Structuring Place Names

[KirkS]

Practically all my locations are in the USA. As a genealogical beginner (many years ago), I was taught to structure my place names as City, County, ST

Sometimes, I only know County, ST or just ST

For Burial Places, I also prepend the cemetery name, e.g. Hightower Baptist Church Cemetery, Hiawassee, Towns, GA

Finally, here's my question, when I export to GEDCOM, it causes inconsistencies because place names may be 1, 2, 3, or 4 fields separated by commas.

Am I missing something? Is there an easy way to import/export my sources without the confusion.

Should I be entering Georgia as " , , , GA " or some other standard convention?

Thanks in advance,
Kirk

[theKiwi]

Roger's Rules of Place Names:

1 - ALWAYS - without exception - include the country at the end of the place name

2 - ALWAYS spell out the state/province name - leave no doubt what WA means - Washington or Western Australia

I allow 2 abbreviations for space saving - Cty. for County, and USA for United States of America. If it's Lousiana, then it's Parish (they don't have counties there).

I don't put leading commas where I don't know say the city, or address

Roger

[Bob White]

Pretty much the same as Roger with a couple differences. I only include country if it is other than the USA. I spell out City and County because "Cty" could be interpreted as either of those.

Please note that there are oddball locations that one needs to vary from their own rules. A couple examples: San Francisco is both City and County; Baltimore is "Independent" (I'm not sure what that is but it is part of their official designation.) And, of course, there are lots of places without a normal full address -- like Walton's Mountain in the TV series.

[KirkS]

Great feedback. Thanks.

[gathompson56]

You might want to check out the "reverse place name sort" function in the Places sidebar. Selecting that option showed me the value of full place names, including country.

[KirkS]

Well, I'm not going to use USA because all my locations are in the USA, so it seems a bit redundant.

Also, I'm still having issues with exporting and importing via GEDCOM.

E.g. Young Harris, Towns, GA is a nicely formed place. But for another event, all I have is a county and state, such as Fannin, GA

When I export/import to another program, the 3 name place works okay, but the second example thinks Fannin is the city, and GA is the county.

That's why I asked about leading commas.

[dfilpus]

What program are you exporting to? There may be a way to change that program's behaviour.

[Michael Talibard]

Well, I'm not going to use USA because all my locations are in the USA, so it seems a bit redundant.

As you continue your research, this will cease to be the case: each line of ancestors must have come to the US from somewhere else. However, there's no reason why you should not choose to start showing the country then, while leaving it out now. Absolute consistency is not all that important.

[KirkS]

What program are you exporting to? There may be a way to change that program's behaviour.

Heredis 2021

[KirkS]

...each line of ancestors must have come to the US from somewhere else. .... Absolute consistency is not all that important.

Thanks, Michael. Good point.