ILCLINTO-L Archives

Archiver > ILCLINTO > 1999-09 > 0937437203


From: "Robin Sloan" <>
Subject: RE: [ILCLINTO] How to Enter Dates & Places in Databases in Accordance with Standards
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 18:13:23 -0500


Hi.
I don't really think I would put any credence in this. It appears it's only
someone that has a control problem. If by chance I read something published
by the NGS, etc. I would take heed. I believe the research (supporting
documents) should be the emphasis rather than grammer. I do believe that an
individual database should be maintained consistently...but hey we're not
perfect...nor are computer programs. After 5 years of college, I remember
research standards changing several times; usually the standards changed
with the instructor. I'm sure that genealogical standards are changing all
the time. If I was to publish a book, I'm sure the publisher/editor of one
company would prefer one standard to another. Also, what about the
inconsistencies that we run into doing research???? Should we copy material
as is?? or should we conform the material to the standard that we're using
that particular day. This is only the Internet..nothing more, nothing less.

Robin in Indy

Climbing her family tree...
visit http://www.my-ged.com/robin/


-----Original Message-----
From: Dorothy Falk [mailto:]
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 1999 6:44 AM
To:
Subject: [ILCLINTO] How to Enter Dates & Places in Databases in
Accordance with Standards


Got this from another List. Makes sense. And makes a lot of work to
clean-up my databases before I send them onward. Do you-all agree with him?
Is this gospel?

Dorothy
-------------------

Subject: How to Enter Dates & Places in Databases in Accordance with
Standards


>I have a favor to ask of everyone on the Lists which I manage. Actually,
>it's not so much of a favor, as it is a reminder.
>
>As most of you know, I receive many databases in GEDCOM format from other
>researchers, GEDCOM's which I import into my database so that I can help
>others in their searches. Well, having done this for years now, I have
>finally gotten up the courage to "suggest" that many (most?) researchers
are
>not aware of universally accepted standards for inputting dates and place
>events into a database. The dates usually don't present a problem, since
my
>genealogy program translates just about any format (99%) of the time in to
>the proper format. Place names are an entirely different matter. It
>wouldn't be so bad if a researcher were CONSISTENT in putting in place
names;
>however, many use different formats in the same database. Let me give you
>some examples:
>
>In one database, I might find:
>Schwiagern, Wurttemberg, Germany
>Schwiagern
>Schwiagern, Germany
>Schwiagern, Ger.
>Schwiagern, Wurt., Germany
>
>Now there is no reason why a researcher would use so many different ways to
>input the correct place name:
>
>Schwiagern,Württemberg,GER
>or
>Schwiagern,Wurttemberg,GER
>or
>Schwiagern,Wuerttemberg,GER
>
>Any of the 3 above would be correct; it's just that any reference to this
>place should be consistent throughout a database.
>
>For US places, the proper format is: City,County,ST
>
>Please note that there are no spaces after the commas and the state should
be
>the official two-letter designation, in CAPS, for that state.
>
>e.g., Knoxville, Knox,TN
>(commas between the three parts, no spaces)
>
>Since this IS the accepted format, anyone looking at it cannot be
>confused. It is not:
>
>Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee
>or
>Knoxville, Knox. Co., TN
>etc.
>
>One can look at the above and immediately and positively know what is
>meant.
>
>Now about unknowns in a "place" event. Examples of how to show unknowns
for
>the above place:
>
>Knoxville,,TN (County is not known)
>,Knox,TN (Town is not known)
>,,TN (Neither Town nor County is known)
>
>Let's say that you see a "place" as this:
>
>Bedford, Ohio or Bedford, OH
>
>Is Bedford a town or a county?
>
>If a county, it should look like this: ,Bedford,OH
>
>If a town, it should look like this: Bedford,,OH
>
>I, as a researcher, and using my genealogy program, can, with a couple
hours
>of work, correct the "place" errors; however, the date errors are another
>thing entirely.
>
>Want to guess how many ways researchers input dates into their
>databases? You don't want to know. Examples:
>
>1/2/12 (is that 1 Feb. 1912, 1 Feb. 1812, 2 Jan. 1912, 2 Jan. 1812?)
>January 12 1912
>12 January 1912
>12 January, 1912
>1-2-12
>1-2-1912
>etc., etc.
>
>See the confusion? The proper universal genealogy database standards is:
>
>12 Jan 1912
>
>No periods, no commas, the day always precedes the year, and the year is in
4
>digits. (Day, Month, Year; makes sense)
>
>One other thing and I will quit. When inputting data in the fields for
>events, there are, in most programs, places for Date, Place, and
>Misc. Researchers put everything imaginable into the Place box, dates,
>comments, etc. Folks, the only thing that goes in to the Place box is the
>PLACE. It really looks bad when one does a printout of a database and sees
>"Born 16 Jan 1885, at (2nd child of the family)".
>
>I hope no one takes offense at this posting. I am not merely trying to
make
>things easier on myself, I am trying to alert everyone that there IS a
>standard for such things. I don't know why the various genealogy database
>programs don't have, as the very first item in the "readme" files, a
section
>on proper format. Beats me.
>
>Feel free to ask questions or make comments on this. The more exposure,
the
>better.
>
>George
>Listowner
>
>



==== ILCLINTO Mailing List ====
Have you stopped by ILGenWeb Archives latley?
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/il/ilfiles.ht

This thread: