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[add comment] [edit] Items to include [19 April 2009]
Perhaps I'm in error, but I had the idea, somehow, that a Place page already existed for each U.S. county, that they were sucked in from the FHL, or from Wikipedia, or something. At least, I haven't not found a Place page for any county I searched for -- until now. There doesn't appear to be a page for Dubois County, Illinois. I haven't created one yet, waiting to see if I searched for it in some weirdly wrong way. . . . --Mike (mksmith) 10:52, 19 April 2009 (EDT) Hmmm, I don't see Dubois County, Illinois in Wikipedia, Ancestry.com census for Illinois in 1900, or FHLC (they have Indiana). Do you have any more details on this place?--Volunteer Admin - Jennifer (JBS66) 11:04, 19 April 2009 (EDT)
[add comment] [edit] Baltimore City vs. Baltimore County (and others) [23 April 2009]I was creating a census Source page for Baltimore and found that, in the place-name box, if you type "Baltimore, Maryland" you will get on the drop-down list a bunch of possibilities like Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, United States|Baltimore (independent city), Maryland, United States, all of which assume that the City of Balitmore is a part of Baltimore County. This is flatly incorrect. Baltimore is indeed an independent city, but it's an entirely separate entity. It has no legal connection whatever to Baltimore County. I know I can create a new Place page (and I will, if that's what is needed), but the fact that there are so many variations on this for Baltimore gives me pause. So I went checked on Norfolk, Virginia, which is also an independent city. The main possibility there is Norfolk, Norfolk, Virginia, United States|Norfolk (independent city), Virginia, United States -- the same incorrect assumption. Does anyone have a suggestion or some thoughts on this? --Mike (mksmith) 15:10, 20 April 2009 (EDT) We've gone back and forth about this. We decided 2-3 years ago to incorrectly place independent cities inside a county because in most cases the counties physically surround the city, and the way our search works, by putting the independent city "under" the county, searches on the county will also bring back events/sources in the independent city, along with the towns that really are in the county. Baltimore, St. Louis, about a dozen cities in Virginia, and I think one or two other cities are affected. That's why you see so many possibilities for Baltimore, because it kept getting renamed until we settled on the 'put it under the county' option. Having said that, in the meantime the search engine has advanced so that if you were to add the county as an (incorrect) "also located in" place for the independent city, you could rename the independent city to remove the county from the title. For example, if you were to add Place:Baltimore, Maryland, United States as an also-located-in place for the city of Baltimore (with a note asking people not to remove it because it makes the search engine work better), you could rename the city of Baltimore to Baltimore (independent city), Maryland, United States. The "also-located-in" causes searches for the county of Baltimore to include Baltimore city. If you decide to do this for Baltimore, would you please do it for the other independent cities as well so that we're consistent?--Dallan 14:45, 23 April 2009 (EDT) [add comment] [edit] New portal place project [29 June 2012]I seem to have started a new Portal:Place for Ontario, Canada. Yes, I am a new member of WeRelate, but I don't have a very large family and am not geographically placed to research offline the ones I have. Besides, I live in the UK and over here each individual search for original data costs money. As with Quebec, Canada which already has a "Portal:Place", the Province of Ontario has gone through an era of municipal reorganization. Many of the place names of 1900 are still there, but they refer to different government structures and, in some cases, different geographical places. The reorganization started in Ontario when Toronto became a metropolitan area in 1953. Since then many counties have followed suit, and both Toronto and Ottawa have done it twice! When you think about it, 1953 can be two generations ago. There are a whole lot of genealogists and family historians who have only lived under the new regime (or at least found they like genealogy or family history since the new regime started). Wikipedia, our first reference for geographical details, starts its articles with the present state of affairs and only gets to the tasty bits for WR users in the History section (if there is one). And, even if one of our volunteers brings in a history section under the normal process, it may not see the light of day on WR for several months. As a result, there are a lot of places in Ontario that need a clean up. I have started going through them county by county--always working with my fingers crossed that I get the facts right.
This is a review of the type of changes I am making and the reasons for making them. Constructive comments appreciated. --goldenoldie 08:04, 29 June 2012 (EDT) [add comment] [edit] Ireland vs Republic of Ireland [27 January 2013]Is there a difference between Ireland and Republic of Ireland? We have many pages that direct to them, therefore, I would like to understand what the difference might be, if there is one, or which is considered primary or correct for referencing this particular country for WeRelate purposes.--Khaentlahn 17:03, 26 January 2013 (EST)
[add comment] [edit] Lieutenancy areas in the United Kingdom [10 March 2013]Two questions:
From Wikipedia:
Personally I think lieutenancy areas are surplus to WR requirements, but those members who work on family trees for members of the peerage may think otherwise. Comments from others appreciated. [add comment] [edit] Place Needed: Africa [24 May 2013]Could we have a placename for the continent of Africa? I tried to add it myself but it reverted to [[Place:Chad]]. If we can't described Africa as a continent, we could at least describe it as a "general region" (as we have done for "At Sea"). Often gravestones are memorials to several members of a family who died in far-away places beyond the concept of the family back home. --goldenoldie 16:07, 24 May 2013 (EDT) [add comment] [edit] London, England [13 March 2015]The boundaries of London were established when the County of London was formed in 1889. Prior to that much of what we consider as London today was in the surrounding counties of Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent and Surrey. In 1965 another reorganization has occurred which named the metropolitan area Greater London which extended the area to include much more of the original surrounding counties than formerly (see the map "County of London superimposed upon Greater London" in Wikipedia --a long way down the wiki-page), and also reorganized some of the boroughs which had been part of the original County of London. Has there been any discussion on WeRelate as to how we go about naming places within London? I only joined WR in mid-2012 and I am not sure what to delve into in the archives--there is nothing on the "Talk Pages" for London or Greater London, nor in the "Talk Pages" on the Place Portal. But does anyone recall what there might be hiding in "Watercooler" or "Support"? Currently, we have places in located in the surrounding counties which ought to be in the County of London and other places located in the County of London which were not in the capital until 1965. Having solved similar (but not half so difficult) problems for Greater Manchester, Merseyside, and Yorkshire, I am game for sorting out London, but I would like to read other people's opinions on the topic before I start. --Goldenoldie 10:33, 13 March 2015 (UTC) [add comment] [edit] Sentences in introduction requiring alteration [4 January 2017]"Omit the province for the UK and other countries where it's common to list the county directly under the country." The UK doesn't have provinces; it is made up of four individual countries each of which has a separate set of pages within WeRelate. So, can we change the sentence to
We may need a United Kingdom page just to explain this again, and also to mention
"Omit county/district in countries where it is rarely used. Information how places are organized for each country can be found on the country's homepage."
Change to
--Goldenoldie 14:52, 4 January 2017 (UTC) |