Jim, Some partial answers for you - but not a definitive answer, other people know far more than me.
Go to the Genuki site. They have some very good explanations of Parishes and counties etc that you may find useful. They have lists of locations inside the parishes and lists of parishes inside the counties. One problem is that, in days gone by, various areas of Britain were administered by both church and state and hence there were two overlapping systems of dividing the land into manageable administrative chunks. These chunks were not necessarily the same shapes. People sometimes get these confused when quoting old location names - Census forms can also be quite confusing in this respect with people quoting various things seen on the census form as part of the place name when its not necessary - I have seen people give a 4 or even 5 field location name when 3 fields would have been definitive .... ie Fredstown, Banffshire, Scotland vs Fredstown, Portknockie, Rathven, Banffshire, Scotland Another issue is that Counties and Parishes changed shapes and sometimes dissappeared with entire counties being swallowed by a neighbouring county. ie Banffshire swallowed by Aberdeenshire. I have made the following suggestions to Legacy If the country is America then stick with the current 4 field location format in the mapping software If the country is not America then use the appropriate system for that country - whatever it may be This would involve a couple of extra tables in the database and some tweaking of the code and some tweaking of the location tables but it would end the problems associated with everybody attempting to fit location names into a 4 field format that works for America all the time and sometimes works and sometimes does not work for other places - see other recent thread on this topic. And I think it is very worth while to visit the Genuki site on these issues - it is very good Regards Bill On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 3:40 PM, Jim Walton <[email protected]>wrote: > I have a question about European locations, and England locations in > particular. I've lived in several countries so I understand that every > place is different, and no one way is better than another. They are > just all unique to the culture that developed them. > > I've found a site, http://www.gazetteer.co.uk that attempts to do what > I need, but it lists historic counties, administrative counties, > districts, unitary authority areas, police areas, and > country/region--more than I really need. Administrative > County/District and Unitary Authority are mutually exclusive and > appear to be political entities as does country/region. > > When I have a location such as Brooke, Kingsomborne, Southampton, > England I quickly discover someone has given me bogus information. I > did find a King's Somborne in county Hampshire, so I think I would > list this as King's Somborne, Stockbridge, Hampshire, England. I did > discover that King's Somborne is a parish in Stockbridge. > > So, am I correct in my thinking? This obviously doesn't fit the > pattern of city, county, state, country since England doesn't have > states or provinces, only counties. I would then want to enter some > place like Saint Peter, Leeds, Yorkshire, England as Leeds, > Yorkshire, West Riding, England except here I see two problems. No > parish, unless I want to consider Saint Peter as the parish, and I > have an extra county location of West Riding. Now I don't have a > pattern that would match up for a search. To do so I would have to > leave a blank field between Hampshire and England in my first example. > > Now, while I've totally confused myself, I hope I have been clear > enough that our friends from England will understand the issue and > perhaps give some clarification. > > -- > Jim Walton > "...probe the past carefully and report it as it was, not as I wish it > were" > From Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills > > > > Legacy User Group guidelines: > > > http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp<http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Etiquette.asp> > > Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > Online technical support: > http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp<http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Help.asp> > > To unsubscribe: > http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp<http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp> > > > > Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
