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Archiver > TMG > 2004-12 > 1104173783


From: John Gregson <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] States: Spell Out or Abbreviate?
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 11:56:23 -0700
References: <6.1.2.0.2.20041226154457.01b150b8@pop.earthlink.net><6.1.0.6.0.20041226161326.01dcee40@pop.nycap.rr.com>


At 2:20 PM Joe Makowiec wrote in response:

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe Makowiec" <>
To: <>
Sent: Sunday, December 26, 2004 2:20 PM
Subject: Re: [TMG] States: Spell Out or Abbreviate?


> At 03:49 PM 12-26-2004 -0500, John & Lee Wood wrote:
>>After reading the thread on spelling out or abbreviating state names, I
>>decided that I should convert my abbreviated names to full names.
>>However, I have close to 20,000 people in my database, which would be
>>tedious to convert manually, to say the least. Is there any way to do a
>>global conversion?
>
> I haven't done it in a while, but the Master Place List (where all
> placenames which are entered into place fields are stored) has a browse
> and a search/replace feature. Also, a placename is only kept once, no
> matter how many times you use it, so the placename list tends to be
> significantly shorter than the number of events in the database.
>
> Do a find/replace; look for NY and replace with New York in the state
> field. Just be careful about capitalization, etc, or you could wind up
> with Nygaard, Norway replaced with New Yorkgaard! That's why:
>
> ***** Make sure you back up your database first! *****

I have carried this a bit further.
I would enter "county of New York" or "county of Simcoe" or "state of New
York".
For England I would enter "county of Derbyshire"; as an example.
The idea is to remove ALL ambiguity; we already have enough ambiguity in
genealogy!
I know that the above will take up more space on the screen and in reports,
but I suggest that it is worthwhile; especially if someone lives in a
different country, and is reading your report; perhaps 50 years from now.

John.

John Gregson
Dawson Creek,BC






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