Data Completeness "Place missing a city" is inaccurate
Bodil Christiansen L1M2-C5K
Birth, marriage, death, burial shows "Missing a city" even though all have standardized locations.
Comments
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Unless something has changed recently, the PQS algorithm still expects a 4-level place. I had the same problem with most of my southern US family. Rural locations don't have 4-level places.
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@Áine Ní Donnghaile - is 4-level the story across the board though? According to the standard for Denmark is 3 levels to get to town / city - the 4th level is reserved for churches etc. So to me, the "missing a city" message shouldn't appear because the places here are 3 levels, i.e. they do include a "city". Also (and I hesitate to raise this with you!) Irish profiles don't seem to get the "missing a city" message when they have a 3 part name.
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If I recall correctly, @Adrian Bruce1, in an early discussion, one of the developers of the PQS mentioned that the algorithm was designed with a 4-part place. There was even a comment along the lines of "We didn't think about rural locations."
I know I had to dismiss the error on my mother and her parents, in rural Georgia USA. I double-checked their profiles when I responded to this thread yesterday.I think modifications have been made for some places such as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, an independent city. Adding the county of the same name is not needed and will even cause an inaccurate place to display.
Speaking of Irish place names (a favorite topic 😎) - I wondered if that medium rating for Aunt Mary McGarrity's 1864 residence might have been due to the 3-part place name. I added the townland and registration district, but it's still a medium.
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Áine Ní Donnghaile - I had a further check on potential 3 part countries, looking for the message "missing a city".
First I double checked on Ireland. "Ballymackey, County Tipperary, Ireland" appeared on one profile as a birth and death place - no message "missing a city". (I'm not saying anything about the actual H/M/L rating for those events)
France looks like it should be 3 part names according to the country-specific guidelines. A birth standardised on "Valenciennes, Nord, France" didn't have the "missing a city" message. The same profile did have "missing a city" for the marriage, which had been standardised on "France".
I tried to look at Australia, which also appears to be 3 part names according to the country-specific guidelines but that isn't in the Quality Score system yet.
When I checked on the single Danish family that I have, I got confused until a glimmer of light dawned.
A burial place of "Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark" (i.e. 3 parts) did not generate the "missing a city" message. The same profile's death place of "Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark" did generate the "missing a city" message. So the same number of parts but different messages.
When I looked a little closer at the 2 places though, light began to dawn - the double Copenhagen is a city in the Standard Places. Frederiksberg, however, is a Lutheran parish. (The city of that name is "Frederiksberg, Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark"). So the death place of "Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark" generated the "missing a city" message because it's literally that - it's got a parish, not a city…
And when I checked @Bryan54 's example, the birth and baptism place is a parish, while the death and burial place is either a hundred or a parish (I can't tell which - they both have the same name). So the "missing a city" message is literally true because neither Gyrstinge or Alsted are cities. (Looks like the populated place - rather than city - is "Gyrstinge, Gyrstinge, Sorø, Denmark" but whether that's any use, I don't know)
Now, it's always possible my logic above is missing something because I've not done major sampling, but it looks like the "missing a city" message doesn't just count the parts in the placename but actually looks to see if there is a city (town? village? populated place?) in the placename.
And actually if that is the way it works, then I approve, as it's far more sophisticated than counting parts and then debating whether it's a 3 or 4 part country…
Conversely, the problem is that the placenames often aren't quite up to the job - "Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark", for instance, looks like a city to me! "Frederiksberg parish, Copenhagen, Denmark" might be better.
Of course, none of the above helps with rural places where a "city" simply isn't known in real life!
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Thank you everyone for the input. A ticket has been created for this issue :)
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