I must say that the
FamilySearch Labs website is not one of the better known FamilySearch online offerings. There are presently six programs on the website and three of them are marked "Retired." So, it is a surprise to find out that one of the remaining three programs, the "Standard Finder," has also been retired by being replaced. The new website is called the "
Place Research Tool." This program does not show up on the
FamilySearch Labs website and I can only wonder and speculate that this particular FamilySearch website will eventually disappear. I believe that both the remaining Labs programs have already been integrated into the main FamilySearch.org website. Community Trees is available on the
Search Genealogies page and the England Jurisdictions 1851 map is the only one that is not in the already-used-someplace-else category.
So what in the world is "Place Research?" The web page itself is devoid of help menu or instructions of any kind. There is a link at the bottom of the page to "About." This explains as follows:
Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away. Marcus Aurelius
As time progresses places are built, destroyed, renamed or conquered. As researchers track family histories across centuries, it becomes important to track the historical context of places as well.
Place Research is a FamilySearch application which provides access to standardized information about locations. This information is used by several FamilySearch applications to assist researchers in searching for exact spellings, checking whether locations exist, as well as determining alternate name spellings/variants to expand research.
The immensity of the data being collected and cross-referenced is enormous and ever-growing. If you come across information you feel is incorrect or incomplete, please use the feedback link so we can make corrections and improve this data for future work.
I appreciate the quote from Marcus Aurelius but the explanation following certainly leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Some additional language comes from the now defunct Standard Finder website:
Standard Finder is a FamilySearch Labs application which provides access to standardized information for names, locations, and dates. These databases are used by several FamilySearch applications to assist researchers in searching for exact spellings, as well as indexers who enter information used for RecordSearch.
As can be imagined, the immensity of the data being collected and cross-referenced is enormous and will not always be correct. If you come across information you feel is incorrect, please use the feedback link so we can continue to make corrections to improve this data for future work. As you search, please remember, too, that historical perspectives affect the usability and correctness of the data.
As a standalone application, Standard Finder can be of assistance to researchers in determining proper spellings of locations, checking whether locations exist, as well as determining alternate name spellings/variants to expand research.
Going back to the Place Research website, it turns out that more detailed explanations of the operation of the program are contained in the "Guidelines" section of the About menu. I hesitate to reproduce the entire long explanations, but there seems to be no alternative. Here we go:
- Guideline:
- - Place representations describe changes to the same logical place over time. Previous to organization/incorporation into political, administrative units, different places will exist (numbered townships and ranges before named townships, precincts, etc.)
- Explanation:
- - Generally speaking, a place will only have one place representation for any given time. Overlaps in place rep dates or gaps (periods of time between valid place representations that are not covered by another place representation) should be examined and either fixed or verified. Lowest-level settlements should show as many historical relationships as we know about.
- Guideline:
- - Different “jurisdictional types” – political, ecclesiastic (various denominations), judicial, etc. – can exist at the same time as separate place reps of the same Place. However, we need to make it much easier to distinguish different types of reps (civic/political, ecclesiastic –various denominations, judicial).
- Explanation:
- - We have a large amount of data regarding where small towns (and portions of large cities) attended church (i.e. to which parish they belonged). We need a way to expose/improve this data that will be easily understood by patrons. Place reps are better than unique Places, provided we can clearly distinguish “rep types.”
- Guideline:
- - Unique place representations for the same place are created to show change in: "parent" jurisdiction (town becomes part of a newly-created county), official name (St. Petersburg to Stalingrad to Leningrad to St. Petersburg...), or type (village becomes a city).
- Guideline:
- - Place types are used to categorize place representations. They should make it possible to easily recognize places of the same type, regardless of locale. At the same time, there needs to be enough granularity in the available types to effectively describe unique place types and administrative divisions.
- Explanation:
- - Effectively describing place types for all place representations makes the data better. It is much easier to recognize potential duplicate entries, to filter searches and have confidence in their results, and to recognize gaps in the data.
- Guideline:
- - In cases where a municipality doubles as a settlement (a town or city), the municipality shall be the only entity recorded with place representations; i.e. there will be no duplicate place to represent the town of the same name within said municipality.
- Explanation:
- - In many European countries, municipality (Gemeinde, obec, comune, etc.) is seen as a special type of town. There is no need to make a separate entry (separate place rep) for a town/city under a municipality of the same name.
- Exception:
- - In countries, where municipalities are quite large - more than a dozen or so subordinate settlements - this may not be the best approach.
