Hi List,
This discussion about commas and abbreviations in locations has been very
US based although it arose out of a discussion on making sure your
genealogy data was universally understood.
I don't live in the US and have a very hazy idea of what you mean by a
county. It is just not true that people will know you are talking about a
county just because of the position it has in an address (with or without
leading commas). You need to add the term or at least a page explaining
your location entries.
The added distinction made between a township and a village and the
suggestion that a township can't be found on a map is simply
incomprehensible. I live in a country town in Australia. Both the town and
the area around it are known as Beverley. If I wanted to indicate that
someone actually lives in the town and not on a farm I would say they live
in the township - which you can certainly find on a map.
Leading commas may be very helpful in the location field but in reports
printed for non-genealogists (like most of my reports are printed for
interested family members who will never actually do any research) leading
commas just indicate a mistake in proof reading (I can hear my brother's
scathing comments already :-)).
The expected readership really does make a difference to the way you print
and record your data.
Regards,
Cathy
Western Australia
>And, we also agree that there's NO ambiguity in Reports unless leading
>commas are suppressed. But, Tom wants to suppress leading commas, and needs
>to add the word "County" so clarity can be maintained in Reports without
>them. My questions are "Why would one want to suppress leading commas?,"
>and "Is the gain worth the effort and potential confusion?"
>And getting back to the question, "Why would some people go to the trouble
>of adding the word "County" just so they could suppress leading commas? I
>can only guess that one reason might be that they were using Position-1 for
>DETAILS, (Church, Hospital & Cemetery names), which are mostly blank and
>cause a lot of leading commas.
>Well, I hope the explanation's been persuasive enough to convince some, if
>not everyone, to abandon the word, "County." But if not, I hope it's at
>least been enlightening, and shortens your enrollment in the "Genealogy
>School of Hard Knocks." While GSHK provides a good education, you want to
>graduate before you're too old and beat up to use the knowledge.
>
>Best regards,
>Clif
