Countries

Teenie fae Leith

Dear Everyone, 

Thank you for the work that is entailed in finding ancestors for us.  

I only have one complaint! Sorry.

Although the United Kingdom is smaller that 99% of the STATES in the USA, we, in our OWN COUNTRIES are ignorant of the other Countries. IE. SCOTLAND, ENGLAND, WALES AND NORTHERN IRELAND. It would really really help if you could categorise us this way and not all lumped together as The United Kingdom? Of course I will understand if say France, Spain or Germany for example are lumped together as Europe?

Kindest Regards

Teenie.

Paul W

Taking aside personal preferences, and even political opinions relating to this issue, we have to accept that the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Northern Island) is the officially recognised title of the sovereign state that currently includes the constituent countries of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Now, if you were suggesting FamilySearch can be inconsistent in the way it deals with the individual and collective records relating to the U.K. as a whole and with its constituent countries, I would agree. However, it does make genuine efforts to keep its records correctly categorised / catalogued, according to the time period to which they appertain.

In practice, this means that records up to 1801 do not have the United Kingdom suffix added, whereas from 1801 they do. I have found they do get this wrong at times - occasionally adding "United Kingdom" for records that do only cover a period (say) of 1630 to 1798, when the place name should end in (say) "England", or "Scotland". Another problem arises when a collection of records includes dates before and after 1801. How should a collection covering the period 1750-1850 be treated, for example? (Here, FamilySearch usually does seem to include the suffix "United Kingdom".)

The screenshot below illustrates the different options presented, whereby one can make an appropriate choice when adding a place name to a Family Tree record. Upon entering the first part of the place name in which my ancestor was buried, I am presented with the options of the currently recognised place name format and that of how the place would have been known up till 1801:

So, for relatives who were buried in the parish in the 17th and 18th centuries I will select the latter option, but for those buried from, or after, 1801 I will select the place ending with "United Kingdom".

As I have suggested, FamilySearch can get the descriptions wrong, and I have argued that when there is an announcement (in the FamilySearch "Blog") of a newly added collection to its database, items should only be categorised as being for the United Kingdom if the records do pertain for more than one of the constituent countries. Otherwise, I believe it best to include, say, records purely relating to English counties under the "England" heading, and likewise for Scottish records, etc.

In summary, I believe this is a matter in which FamilySearch does make a reasonable job in the way it presents the records relating to the "four countries". (The "Ireland" / "Northern Ireland" position is rather more complex and is probably best left to be discussed at another time!)