Locations On FS

Monica Ross_1

Is there any way of finding out how many location names are used on FS for a country and what those names are?

For example, all parts of the area that became Canada from the 1500s to 1900.

This would include Québec/New France,

Áine Ní Donnghaile

You can enter any part of the name in the Search box in the Places database.

Gordon Collett

It doesn't really matter what names are currently on the list of standards. You can use whatever name you need to use to be complete and accurate in your data entry. You then will need to link the place name you use to the most appropriate entry in the standards database. You may find that sometimes this is just Québec.

If there are names that you really need in the database, you can request they be added through the Places database.

However, to find out what place names are currently in the very incomplete database, go to the database with the link Áine provided. Then in the search box enter "Canada." In the results list, click on the arrow next to the time period for Canada you are interested in:

This will give you a list of place names included under it:

The most you can show on the map at a time is 100. The list of results maxes out at 5000. If you hover over a name, a pop up will show on the map. If you click on the name or click on the dot more information about the entry will appear:

Any place name with an arrow under it has a level of smaller places within it and you can click on the arrow to see them.

Often, because of the incompleteness of jurisdictions in the database, the best way to see all places within an area is to use the area search feature. Find a place on the map and click once. A black dot will appear:

Click in the very center of the dot and a search box will open where you can enter the radius of the circular area you want to see. I entered 200 km and got this:

The maximum radius you can enter is 250 km.

Usually trying to look at an entire country gives just too many results. Here are the results if I just look at Quebec for 1867 to Today:

Just in this area you get 50 pages of 100 names which is the maximum. So there are probably many more.

If I click on the arrow next to Abitibi county:

I get a manageable 332 place names:

Monica Ross_1

https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/comment/598437#Comment_598437

Thanks, that will be helpful

Monica Ross_1

Gordon, what can be done when a country is incorrectly named?

Canada before Confederation in 1867 is continuously called British North America by Family Search, the Wikipedia entry that is used as a source for the name is incorrect.

British North America never existed.
The act that was passed in the British parliament to create Canada was called the British North America Act, Canada itself was never called British North America.

The British North America Act is the name of an ACT OF PARLIAMENT of the British crown. It is not part of a place name. The overall governor of what is now Canada was termed governor of British North America, but that was part of his title, again, not a place name.

This misnaming is and has been of considerable concern to almost all Canadian researchers since the Family Search website was launched.

There is significant information available on the correct names for the regions that became the country of Canada in 1867.

Gordon Collett

You can request through the Places community group that a change be considered: https://community.familysearch.org/en/group/68-familysearch-places or by e-mailing the people in charge directly at:  placefeedback@familysearch .org (See here: https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-request-a-new-place-in-the-database-of-standardized-places )

I will warn you, however, that there have been various discussions as to what to call the general areas in North America and there seems to be a problem in that they really didn't have names and current specialists in geographic areas can't come to a common consensus as to which anachronistic or made-up name to call them. FamilySearch is just trying to do the best they can in a confusing situation. I've seen a few situations like this where they finally gave up and dropped that highest level name all together for an area.

Here are the guidelines the Places team have developed and work to follow: https://www.familysearch.org/en/fieldops/familysearch-places-principles-guidelines#:~:text=Required%20Information&text=A%20display%20name%2C%20place%20type,attached%20to%20them%20as%20children.

Here are the specific guidelines for North America: https://www.familysearch.org/en/fieldops/fs-places-familysearch-places-country-specific-guidelines#north-america

What do you call areas in Canada before it was Canada? Would it be better to just stop at "Québec" rather than trying to have "Québec, something"?

Gordon Collett

Just to stress again the powerful dual entry feature for dates and place names in Family Tree, you do have options for entering place names for Canada during periods in which people can't agree what the form of the name should be.

A. Go ahead and use the standard and accept that sometimes practicality wins over precision:

B. Enter the place name using the standard then edit the displayed place name to make it correct but leave it linked to the standard so all programming routines function properly. In this case it is good to include a reason statement for the place name so that well meaning but misguided people who think that only standard values can be used don't go and remove your historically accurate place name:

Replacing {what I want to call it} with what you view as the correct term, of course. No matter what you have heard and no matter what anyone else has insisted, these two examples are correctly entered and are correctly standardized and are correctly making use of the intentional design of Family Tree.

Monica Ross_1

It's the standardized names that are the problem, the last example Aberdeen, Prescott and Russell, Upper Canada is correct, that is the place name given on the source.

The standardized name has added British North America. If you look at the original record it says Aberdeen, Prescott and Russell, Upper Canada and that is all it says.

Adding British North America is completely incorrect. It is not on the source.

Historical Names for Québec

Historical place name, Canada, Nouvelle-France = from about 1520 to the 1763 date of the English conquest and final ceding of the area by France to England.

Historical place name, Province of Québec or Province de Québec = from 1763 to 1791

Historical place name, Bas-Canada/Lower Canada = 1791-1841 or 1791 -1867, which period is concurrent to Haut-Canada/Upper Canada, their combined territory being split into the modern-day provinces of Québec and Ontario.

Historical place name, Canada-Est/Canada-East or Bas-Canada/Lower Canada = 1841-1867. The territory of upper and lower Canada were united into the Province of Canada, the Est/Ouest - Bas/Haut being used indiscriminately.

Place name, Québec, Canada = 1867 to now.