What do you do if the address of a place changes though the centuries?
Example 1:
Before 1802 the address of one place was “Diesseits Mühlbach 80” after 1802 it was “Mühlbach 21”.
Example 2:
Before 1945 the address was “Honetschlag” in the “Deutsches Reich” (before that in the “Austrian Hungarian Empire”), since 1945 it is “Hodňov” in the “Czech Republic”.
Unter places I can only add 1 address. I think I would need an “alternate name” of the place.
It’s best to enter the historical place name for the time and event. If it changes during their life time enter a new residence event.
But then I have one place with “Diesseits Mühlbach 80” and one with “Mühlbach 21”. How can I document that this is the same place, how can I link them?
Give them the same geo code.
Each event can have a Note that can print in reports. I would use the note to show that these were the same place. Also, each Place has a note that can be entered on the Edit Place screen that can be used to show that they are the same place. However I have not tested to see if the Place Note is printed any where.
Notes under place only print in the Place Report–not narratives, individual summaries etc
Controversial, I know, but personally I use the current address format as it is easier for others who may not be aware of the changes to look it up on online maps to see where their ancestors lived. Google Street View is a wonderful tool to show you the house they lived in (if it survives!) but I suspect it will not recognise addresses obsolete since 1802 (say).
Doesn’t work due to different language settings (I use German/de) and missing international settings in RM - see my Request #124601
And would unfortunately not solve the issue, because I want to document (and find) all different addresses.
One option is to include the former name in the current name such as “Saint Petersburg (formerly Petrograd or Leningrad), Russia” or the current name in the place name documented in the evidence such as “Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg), Russia”. I prefer to use the later, since it matches the evidence and place title at the time of the event.
This has been an issue throughout the lifespan of all RootsMagic versions and, I suspect, that of all or most family tree applications (maybe some user of the now-unsupported The Master Genealogist will pipe up with an exception). Neither their database structure nor that of GEDCOM address the history of names for geographic locations.
RM has three name fields for a Place: Name, Standard, Abbreviation. Name is available for all outputs. Standard is behind-the scene and is set by geocoding or manually. Abbreviation is outputted only in narrative reports with the Place:ABBREV option in the sentence template (or maybe that should say :SHORT).
For narratives, one might exploit the option by putting either the historical name or the current (standard) name into Abbreviation and the other of the two into Name. Revise the sentence templates of the fact types or of individual facts to use one or the other or both. Unfortunately, that defeats the intended use of Abbreviation to cut down on repetition of the Name. And only Name gets indexed and is outputted everywhere other than narratives.
All good points Tom. Fortunately, the Place and Place Detail fields are flexible to allow more narrative within the fields. For me, the factual context of a place is worth the loss in database efficiency. Thanks for your feedback.