Please add an earlier place-name for the island of Sumatra
I have been trying to find an appropriate late 19th century place-name for Sumatra (the island in what is now Indonesia).
I can find "Sumatra, Pelalawan, Riau, Indonesia". This is described as "Island(s)" with Pelalawan being a county and Riau a province. This doesn't seem sensible as Riau is supposed to be one of several provinces of Indonesia on the Island of Sumatra (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumatra ). Pelalawn is a part of Riau - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelalawan_Regency - the term in Wikipedia is a Regency not County but let's let that go! So "Sumatra, Pelalawan, Riau, Indonesia" can't be right as Riau is just a small part of the island of Sumatra. I have no idea what to do with this place-name entry!!
There is also a "Sumatera, Indonesia" - notice the spelling - I think this may be an Indonesian spelling - rendered in Roman letters, of course. It's described as a region of Indonesia and has the Wikipedia entry for the island of Sumatra. So I think this is probably the correct place and the rest of this request assumes that it is...
1) To deal with the spelling: Is it possible to change the visible place-name of "Sumatera, Indonesia" to read "Sumatra, Indonesia" with an alternate name / spelling of "Sumatera"? I think this is important because those of us of a more Western experience may be hyper-sensitive to minor spelling variations and assume that a different spelling is a different place. Obviously this only applies when working in the English language.
2) Indonesia itself only came into existence under that name in 1945/49 - depends whether you're counting their declaration of independence or the Dutch recognition of it. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Indonesia and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_Indies ) Before 1945 (say) it was known as the Dutch East Indies.
Can you therefore please set the place-name "Sumatra, Indonesia" to have a time period 1945 to present?
3) And add the place-name "Sumatra, Dutch East Indies" with a time period of 1862-1945 to the same place? (The date of 1862 comes from the small map on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_Indies )
Before that Sumatra might be part of the Aceh Sultanate but I'll let someone else sort that out - I only want the 1890s!
Thanks
Answers
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Dear Adrian Bruce,
The additions you requested have been added to our database, that is concerning the province of Sumatra in the time periods from 1862-1945 and 1945-present.
The island and the province are separate representations, since Sumatra Province ceased to exist when it was divided in 1948.
We appreciate your interest in FamilySearch Places.
Best regards,
Authorities Team😊
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Thanks for that
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