A Year-Dependent Place Algorithm for Great Britain

Georgia Cotrell

Just as FamilySearch developed a place-standardizing algorithm for the years in which the U.S. had not as yet gained independence from Great Britain ("British Colonial America"), so too might FS consider developing a similar algorithm for standardizing the names of countries within Britain based on years cited. For instance:

* In 1707, England and Scotland became "Great Britain";

* In 1801, the nation became the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland"; and

* In 1927, it became the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland."

Regards,

--G. Cotrell

Cedar Kedar

Now that would be helpful.

Adrian Bruce1

The curious thing is that the Standard Placenames database does have the 1801 changeover - but only for England, Wales and Scotland. Not Ireland. So the one country that changed its place of government in 1801 is ignored in that name change.

Only FamilySearch can explain why those counties of Ireland that now form the Republic of Ireland, have never been encoded as being in the United Kingdom.

What's also strange is that the 1707 change is totally ignored - as @Georgia Cotrell says, the Act of Union combined England (and Wales) with Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain - but this is ignored. Again, I've no idea why.

As for the 1927 change - well, there hangs a tale. The Irish Free State left the UK, by treaty, in 1922. As far as I remember, several years later (presumably in 1927) there were red faces in London when it was realised that the UK had forgotten to change its official name. That was then done, changing "and Ireland" to "and Northern Ireland".

In fact, I've never seen a genealogist yet who adds the full title - "United Kingdom" suffices. This means that the only post-1801 change ought to be in 1922 when the counties of Southern Ireland move from "Ireland, United Kingdom" to "Ireland", and the counties of Northern Ireland move from "Ireland, United Kingdom" to "Northern Ireland, United Kingdom".

In truth, many (but not all!) British genealogists terminate their place names with Scotland, Wales, England, Ireland or Northern Ireland, ignoring the "United Kingdom" bit. Yes, we're probably lazy. It also saves heart-searching over whether we should use "Wales" as a name after the mid-1500s. (Look it up and try to decide what the possibilities are! 😉 )