Elizabeth C
Rob Weiss wrote:
That's fine in the US, but the problem overseas is that the geographic subdivisions are different. So always putting in an additional comma for a non-existent county is a real pain.
For me the ideal requirement is:
1. Formal and complete definition of a location, using the geographic subdivision applicable to that country (and time??? hopefully at least the structure doesn't change over time??). to ensure unambiguous recording of location details.
2. A "short format" that can be used for display and reports.
Legacy is approaching this but has the following deficiencies at present:
1. The four-filed structure used by Geo (I think, not Legacy - can someone confirm?) is based on US geographical subdivision of City, County, State, Country.
2. Short Location Names cannot be used everywhere that it would make sense to use them (e.g. in some reports).
My approach is to adapt the four fields to specific countries and then try to be consistent within that country (which can be difficult as it relies on memory when entering data!). So for Australia, I use Suburb (or other location), City, State, Country. In the UK I use Town, County, Country. In Germany and Hungary, I'm confused! This means manually editing the Geo data for consistency. I also manually edit short location names and try to use these for "non-pedantic" reports, but with only some success.
Cheers, Rob
----- Original Message ----- From: "Brian Schultz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2004 3:02 AM
Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Locations outside USA
There are very good reasons to use 'meaningful' commas. I receive data that is unclear because they don't enter the data correctly. New York is a good example. Is it New York City, County or State?
Many States have cities and counties with the same name and if just one name with no delimiting commas are given, I am having to add a lot of extraneous information to notes to explain that I am unsure if it is the city or county.
One real benefit of using counties is being able to sort all the people who have births or deaths or marriages in a certain county.
Using short names to show how you want the locations to print in reports is the solution.
Brian
On Fri, 3 Dec 2004 23:54:16 -0500, John R. Bayle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Jack wrote:
<snip>
> Maybe I am breaking hallowed rules, but for UK locations I use village,
> town, county, country or town, county, country. Of course that means I
can't
> easily find all locations in villages around a larger town and would
welcome
> suggestions for improving the ability to search - but I hate adding
> meaningless commas!
Jack, I'm not into meaningless commas either. I have very few "county" names in my database. Here are two typical entries in my database. "Glens Falls, New York". Going by the "letter of the law", this should be: "Glens Falls, Warren, New York, United States of America". (I don't like using abbreviations, such as USA or NY -- that's another discussion) Similarly, Montreal, Quebec Which again by the "letter of the law", should be: Montreal, Ille de Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
I don't put in all the extra stuff, because anyone looking at my file knows it's based in the United States. When I've traced a line back to France, I do add France, the country to be sure folks know we are talking about France and not Quebec. I have a lot of French Canadians in my database.
Montreal Quebec is so obvious to me that further explanation is redundant and a waste of time. Similarly, Glens Falls, New York is completely specified. I'm not aware of any place called "New York" that is not in the USA, except for places like the New York Bar in various cities around the world. Also, if one looks at New York state, there is only one Glens Falls in the state. If there were two and they were in different counties then I'd name the counties. BTW there is a similar place called West Glens Falls in the same county as Glens Falls, so adding the county wouldn't help distinguish the two places, and there is a South Glens Falls, but it's in a different county. But again, adding the county adds very little if anything since the towns are differently named even if similarly named.
jr
Legacy User Group Etiquette guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp
To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/
To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp
--
Brian Schultz Hood River, OR [EMAIL PROTECTED] Legacy User Group Etiquette guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp
To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/
To unsubscribe please visit:
http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp
Legacy User Group Etiquette guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp
To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/
To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp
Legacy User Group Etiquette guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp
To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/
To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp
