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Standardized Places
Scotland
Banffshire
Mortlach Parish
Hello. First post. I'm new to this, but willing to help.
Overall, there are too many non-standard place names in the system.
So, let's try and make some incremental improvements.
There are too many non-standard place names in and around Mortlach Parish.
I have provided some information below.
What else can I do to help?
Is there a protocol or recipe to follow to edit and correct non-standard place names?
Can you refer me to other reading material?
thx DK
https://www.familysearch.org/research/places/?lat=57.45&lng=-3.11&distance=5.00m
Banffshire
1305 to 1890
23 Shires of Scotland in 1305 included Banffshire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shires_of_Scotland
1890 to 1975
Between 1890 and 1975 the County of Banff, also known as Banffshire, had its own county council.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banffshire
Mortlach Parish
Most church parish boundaries are mostly unchanged since 1553.
Prior to 1553
What is now referred to as the area in and around Mortlach parish is sometimes recorded as "Morthlach" in old Medieval text, with an extra h.
From 1553 to 1854
Church Parish Records
Proper standard place label would be Mortlach Parish
The Old Parish Registers cover the period from 1553 to 1854 but the standard of record-keeping varied considerably from parish to parish and from year to year.
https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/guides/old-parish-registers/list-of-old-parish-registers
1845 to 1930
Civil Parish Records
Proper standard place label would be Mortlach Parish
From 1845 to 1930, parishes formed part of the local government system of Scotland, having parochial boards from 1845 to 1894.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banffshire
BMD Records
https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//research/list-of-oprs/list-of-oprs-120-167.pdf
162. MORTLACH
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Comments
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Please contact me at philip.skolmoski@familysearch.org. We have a way you can help. Please contact me so we can discuss it.
Authorities Team
Sandy Remote Operations Center
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Also be aware that it is totally impossible to create standard names in the database for every single square inch of land and water that exists on the earth. So standards are created for significant places. For all of the "less significant" places in the world (e.g., a specific address number on a given street in a city where the CITY is already a standard), you KEEP the extra detail of the place name and then "Standardize" that place name by assigning a "standard" place that is geographically close to it, as it's associated Standard.
Having a non-standard place is NOT necessarily a bad idea, as long as it has been standardized by linking an appropriate standard from the standards database to it.
In fact, this is the genius of the two-name system. It allows us to record place information that is FAR MORE DETAILED than any Standard location is ever going to be. The goal here is NOT to eliminate all of the non-standard place names in the system. It is ALSO not to create Standard places for every place name that is used in the system (which would be ridiculously impossible).
It is to make sure that any "Real" place name has a corresponding suitable standard name that would be appropriate for approximating where that non-standard name is located on a map.
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Dear DK,
The standard name for all the references to Mortlach is now Mortlach, Banffshire, Scotland.
There are two URLs that take you to two time periods in a parish, and to one locality. You
will note that there are many variant names for this parish. Following are the two links:
https://www.familysearch.org/research/places/?focusedId=3486752
https://www.familysearch.org/research/places/?focusedId=10278745
Let us know if there is anything else you need.
Thank you for your interest in improving FamilySearch Places.
Best Regards,
Authorities Team
Sandy Remote Operations Center
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Thank you.
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Thanks go out to our Sandy Remote Operations Center. Your help is so appreciated!!!
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