Legend explaining symbols used by Familytree.

LegacyUser

Rick Johnson said: I would like to suggest that all symbols be included in the legend accessible under options under tree. I have learned, via a phone conversation with the help staff, that a small black hot air balloon with a white dot center is just referring to a standardized date and place. It would also be helpful if the legend could be accessed when searching for it under the help option.

LegacyUser

Gordon Collett said: (This has nothing to do with your request which does sound like a good idea. Just wanted to point out that the symbol you refer to was not explained very well by the help staff. It is a map pin, just as you would see on google maps and other online maps. It is only shown against place names, not dates. It means that the displayed place name just happens to be identical to the standardized value for that place name. Lack of a map pin does not mean the place is not correctly standardized or that the place name is somehow "wrong."

For example, the standardized value for the farm Dale in Tysnes parish is:
Dale, Tysnes, Hordaland, Norway.
If I enter the name exactly that way, I will get a map pin.

If I desire to include the sub-parish name for more accuracy, and enter:
Dale, Uggdal, Tysnes, Hordaland, Norway

or if I know the section of the name farm the family lived on and want to include that and so enter:
Haugen, Dale, Tysnes, Hordaland, Norway

then there will be no map pin present even though these are more correct and accurate than the standard and are correctly associated with the standardized value.

When working in Family Tree, only fix place names that are wrong or poorly formated. Never "fix" place names by removing more complete information in order to simplify the place name down to the standardized value just to get a map pin.)

LegacyUser

Rick Johnson said: Thank you for the helpful clarification.

LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: Rick,

I agree with that definition of symbols should be documented and not just used assuming that people will "intuitively understand" their meaning.

Also, in addition to what Gordon pointed out, the map pin icon identifies any place name that is defined with a geo-coordinate. As you can see in the following, the full address with street number does not have geo-coordinates, but each of the suggestions from the standards database do:



In order to show a place name on a map, it must have geo-coordinates. So the full address location as shown above cannot be shown on a map. However, by associating that displayed place name with a nearby place name that DOES have geo-coordinates (such as the center of the city or county itself), the full address location can be shown at map coordinates in their approximate vicinity.

The method of associating a standard place name with its geo-coordinates to the non-standard displayed name is called "standardizing". In the following image you can see how the full street address location has been "standardized" using the geo-coordinates for the CENTER of the city of Chillicothe:



Obviously, any other addresses on that same street that are standardized with the Chillicothe standard will show up on maps in the same exact location (i.e., the city center of Chillicothe):



Note in the above image, neither of the street addresses have their own specific geo-coordinates so there is no map-pin icon. For mapping purposes, they are each "borrowing" a set of coordinates from a standard place name (in this case being the city of Chillicothe).

Also note that there is not a red "!" data error symbol. If there was, it would mean that they cannot be shown on a map because in addition to not having their own specific geo-coordinates, they ALSO have no standard place name assigned from which they can "borrow" nearby coordinates.

Finally, if either of these locations actually DID have a map-pin icon showing, it would mean that the displayed location is exactly the same as a place name from the standards database (i.e., it actually DOES have a specific set of geo-coordinates of its own).



Unfortunately FS uses terms like "standard", "standardized", and "standardized event place" in a very inconsistent and poorly thought out way that increases the confusion of these issues.

LegacyUser

Rick Johnson said: I understand the standardized issue associated with Geo-coordinates as you have explained. I'm assuming that the more exact information is preferred when available over the standardized. The issue that started this string for me concerned a parish in Sweden where the standardized parish name was available but the additional information identifying the specific neighborhood within the parish was not. I have changed the entry to reflect the specific neighborhood (which includes the parish name) rather than just reflecting the parish because it is "standardized." Thanks for you help with this matter.