'Mecklenburg' should flag neither 'Mecklenburg-Strelitz' nor 'Mecklenburg Schwerin'

kenneth reder · January 12

'Mecklenburg' should flag neither 'Mecklenburg-Strelitz' nor 'Mecklenburg Schwerin', the two predecessor components. See 9MFB-SBL, Fredericka J M Dorman-Trottnow, as an example:

I hope the DQS becomes standard and universal in FamilySearch, as it has already enabled me to address a handful of issues that I had missed, despite trying to be fastidiously thorough in correcting indexing errors, addressing name variations, etc. In this light, in order that the DQS algorithm be robust, I sincerely hope the team addresses these types of place name variations in the algorithm itself, rather than relying on the 'places' database—especially considering its current state.

Julia Szent-Györgyi · January 12

The scoring algorithm would be hopelessly unwieldy if it tried to make exceptions for every "weirdness" in the naming and grouping of places. These things have to somehow be addressed in the Places database. That has the advantage of killing two birds with one stone: it improves both the database and the output of the algorithm.

That said, I'm not sure how to fix Mecklenburg in the database. Currently, there are four disconnected entry groups for this duchy/state:

Mecklenburg as duchy, 1695-1701, and as state, 1934-1945
Mecklenburg-Schwerin as duchy, 1701-1871, and as state, 1871-1934
Mecklenburg-Strelitz as duchy, 1701-1871, and as state, 1871-1933
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, state, 1945-today

Splits and combinations — or both, as here — are especially hard to figure out for the purposes of a database, and I have no clue what guidelines and tools the Places team has available. Would entries in the list of alternate names help, I wonder?

russellwaltgeorge1 · January 27

The Places Team is addressing your concerns:

First, we need to point out that for the year of 1857, should indeed flag these two names. From Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchy_of_Mecklenburg

The state was formed in 1471, when duke Henry IV, had united the duchies of Mecklenburg-Stargard and Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The state existed until 7 May 1520, when it was partitioned into the duchies of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and Mecklenburg-Schwerin. It was again reestablished in 1695, with the unification of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Frederick William became the duke. In 1701, it was partitioned into the duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

As for two of the Quality Conflict errors, the ones for Canzow and for Woldegk; these are due to the wrong historic periods, which do not match the year of 1857.

At the time, you made this request, we do not have an earlier historic period for Canzow. We have created this now. Fow Woldegk, we already had a historic period for that time of 1857.

Her are the correct places for the year of 1857. FYI, you can copy/paste the Place ID, and system should recognize it, show the name and period, then you can select it.

Place ID 12812321
Canzow
Stargard, Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Village, Unknown - 1871

Place ID 12033161
Woldegk
Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Independent City, 1806 - 1871

Please understand the Places Team does not monitory this Forum. In the future, if you need a place created, or corrected please use these links.

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-request-a-new-place-in-the-database-of-standardized-places

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-correct-or-edit-a-place-in-familysearch-places

We hope this helps. Thank you for using FamilySearch.

Best Regards,

Places Authorities Team