Rules for Place Names

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In order for the place names to be interpreted correctly, they must be in the correct format. GEDCOM Index uses a database of validated place names and compares place-name text against them, attempting to find a match.

Go from small to large, left to right.

WRONG: Texarkana, Arkansas (Miller County)
RIGHT: Texarkana, Miller County, Arkansas

Use commas to separate parts of a place name. Virtually all locality place names need a comma somewhere. Don’t use spaces, hyphens, dashes or semicolons to separate parts of a place name.

If you know the province but not the town, don’t worry. The event won’t be indexed. For some USA States, the county is enough. For Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and Vermont, the precise locality is required, since vital records are kept at the town level, not the county level.

WRONG: Cambridge Massachusetts
WRONG: Cambridge - Massachusetts
RIGHT: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Avoid abbreviations, especially official ones. The U.S. Post Office Department officially adopted NB for Nebraska, only to change it shortly afterwards to NE. Yes, there is a Lincoln, New Brunswick and yes, if your file says Lincoln, NB then it will be interpreted as Lincoln, New Brunswick because that is what you said.

If you mean County, then say County, for the USA and Canada. In some cases, the county is acceptable as a locality when no locality within the county is specified. For Great Britain, the word County is often omitted or is implied by the suffix "-shire." For Ireland, the word County may precede the name, as in County Limerick.

WRONG: Weymouth, Norfolk, Massachusetts
RIGHT: Weymouth, Norfolk County, Massachusetts

This is important because in the WRONG example above, if the locality is not listed in our database, then the software would recognize the place name as the town of Norfolk, Massachusetts.

Avoid using parentheses.

WRONG: Blackburn, Lancashire (England)
RIGHT: Blackburn, Lancashire, England

Work from small to large, left to right.

WRONG: Nashua, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Edgewood Cemetery
RIGHT: Edgewood Cemetery, Nashua, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire

Put only place names in the place name field.

WRONG: Elkton, Maryland pneumonia
RIGHT: Elkton, Maryland

Put “Died of pneumonia” in a note field, not in the place name field.

Locality names used in GEDCOM Index are based on current boundaries and political divisions, with the exception of England, Scotland and Wales, which are based on the pre-1974 counties. The program used to identify localities attempts to reconcile obsolete place names with their modern equivalents, but is incomplete in this regard.

Maine: Events before statehood should be given as either Massachusetts or Maine, but not some combination.

WRONG: Addison, Massachusetts (now Maine)
WRONG: Addison, Massachusetts/Maine
RIGHT: Addison, Massachusetts
RIGHT: Addison, Maine

West Virginia: Events before the War Between the States should be shown as either Virginia or West Virginia, but not some combination.

WRONG: Kanawha County, Virginia (now West Virginia)
RIGHT: Kanawha County, Virginia
RIGHT: Kanawha County, West Virginia

Subdivisions For some countries, the political subdivision, such as county, province or state, must be given, for the place name to be categorized properly. In other cases, it may still be given, between the locality and the country.

WRONG: Quebec City, Canada
RIGHT: Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
RIGHT: Quebec City, Quebec

Subdivisions must be given for Albania, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States of America. Place names without subdivisions will not be indexed for these countries.


Started 28 November 2006 21:22 UTC