Place versus address

[Patrick Vijgeboom]

Hello,

I am looking for a way to efficiently use the place field. What is the best way to use it:

<street>,<postal-code>,<place>,<country>
or
<place>,<country> in the place field and <street>,<postal-code> in the memo field.

If anyone has a good tip

[Linda Thomas]

Re: Place versus address

The place field should be a hierarchy, either from most specific to least specific or the reverse. How specific you get is up to you. I tend to be fairly specific:

121 Center Street, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts, United States
if I know the address or

Greenlawn Cemetery, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts, United States
for places that are or were well known and the function of the place is more important than the physical street address

I don't put postal codes in the place (for one thing they didn't start using them in the US until 1963 and I try to keep my place names correct for the historical context) but If I want a modern, postal address associated with the event I'll add it to the note.

Whatever you do, be internally consistent. Most people probably tend to stick with <town>, <county>, <state/province>, <country> but I find that being more specific when I can allows me to look at family groupings or movements on a map and get a sense of how people were geographically related to each other.