Location standard is too rigid

p_mcf

I have several issues with inputting locations due to the rigidity of standardized locations.

Specifically..

Ballaghaderreen Is only recognized by its Irish/Gaelic name.. the town is only available in the gaelic name, even though the county and country are in the English names. Also, Ballaghaderreen was in County Mayo until the late 1800s, it will only accept County Roscommon.

Bronx, NY is only recognized by its nickname "The Bronx", New York.

My biggest problem comes up often in different areas of the world. Here is one example: I have ancestors born in a town in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The country was once The Holy Roman Empire, later it was part of France, later the kingdom of Bavaria, and now it is Germany.. also the town was once in the state of Bavaria, Germany. If I force-enter the correct locations according to the date.. they show up in the timeline as a different place in France, a place in Iran, and a place in Russia (all incorrect)

The 3rd issue, I believe only began with the new program.

Thank you,

Patricia

genthusiast

Your issues are all resolvable through FamilySearch Places database - you can submit corrections based upon your research/documentation there.

For example:

You are correct, Ballaghaderreen does appear to have a bit of confusion, two results are currently found - one Civil Reg. district in County Down and as Bealach an Doirín a populated place in County Roscommon (but with alternate name Ballaghaderreen) - currently the time period is listed as unknown.

https://www.familysearch.org/research/places/?searchTypeaheadInputText=Ballaghaderreen&text=Ballaghaderreen&focusedId=1914782

in the Places database - use the Improve This Place link to submit corrections. I have submitted the start year for Ballaghaderreen in County Roscommon as 1898. We will have to see what becomes of that - in the meantime you can continue to add Ballaghaderreen, County Mayo, Ireland as freeform/non-standardized place:

Similar with any other places - submit improvements to see potentially improved standardized places to select from the list.

Gordon Collett

Family Tree is designed to allow extreme flexibility in entering correct place names. But it does take getting used to the system as designed. Here is my explanation of how enter any place name you need: https://youtu.be/qLa5PC4RPPk

The Places database is far from complete and user requests for additions are welcomed. It can, however, take time for additions and corrections to appear.

Curtis Larson ytb

Old Records use the name at the time.

A sub-list could help link the older with a STANDARDIZED allowed name.

The older place name helps in separating and finding the correct person

from the many duplicate names used.

Curtis Larsson

Gordon Collett

You can enter the name exactly as it is in the old records and link it to the reference/standardized version found in the Places database. This is very easy to do if the older name has been entered as an alternate name in the database:

Just enter the full older style name, click on the name you just entered which is at the top of the menu in red type:

and what you entered is preserved and linked to the standardized version:

If the name or spelling you want to use is not in the database, then enter the standardized version first then go back and edit the name to have the correct historical form.