FamilySearch Places: Procedures

Accessing FamilySearch Places

FamilySearch Places can be accessed at www.familysearch.org/research/places. The service is free. Anyone can search for a place and view its associated data. Only those that have been granted editing privileges, however, may add new places or edit existing places.

Place and Place Set

FamilySearch Places uses two levels of description to describe places and how they change over time:

• Place Set: Represents the entire existence of a place, regardless of changes in its name or “parent” jurisdiction (the county where a town is located, for example).
• Place: The simple description of a given place at a given time.

It may be helpful to think of place set as a folder that contains one or more places, or standards. For example, “New York City, New York, United States (1898–Today)” and “New Amsterdam, New Netherland (1624–1683)” are 2 distinct places described within a single place set.

Parent and Child Places

A parent place is the jurisdiction a place belongs in. For example, the parent place for a town in the United States is usually a county. The parent place of that county would be a state.

Similarly, the state's child places would be all the counties that belong within that state.

Certification Status

Every place in FamilySearch Places is assigned a certification status, 1 of 3 levels of data quality:

• Certified. These places have been thoroughly reviewed. The data is deemed accurate and complete. These places are locked to any edits that would change or remove existing data.
• Accepted. These places have a described location (geographic coordinates) and at least 1 citation. The data for these places is generally acceptable.
• Provisional. These places are missing either a citation or a known location. They are awaiting further review.

Display Names and Alternate Names

The name that most users see associated with a place is a display name. A given place can only have one display name per language.

A place can have many alternate names, or other names by which the place is known. These can include abbreviations, full names, former names, and more. A search for an alternate name will bring up the place associated with it. For example, searches for "NYC," "New Amsterdam," or "Nueva York" would all bring up New York City. Alternate names are saved within a place set so that older names can be used to find contemporary places.

Research Links and Citations

Research links are websites that will help a user learn more about a place. FS Places is not an encyclopedia, so our goal is a few well-chosen links that give an overview of the place and its history.

Citations should tell a user where the information in the place entry came from. The description should provide a brief note of what information was found in that source, such as "Founded in 1807." They are intended primarily for other place editors.

Introduction

FamilySearch Places allows you to search by name or place ID. In addition, you can browse subsets of places defined by location or jurisdiction. These subsets can be more narrowly defined with available filters.

Search by Place-Name

As you enter a place-name in the Search Places field, a list of possible locations appears. This is what is sometimes called a “type-ahead” search. Commas are used to separate description levels: village, county, state, country, and so on.

Once you see the location that interests you, click its name in the list to view additional information. If you do not see the location you are looking for, consider ways to modify your search.

A Note on Special Characters and Functions

Use the following wildcard characters to adjust your search, especially if you are unsure about how a place-name is written:

• Enter ? (question mark) to replace any single character. Searching Sm?rna, for example, would result in both “Smyrna” and “Smirna.”
• Enter * (asterisk) to enable place-names with various endings to appear. Searching Rock*, Illinois, for example, would result in “Rock Island,” “Rockford,” and “Rock Creek,” all of which are located in Illinois.
• Enter a ~ (tilde) at the end of the search term to perform a fuzzy search. Searching Cincinati~, Ohio, for example, would result in “Cincinnati, Ohio.” Without the tilde, the correct location would not appear.

Please note that this fuzzy search capability does not work well for short strings. If a search term is less than 5 letters, adding “~” will likely not help.

Search by ID

If you know the unique identifier (ID) for an entry in FamilySearch Places, enter it in the search field to quickly find the exact place. For example, after entering 393653 in the search box, the location for Ohio, Virginia (a historic county), appears.

Browse Search Results by Location

You can also browse the FamilySearch Places collection in a defined area.

Step 1: Select a center point by clicking directly on the FamilySearch Places map and then clicking the compass icon. (You can also enter the geographic coordinates directly in the search field.)

Step 2: Input a search radius, in kilometers or miles.

Step 3: Click Search.

Note: Negative coordinate values describe the southern (latitude) and western (longitude) hemispheres.

Browse Search Results by Jurisdiction

FamilySearch Places uses the compass icon to represent an opportunity to browse places by location or by jurisdiction. Clicking on the icon next to a place-name, either in the search results or on the details page of a specific place, resets the search results to display places described within the place-name in question.

For example, clicking the compass icon next to Denver, Colorado, allows you to browse the places within Denver.

Filter Search Results

When browsing places by location or by jurisdiction, you may take advantage of several filters to narrow results down to a useful set.
Access filters by clicking + ADD FILTER:

Available filters include:

• Place Type
• Exact Year
• Start Year and End Year
• Certification Level (Certified, Accepted, or Provisional)
• Direct Children Only (this filters out places that are multiple levels below the jurisdiction in question)

Viewing the “direct children only” of New York City, for example, would allow you to see Brooklyn, but not Canarsie Cemetery, Brooklyn, NYC.

Introduction

The following section contains basic editing instructions for FamilySearch Places. Before editing, you must be granted editing rights by a project lead or specialist. You must also be signed in.

Keep in mind that editing privileges exist at different levels and not all editors are permitted to make every type of change.

Edit Place Data

You can make changes to a place’s geographic location, place type, valid year range, predominant language, or parent jurisdiction.

When viewing the details page of a place that you want to edit, click the pencil icon to the right of the place’s name. A pop-up window will appear with several editable fields:

• Parent Place, Place Type, and Native Spoken Language must be selected from options available in drop-down menus.
• Start Year, End Year, and Location are more directly editable but must fit within a range of valid values.
• Choosing Select location from map by moving the pin allows you to set a place’s location interactively by moving the red pin on the map.

