Incorrect classification of entry

SarahSquire2

The following is one of a recent spate of incorrectly classified/indexed records I have encountered:

"England Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991", , 

FamilySearch

 (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J8R5-293 : Thu Jul 18 15:52:43 UTC 2024), Entry for Ellenor Pratt and John Pratt, 1 Dec 1713.

The record clearly states that the death place/burial was

Chester Le Street, Durham, England

yet in 'find' it has been grouped under United States or America, West Virginia, Mononongalia. I know that this is partly a historical problem, but any chance that some more effort is directed to cleansing the database, geography wise, rather than on redesigning the look of family trees?

Áine Ní Donnghaile

Without seeing your search results, I would have to guess this is what we've been calling "on-the-fly" results. When I searched for a death for Ellenor Pratt, my search results correctly showed Durham, England as the place.

Adrian Bruce1

I can't make it go wrong for either Ellenor (the principal here) or her father (who is presumably mentioned on the record).

However, I suspect I might know why it's gone pear-shaped.

According to the record detail, the father has a birthplace of "The Flatts". (I shall raise a Spock-like eyebrow at that, as I am mildly sceptical about any burial record of a child recording the father's birthplace - maybe it's his residence? But put that to one side…)

If I try to put "The Flatts" into the FamilySearch Placename database, it gives me 4 places, of which the first is:

The Flatts, Monongalia, West Virginia, United States

Presumably this explains the Monongalia in the OP's original post.

However, when I try and search, as I say, I can't see anything other than "The Flatts" - no US data at all, indeed no higher level names at all after "The Flatts".

I've tried it using Search from Ellenor's profile, and Search / Records - in both cases using a browser running under Windows. Has @SarahSquire2 used something else? (Perfectly possible, of course!). Whatever it is, it looks like an inappropriate placename standardisation.