Cleaning cemetery records using MS Excel Power Query

Hi,

We work with Cemetery's to digitise their maps and records to create a GIS and load into our custom-built cemetery GIS. Examples of our work will be provided to interesting applicants.

I need help to clean our customer cemetery records and convert them to our specific format for upload to our software. I want you to use the MS Excel Power Query Editor for all of your edits as I want all your work to be traceable so it is easy for us to see what you have done. I had problems before where someone made a lot of edits, but some mistakes crept in, and it was impossible to trace back to see where it went wrong. At least in Power Query, it is clear to see all the steps you have taken. Plus it is powerful and a good way to do the work.

We have a number of cemeteries that we work with so this could be ongoing work.

It is hard to fully define the project at the start as it will evolve as you complete each stage and we have a chance to review the resulting records. The first few steps are to:
- standardise the dates, including pre-1900 dates (this is Australia/UK date format)
- extract Row number from GraveNo column
- Identify and correct obvious data-entry errors
- create plot ID from section | row | grave number

You will be required to document your steps.

In our first project there are 3,000 records.

Are you able to help with this? Are you familiar with MS Excel Power Query Editor?

Cheers,
Matt