Changes of name locations on FamilySearch

RebeccaPope2

Hi, I'm so happy to be here and part of the group. Could someone please answer a question for me?

I have Swedish ancestors and have been learning how to read Swedish records the past couple of years. As I've found records, I've added information on FamilySearch. When I add a location, a drop down box appears asking me to choose a standardized location. Much of my family comes from Malmöhus and the drop down box changes it to Skåne even though the record says Malmöhus. Can anyone tell me why?

I don't type in "Sverige". It comes up automatically but the drop down box changes it to Sweden.

Thank you.

Gordon Collett

Someone else will have to answer your question about the history of place names in Sweden. But I just want to mention that you still should type in the full correct place name for a location using the name at the time of the event and choose the top, rust colored line in the drop down menu. This will keep your correct place name. Then make sure that the linked standard version is correct. You can click on the linked standard to change it if it is not.

Do you have a specific place name example? Looking in the Places database, there are plenty of place names ending in Malmöhus, Sweden. None of those should have Skåne in the drop down box.

Ulrich Neitzel

@RebeccaPope2

Malmöhus was a historical county in Sweden from 1719 to 1996 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malm%C3%B6hus_County). After that it was incorporated into Skåne län.

Malmöhus only gives the region (county). Your records should also name a parish (Swedish: församling), which is the lower level place that should be entered as the place of birth etc.

Gordon Collett

Are you working in Family Tree or in the new Image Viewer where indexed records can be edited? The Image Viewer has several bugs that have been reported.

RebeccaPope2

Thank you so much for your replies to my question.

I am familiar with the parish that is often listed first and have found that very helpful.

Here is a picture of what is happening when I type in a location on FamilySearch. The locations highlighted in gold show the areas indicated on the record; however, Skåne appears in parenthesis next to Malmöhus and Sweden appears in parenthesis next to Sverige. FamilySearch asks for me to chose a standardized location in drop down list for my record. If the record I find says Malmöhus, , why does is ask me to chose a location with Skåne?

Thanks so much for helping to make it clearer for me!

Ulrich Neitzel

As said before, Skåne is the newer name for the county (Län) that historically was Malmöhus. In the list of proposed standardized locations the year ranges for these different affiliations are given. You should just enter the village name (Västra Sallerup) and then select the standardized designation from the list that fits your time range.

Gordon Collett

It's not really clear to me where your image is coming from, so I'll keep my discussion fairly general for entering place names in Family Tree.

There are a couple of principles to keep in mind:

1. You can enter place names in any for you need or desire. FamilySearch really has no requirements.
2. You need to link the place name you enter to a place name from FamilySearch's place name standards database. If you want to, you can use the standard version directly.
3. The Places database is incomplete and will be for a long time.

Typically people enter place names in one of four ways:

1. The place name at the time of the event in the user's language.
2. The place name at the time of the event in the event's language
3. The current place name in the user's language.
4. The current place name in the event's language.

I feel that 1 and 2 are really the best way to go about things. Are you typing in that mixture of the four? This is, are you typing in "Malmöhus (Skane)"? I've never seen the program do that by itself. If so, that is why you're getting such a combination of things in the drop down menu. The menu is not to force you to choose any of the listed names. They are only suggestions for what you might actually mean.

If you feel it is best to enter the place name for your family as Västra Sallerup, Malmöhus, Sweden, then do so. Just type out the full place name and click on the red text at the top of the drop down menu:

That enters the name exactly as you typed it. It also links the first standard in the list to the name you entered:

If the linked standard is incorrect, then you can click on it and pick a different one.