- Guideline:
- - Moving forward, the place type PPL (populated place) – as found in much of the current data – will no longer be used. Instead, one of a number of more descriptive options: city, town, village, hamlet, etc., will be selected.
- Explanation:
- - In the past PPL was used as a generic catch-all for a wide array of settlement types. However the more descriptive terms adds value and context to the data.
- Guideline:
- - Cemeteries, parks and buildings (including church buildings) should be placed under the cities/towns/villages in which they are located.
- Explanation:
- - These locations are predominantly searched for by the relationship to their "parent" jurisdiction.
- Exception:
- - Some cemeteries in rural areas exist beyond the boundaries of any town. For these the best parent could be the county, although a township or similar county division would be a better choice in areas where such divisions are commonly used.
- Guideline:
- - Parishes (units of a religious denomination) and wards (LDS) should be placed under the appropriate jurisdictional level of the religious denomination of which they are a part, while any church buildings should be placed under the city/town/village.
- Explanation:
- - Religious jurisdictional units should exist within their own hierarchy (at least at the lower levels).
- Guideline:
- - In most cases, standard names in a different language will be added as display names for their respective locale. In situations where it is not clear that the different language variant is commonly used, it should be added as a variant name only and not included as a display name.
- Explanation:
- - Many localities have multiple standard names for multiple locales. This is particularly common for larger cities and country names, in regions near borders, and in areas that were historically controlled by a ruling power that used a different language.
- Guideline:
- - By definition, the display name should be the official or standard name of a place.
- Explanation:
- - Display names should be selected from the Standard Full or Standard Short names for a given locale. If it becomes necessary to make another name into a display name, its name type should be changed to either Standard Full or Standard Short.
- Guideline:
- - In cases where a foreign language variant of a place name is exactly the same as the equivalent name in the place rep's default display language, there is no need to create a separate foreign language variant.
- Explanation:
- - Many foreign language place names are identical to the native (default display language) spelling. This becomes increasingly prevalent with the decreasing significance (population, distance from foreign language borders, etc.) of a city/town/village. Different writing scripts (i.e. Cyrillic) would never be "exactly the same" and would be cause to create a unique foreign language variant. However, such work should only be done where a case can be made for the relevance of adding the foreign language names in question.
- Guideline:
- - Citations shall be added to describe the source of information associated with place representations and places. A place representation will not be considered "validated" unless it has at least one citation.
- Explanation:
- - We desire accurate and authoritative data. Citations give researchers places to look to verify various elements of the data.
- Guideline:
- - In the absence of citations for specific data elements (i.e. Name, Type, Jurisdiction, Place Date, etc.), a "Place" citation may be used to cite any and all of these various data elements.
- Explanation:
- - If the only citation attached to a given place representation is a "Place" citation, we can assume that all information about the place in question can be verified from the single, "Place" citation. It acts as an "umbrella" citation that can include various data elements. Any of these elements can be singled out in the citation's description field.
- Guideline:
- - If data concerning a place representation is updated to a new value (i.e. new coordinates, new type, new parent jurisdiction), any citations referencing the outdated information (Location, Type, or Jurisdiction) should be removed/deleted from the place representation.
- Explanation:
- - Citations are meant to validate the information currently stored with a place representation. If any data elements change, the corresponding citations should be removed and replaced with new citation/source information.
I decided to leave it formatted as it is in the original. Let me see if I can boil this all down to a more understandable form. The computer needs standard place names. We may not like the idea at all, but have to concede the need to use some sort-of standard. Now, the question is, how do you standardize something that is inherently not standardized. For example, part of my family comes from a town in Eastern Arizona called "St. Johns." However, the name of the town is also spelled "Saint Johns." If you are searching for this place, the two names fall into quite different parts of the alphabet. (i.e. "sa" vs. st."). However, they are both commonly used. Which one do you select for the "standard?" Quoting from the instructions above: "Generally speaking, a place will only have one place representation for any given time." That may be "generally" true, but having multiple names for a single location is not uncommon.
When you get down to it, selecting a "standard" name for a location is an arbitrary process. Granted the place names change over time, but they may also change over proximity to the actual location. For example, answer this question: what is the name of the state just south of Arizona? A variation on this question is what is the name of the country just south of Arizona? Do you think you know the answer? Good Luck unless you happen to speak Spanish and had looked up both names. Here is a hint:
OK, this blog post is already too long, but this topic is far from exhausted. I shall return!
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