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ERROR: Place Auto Standardization "on the fly"

Áine Ní Donnghaile
Áine Ní Donnghaile ✭✭✭✭✭
July 14, 2022 edited July 27, 2024 in Search

The extract of the 1912 NYC death of Margaret Long McManus indicates she was born "city" - generally meaning the same city where she died. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WNQ-BK6

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But - when viewing the search results for NY deaths of Margaret McManus, the place of birth is shown as City, Cameron, Texas.

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Answers

  • Julia Szent-Györgyi
    Julia Szent-Györgyi ✭✭✭✭✭
    July 15, 2022 edited July 15, 2022

    The fun part is that I can again find no clue as to where the search display is getting its placename. Typing "City" into the Places tool gives a populated place in Zimbabwe and Southern Rhodesia (two different jurisdictions for the same location, Bulawayo), a township in Missouri, and a district in Georgia. Notice the total lack of Texas.

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    Typing "City" into a birthplace field in Family Tree results in a rather longer list, but I still can't find any sign of Texas: New Jersey, Zimbabwe, New Jersey, Wales, Wales, Mexico, Kyrgyztan, California, Nevada, Ireland, England, England, Southern Rhodesia, Nottingham, England, Missouri, Wales, Australia, New York, England.

    So what is the results display doing? Where is it getting these placenames? And more to the point, why?? What's wrong with just showing us what's actually in the index? Are these picked-out-of-thin-air places actually used for something besides confusing us?

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  • Áine Ní Donnghaile
    Áine Ní Donnghaile ✭✭✭✭✭
    July 15, 2022

    The death certificate can be seen on the NYCRecords website. It clearly has just the word "City." https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/view/4716857

    Unrelated, but that happens to be incorrect. All family censuses show her place of birth as "Pennsylvania."

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