership.wags.org.au/members-data/public-data/wabi-wa-biographical-index.

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      Access & Use Information
      Open
      This dataset is available for use by everyone
      Licence
      Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

      Data and Resources
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      Data Downloads
      • open WABI A-Z Zipped ZIP

        All the WABI indexes A-Z zipped into one file....

        Download
      Resources
      • open Introducing WABI DOCX

        Brief document describing the dataset.

        Open
      • open Index entries beginning with A CSV

        Open
      • open Index entries beginning with B CSV

        Open
      • open Index entries beginning with C CSV

        Open
      • open Index entries beginning with D and E CSV

        Open
      • open Index entries beginning with F CSV

        Open
      • open Index entries beginning with G CSV

        Open
      • open Index entries beginning with H CSV

        Open
      • open Index entries beginning with I and J CSV

        Open
      • open Index entries beginning with K CSV

        Open
      • open Index entries beginning with L CSV

        Replacement file prepared 10/10/19 after...

        Open
      • open Index entries beginning with M CSV

        Open
      • open Index entries beginning with N CSV

        Open
      • open Index entries beginning with O CSV

        Open
      • open Index entries beginning with P and Q CSV

        Open
      • open Index entries beginning with R CSV

        Open
      • open Index entries beginning with S CSV

        Open
      • open Index entries beginning with T CSV

        Open
      • open Index entries beginning with U-Z CSV

        Open

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      Tags
      • biographical information
      • dates of birth
      • deaths
      • genealogy
      • history
      • marriages
      • occupations
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      Activity Stream RDF JSON
      state-library-of-western-australia
      Key Information
      Published by
      State Library of Western Australia
      Information classification
      OFFICIAL
      Data theme
      Cultural Affairs
      Data last updated
      28-07-2016
      Update frequency
      one-off snapshot
      Data custodian
      Author Not Specified
      Dataset contact
      Library Application Support Team
      Website
      -
      First published
      28-07-2016
      Metadata last updated
      25-05-2022
      Data source
      -
      Temporal coverage
      01-01-1888 — 31-12-1914
      Geospatial theme
      -
      Geospatial source projection
      -
      Spatial coverage

      Dataset extent

      Digital object identifier
      -
      Citation
      -
      Data usability rating How reusable and linked the data is. Learn more.

      Acknowledgement

      The Government of Western Australia respectfully acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Western Australia and pays its respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

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