I don't know if this is relevant to the current discussion but I have had trouble with the Places function of FTM in versions 2010, 2011 and now 2012. I do not find the Place Name Authority helpful because many places in the UK are missing, or the entries are wrong, and because it does not go down to the level of detail I require. I have therefore switched off the option to check the PNA when entering place names. When I resolve place names, FTM always offers an alternative one level higher than the one I have entered. So if I enter "Horse Street, Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England" it suggests "Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England" but if I enter "Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England" it only offers "Gloucestershire, England". As a result, all the place names I enter have to be marked as Ignore. Because I have the PNA check switched off, when I enter a place name, the Fast Field only offers places already in my database. If I select one of them, the program should add the new fact to that existing place. Frequently, however, it creates a duplicate place. I then have to go through the Places list manually replacing the duplicate with the original place. This happens over and over again. Since there is no search for duplicates function in the Places workspace, it is very time consuming and tedious. I mentioned this problem when commenting on an Ancestry.com blog post and quite a few others commented that they had the same problem, so it is a fault in the software, not my database. FTM 2011 introduced the option to choose to exclude a country from Resolved place names. In both FTM 2011 and FTM 2012 I have tried having that set to England but it doesn't work. England still shows up in all my English place names. Caroline Gurney www.carosfamily.com www.cmgurney.blogspot.com

Caroline, The PNA does not go to the street level. It is designed for city or town, county, country, in that order. Street names and other information about a place should be added to the description. I suspect like some of the other place names I have in my database, that they are not current place names and therefore cannot be resolved. So if a lot of your place names are Historic place names, they will not be in the PNA. Since I am just beginning my UK research I am not familiar with place name changes there so I have no idea if there is an additional issue at play here. I do understand that what you are seeing seems to be an additional issue other than Historic place names. If you click to resolve what happens? Linda in Costa Rica Monroe County, New York Genealogy http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~monroenys Monroe County, New York History http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~monroenys -----Original Message----- From: Caroline Gurney Sent: Sunday, 04 December, 2011 11:44 AM To: ftm-tech@rootsweb.com Subject: [FTM-TECH] Several problems with Places in FTM 2010, 2011 and 2012 I don't know if this is relevant to the current discussion but I have had trouble with the Places function of FTM in versions 2010, 2011 and now 2012. I do not find the Place Name Authority helpful because many places in the UK are missing, or the entries are wrong, and because it does not go down to the level of detail I require. I have therefore switched off the option to check the PNA when entering place names. When I resolve place names, FTM always offers an alternative one level higher than the one I have entered. So if I enter "Horse Street, Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England" it suggests "Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England" but if I enter "Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England" it only offers "Gloucestershire, England". As a result, all the place names I enter have to be marked as Ignore. Because I have the PNA check switched off, when I enter a place name, the Fast Field only offers places already in my database. If I select one of them, the program should add the new fact to that existing place. Frequently, however, it creates a duplicate place. I then have to go through the Places list manually replacing the duplicate with the original place. This happens over and over again. Since there is no search for duplicates function in the Places workspace, it is very time consuming and tedious. I mentioned this problem when commenting on an Ancestry.com blog post and quite a few others commented that they had the same problem, so it is a fault in the software, not my database. FTM 2011 introduced the option to choose to exclude a country from Resolved place names. In both FTM 2011 and FTM 2012 I have tried having that set to England but it doesn't work. England still shows up in all my English place names. Caroline Gurney www.carosfamily.com www.cmgurney.blogspot.com

