5-digit numbers on locations
This isn't the first time I've seen this, in fact I see people doing this often, but what is the purpose of this 5-digit number on locations? They aren't zip codes. I've seen this done to cities around where I live and they most certainly are not the zip codes. Where are people getting this from and why put that in there?
Answers
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Not a zip code (US usage), but 64401 is a postal code.
Your previous thread on the same topic:https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/170447/location-names-with-5-digit-numbers
https://www.worldpostalcodes.org/l1/en/de/germany/profile/postalcode/64401
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OK, could be for that town but I've seen the same thing done for towns around me in the USA and where I live and the 5-digit numbers being added by users aren't even remotely close to what the zip codes are. I would know because I live there. Besides, for a town and event in the late 1700s, it's probably not necessary to put that in. In my opinion, it doesn't need to be added even on current events.
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@StephenDespot - so far as I can see those extended placenames were input by a researcher as the "display placename" and standardised to the correct (according to the FS database) standard value. The giveaway is the presence of that 5 digit number, the presence of place-type-names such as Landkreis and Regierungsbezirk in the entered name, and the standard names appearing when you hover over the "display name".
Since this is a perfectly correct use of the system, the only person who can confirm for certain why the 5 digit number was entered is the researcher in question. It was worth asking the question in case a German researcher might be able to fill in the gap, but there's no certainty.
For what it's worth, I agree about the pointlessness of a number (presumably) based on a postal system (presumably) before such a system existed! Although personally I'm more concerned by the anachronism of using Deutschland instead of Hesse-Darmstadt or similar 😉
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Yes that place name reallly should be shortened. I'm no German place expert but even I know that.
German locations are tough to gauge though. I have a cousin who lives there and he's real good on knowing what they should be so on the branches he and I work on he tends to go and correct the place names based on what it was at that time in history, and that's OK, if he knows what it is supposed to be, then have at it. Put that in. This branch, however, is not on that side of our familiy. This is a different one for mine on another branch.
This branch has had a lot of hands in the pie and there are in fact errors throughout. Cleaning that up is a whole different project that who knows if and when I'll ever get to it. I got too many other tree tasks on my desk that are more priority at the moment.
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