TheUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created on 1 January 1801
Great Britain was merged into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801, with the Acts of Union 1800, enacted by Great Britain and Ireland, under George III, to merge with it the Kingdom of Ireland.
Please do not add "United Kingdom" to profiles earlier than this 1 January 1801.
Answers
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What happens if someone does add "United Kingdom" to profiles earlier than 1 January 1801.
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When entering a standardised place, there is usually an option to put in a version with United Kingdom at the end with a footnote to say that this should be used from 1801 and a version without with a footnote to use up to 1801 (perhaps should read 1800).
What has never been clear to me, like Maureen, what are the practical implications of using one version or the other.
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As illustrated, there are usually two options for placenames, based on the 1800 Act, which is reflected in the use of the two formats, as appropriate.
I have just inputted "1799" for an event and added the United Kingdom suffix, then inputted "1807" without the United Kingdom addition. Although neither complied with the accepted standard for the year in question, neither was rejected as being not standardized correctly.
Many users prefer not to use the United Kingdom suffix at all, as (in the past - perhaps still) its addition has caused problems when making searches. (I won't go into the detail here, but please believe me - its inclusion in the placename caused problems in producing a "too broad" results list.)
Strictly speaking, these pre/post 1801 formats should be used correctly and if one is not available for the time period concerned, the Place Names team should be requested to add it. For example, if I hadn't found one of the Bishopwearmouth options in the drop-down I could have requested it be added to the database.
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Maureen and Paul wondered: what happens if you choose a standard with the wrong time period?
The answer is that you'll probably annoy some people, but otherwise, it'll make absolutely no difference whatsoever. The important bit is the lattitude and longitude; the specifics of the jurisdictions may affect the location or availability of records, but usually not even that.
Well, OK, for birthplaces specifically, the highest jurisdiction is what's used for coloring the fan chart if you choose the Birth Place option -- but that can actually be a reason to use the "wrong" standard, because leaving off the UK will let you tell your Welsh ancestors from your Scottish ones.
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