Linda, In many states, but not all, the PNA will find and resolve Townships within a county, as well. The same is true of larger Cemeteries. I include the cemetery name on the place line so that I can mark the cemetery location and have an accurate count of people in my file who are buried there if I am planning a visit. I also include the township name on cemeteries for newbys and far away relatives. And I use the actual location, not the mailing address, as the mailing address is sometimes not even in the same county as the cemetery. Jay Thompson just an old genealogy nut too tough to crack. ________________________________ From: Linda H Gutierrez <lilacarlhg@amnet.co.cr> To: ftm-tech@rootsweb.com Sent: Sun, December 4, 2011 6:11:26 PM Subject: Re: [FTM-TECH] Several problems with Places in FTM 2010, 2011 and 2012 Caroline, The PNA does not go to the street level. It is designed for city or town, county, country, in that order. Street names and other information about a place should be added to the description. I suspect like some of the other place names I have in my database, that they are not current place names and therefore cannot be resolved. So if a lot of your place names are Historic place names, they will not be in the PNA. Since I am just beginning my UK research I am not familiar with place name changes there so I have no idea if there is an additional issue at play here. I do understand that what you are seeing seems to be an additional issue other than Historic place names. If you click to resolve what happens? Linda in Costa Rica Monroe County, New York Genealogy http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~monroenys Monroe County, New York History http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~monroenys -----Original Message----- From: Caroline Gurney Sent: Sunday, 04 December, 2011 11:44 AM To: ftm-tech@rootsweb.com Subject: [FTM-TECH] Several problems with Places in FTM 2010, 2011 and 2012 I don't know if this is relevant to the current discussion but I have had trouble with the Places function of FTM in versions 2010, 2011 and now 2012. I do not find the Place Name Authority helpful because many places in the UK are missing, or the entries are wrong, and because it does not go down to the level of detail I require. I have therefore switched off the option to check the PNA when entering place names. When I resolve place names, FTM always offers an alternative one level higher than the one I have entered. So if I enter "Horse Street, Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England" it suggests "Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England" but if I enter "Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England" it only offers "Gloucestershire, England". As a result, all the place names I enter have to be marked as Ignore. Because I have the PNA check switched off, when I enter a place name, the Fast Field only offers places already in my database. If I select one of them, the program should add the new fact to that existing place. Frequently, however, it creates a duplicate place. I then have to go through the Places list manually replacing the duplicate with the original place. This happens over and over again. Since there is no search for duplicates function in the Places workspace, it is very time consuming and tedious. I mentioned this problem when commenting on an Ancestry.com blog post and quite a few others commented that they had the same problem, so it is a fault in the software, not my database. FTM 2011 introduced the option to choose to exclude a country from Resolved place names. In both FTM 2011 and FTM 2012 I have tried having that set to England but it doesn't work. England still shows up in all my English place names. Caroline Gurney www.carosfamily.com www.cmgurney.blogspot.com ********************************** List information page http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Software/FTM-TECH.html Online Support for Family Tree Maker Version 16 and earlier http://pastftm.custhelp.com/ Version 2008 - 2011 http://ftm.custhelp.com/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to FTM-TECH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

I've just spent two hours working through my list of Places. It's been a while since I last did it. I have just over 2000 individual place names and I found that 85 duplicates had been created. I do wish Ancestry would fix this problem. Caroline Gurney www.carosfamily.com www.cmgurney.blogspot.com On 4 December 2011 17:44, Caroline Gurney <caroline.gurney@gmail.com> wrote: > I don't know if this is relevant to the current discussion but I have > had trouble with the Places function of FTM in versions 2010, 2011 and > now 2012. > > I do not find the Place Name Authority helpful because many places in > the UK are missing, or the entries are wrong, and because it does not > go down to the level of detail I require. I have therefore switched > off the option to check the PNA when entering place names. > > When I resolve place names, FTM always offers an alternative one level > higher than the one I have entered. So if I enter "Horse Street, > Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England" it suggests "Chipping > Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England" but if I enter "Chipping Sodbury, > Gloucestershire, England" it only offers "Gloucestershire, England". > As a result, all the place names I enter have to be marked as Ignore. > > Because I have the PNA check switched off, when I enter a place name, > the Fast Field only offers places already in my database. If I select > one of them, the program should add the new fact to that existing > place. Frequently, however, it creates a duplicate place. I then have > to go through the Places list manually replacing the duplicate with > the original place. This happens over and over again. Since there is > no search for duplicates function in the Places workspace, it is very > time consuming and tedious. I mentioned this problem when commenting > on an Ancestry.com blog post and quite a few others commented that > they had the same problem, so it is a fault in the software, not my > database. > > FTM 2011 introduced the option to choose to exclude a country from > Resolved place names. In both FTM 2011 and FTM 2012 I have tried > having that set to England but it doesn't work. England still shows up > in all my English place names. > > Caroline Gurney > www.carosfamily.com > www.cmgurney.blogspot.com