Add or Remove Other Elements for a Place

Beyond the basic editable fields in the pop-up window described above, you can add, edit, or remove data in these sections:

• Basic Information
• Historical Information
• Research Links
• Alternate Names
• Display Names
• Related Places
• Citations

To add new information in any of these sections, simply click the appropriate link, and then fill in the necessary fields in the pop-up window. For example, to add a research link, click + Add Research Link

Clicking the pencil icon or waste bin icon located directly to the right of each entry will likewise open a pop-up window for editing or removing information.

Add Alternate Names

Alternate names are added to a place set to assist users in finding the correct place. Adding an alternate name adds it as a search option for every historical period in a place set. Users can search by any alternate names and the place will appear in the search results, even if the display name is different. Types of alternate names include full names, short names, abbreviations, misspellings, and variant names and can be added in multiple languages.

The following guidelines can help you know how to use alternate names:

• All display names must also be listed in alternate names. Before editing an existing alternate name, always double check that it is not used as a display name for any of the historical periods in the place set.
• If an alternate name is the same in more than one language, only add it once (preferably in the native language of the place).
• Only add a display name in an additional language if the name is different than the display name in the native language.

How to add a new alternate name:

Step 1: Under “Alternate Names,” click + Add Alternate Name.

Step 2: Add the alternate name, choose the language, and select the name type.

Step 3: If the new alternate name should also be the display name for that language, check the Make this the display name for this language box. It will add the alternate name and the display name at the same time.

Step 4: Click SUBMIT.

Edit Latitude and Longitude

The latitude and longitude are the specific geographic coordinates of a place. These coordinates should be in the center of a place.

To edit latitude and longitude, follow these steps:

Step 1: Click on the pencil icon next to the place name.

Step 2: If you have a specific latitude and longitude from another source, you may add or replace the current coordinates under Location.

Step 3: If you do not have number coordinates, click Select location from map by moving the pin. Use the map to drag and drop the red pin to the correct place.

Step 4: Click SUBMIT.

Change a Place’s Certification Status

Every place in FamilySearch Places is assigned a certification status:

• Certified. These places have been thoroughly reviewed. The data is deemed accurate and complete. These places are locked to any edits that would change or remove existing data.
• Accepted. These places have a described location, including geographic coordinates, and at least 1 citation. The data for these places is generally acceptable.
• Provisional. These places are missing either a citation or a known location with geographic coordinates. They are awaiting further review.

To edit a place’s certification status, follow these steps:

Step 1: On a place’s details page, click the current confidence level below the place-name.

Step 2: In the change certification status pop-up window, select the desired level from the drop-down list.

Introduction

At times you will need to create a new entry in FamilySearch Places. A new entry might be an entirely new place description—in other words, both a new place and a new place set. It could also be an alternate description—a historic period, for example—for an existing place set.

Create a New Place and Place Set

Before creating an entirely new place in FamilySearch Places, make sure that the place is not already described. Searching by location or performing a fuzzy search (place-name followed immediately by “~”) are two ways to check for possible duplicates.

To add a new place:

Step 1: In the Search box, enter the place-name.

Step 2: Scan the results to confirm that the place has not already been entered.

Step 3: Above the Search Places field, click + ADD NEW PLACE.

Step 4: Fill in the resulting form.

Create a New Historical Period

Sometimes an existing place needs to be described within a different parent jurisdiction or with a different display name. If this is the case, a new historical period should be created:

Step 1: On the details page of the place needing a new historical description, click + ADD NEW HISTORICAL PERIOD (immediately below the map, along the right side).

Step 2: Fill in the resulting form.

Step 3: Several fields will be prefilled with information from the existing place. Carefully verify and change the information as needed.

Introduction

You can delete entries for FamilySearch Places that are redundant or clearly unnecessary. This action cannot easily be undone. For this reason, it is important to keep the following conditions and best practices in mind before proceeding:

• First, the place may not have any “children.” Children are smaller places located within the larger geographic boundary. Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, for example, cannot be deleted as many cities and towns are described within it.
• Second, the place cannot be certified. A certified place has been thoroughly reviewed and is locked to any edits that would change or remove it.

Deleting a Place Name

To delete a place-name from FamilySearch Places, follow these steps:

Step 1: Navigate to the details page of the place to be deleted.

Step 2: Click the waste bin icon to the right of the place’s name.

Step 3: In the resulting pop-up form, enter an existing place to which any reference to this place will be redirected.

Step 4: Click DELETE AND MERGE to confirm your request.

Selecting a Delete-to Place

Any time a place is deleted from FamilySearch Places, it must be assigned a delete-to place. Think of it as a “forwarding address” for any future reference to the deleted place.

The following guidelines can help you select an appropriate replacement when you delete a place entry:

• If the place being deleted is a duplicate, enter the remaining and identically named place as the delete-to place.
• If the deleted place is a near duplicate, enter the place that is nearest in meaning to the delete-to place. For example, if the city of Charleston did not exist until 1863, delete Charleston, Virginia (1794–1863) and assign Charleston, West Virginia (1863–) as its delete-to place.
• If the deleted place is deemed superfluous (for example, a street address, a place of business, or an overly specific housing development) or an otherwise unnecessary location for FamilySearch Places, enter the parent jurisdiction as the delete-to place.