Place names in FamilySearch and Ancestry Trees

Yes, I’d wondered if that might be what it was, but then I couldn’t rule out the ‘cracking up’ possibility!

 

A bit late in responding but lost my internet connection for 3 days.

This reminds as a kid we were once asked in junior school to extend our home address to include, England, (I think we then used Great Britain with or without United Kingdom can't remember) Europe (West as opposed to East) , Earth (or the World), Solar System... you get the drift. It was a bit daft of course but it taught us how to pinpoint our location in the planetary scheme of things and within Europe and long before satellite navigation did the whole thing for us.

So to return to the point in hand raised by Pauline, I personally see nothing wrong with tagging on United Kingdom to England (or Wales, Scotland, N.Ireland) even if we feel (as UK citizens) there is no need to do so. Ancestry and others probably see it as a 'rounding off' description so be thankful they have not got round to including Europe as well.

 

As Bob says, you can add what you like after the country (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). However, I believe there should be consistency and the majority of place names terminate at the country, which means that "Great Britain" (the largest of the British Isles) and "United Kingdom" should not be used.

 

Just to put more pressure on Ancestry, 2 things that really irritate me is using modern counties/names for events that happened in the past, for example using post 1974 counties for 19th Century events or, as in the case of Find A Grave, using Metropolitan Borough in the name for the same timescale. The second is using the modern gazetteer for past place names, Middlesex was in the England but always shows up as in Canada and when searching using Waltham, Lincolnshire it always defaults to Waltham, Kent and does not show Lincolnshire in the drop-down. It's extremely annoying to continually have to change name when searching, if Find My Past can get it right why not everyone else.

 

At the foot of the Ancestry United Kingdom version Home page is:

• Operated by Ancestry Ireland Unlimited Company

I have noticed the further leaning towards the US, such as when I do a search on a person the search criteria is set at All Collections with the US results to the fore. It annoys me no end because when I change it but it doesn't 'stick', the next person is All Collections, even more annoying is the Apply button which needs to be activated.

 

I believe you can change this on the Home page - find 'Search' and click on 'Show more options'... you will find 'Collection focus' with the 'All Collections' default showing. Click on the down arrow and select you own default Country option, usually England or UK and Ireland (or whatever) Also allows Race/Nationality'. Haven't tested it to see if after a reboot it reverts to 'All Collections' . It might well do but either way once you have your own default showing, you still need to action the 'Apply' button before carrying out a Search.

Perhaps others will comment further on the vexing problem of Ancestry's insistence on an 'All Collections' default.

 

It did stick after computer reboot, thanks for that tip Bob.

Another little quirk just discovered, accidentality put the surname WRACK as the first name and got lots of hits, some were new, where WRACK was a secondary first name but some were from items indexed surname, first name. Knew about the individuals but not the records, so much for consistency.

 

Been there, done that (frequently). However, at the slightest excuse Ancestry will revert to 'All Collections'; often when I adjust details to narrow down the search

 

Yes even though I knew it to be a solution, I forgot Ancestry's determination to foist its own priorities (it suits a largely American subscription base) and an 'All Collections' default is the result. I also empathise with the comment about when we make our own adjustments to the search field, that is 'pay back' time. So in the end we need to remember to change the All Collections to the country we seek, and remember to 'Apply'...when was it ever different?

 

Blow me down! I set my default to England in the search as recommended a few hours ago, I have just logged back into my PC and found it has remained at England. I do wonder how long it will last. I never log out of Ancestry, if I do, or get booted out, maybe it will revert to All Collections.

About 'Apply' it wasn't called that until recently and it wasn't lit up inviting attention.

 

Scratching my head here, was London ever in Ireland?

 

Ancestry Ireland Unlimited despite being set up in 2011 is somewhat of a 'ghost' profile for heaven knows what purpose (tax reasons usually) and even their address (in Dublin) is referred to as being a current 'partial' address. Most amusing of all at this time it has 1 (one) shareholder who is also a listed director of 36 other companies. (Tax havens also follow similar form, but I am not saying Ancestry Ireland ULC is one such)

From memory I do believe UK -DNA test kits emanated from Ireland and were returned their for processing, but that is the only Ireland connection I can recall. I believe all Ancestry communications these days are via the US as Peter says.

 

Ireland is a country in its own right within Europe, as is France and Italy (e.g.) and neither require to add further qualification of status, such as 'Republic 0f'. Ancestry clearly believes that the United Kingdom with its 4 individual nations is best defined by citing each Nation within its qualifying UK umbrella, even if we think it unnecessary.

 

We shouldn't forget it was once the Irish Free State. from 6 Dec 1922 to 29 Dec 1937. You will see that term in the US censuses taken during that period.