I love the fact that Rootsmagic has the ability to Geocode locations. But unfortunately FamilySearch and other databases use “Standardized Place” for historical reference. When I want to locate a place on a map to see where my ancestors lived, I certainly can not use “Standardized Place”! I need either an updated, current place or LAT/LONG coordinates. When will FamilySearch add an additional reference feature for location that is more accessible than the current “Standardized Place” only? I can’t easily look up “Standardized Place” on the map if I physically want to go to that location. I have to jump through hoops to accomplish that.
Once Geocode comes back and provides the Lat/Long for the place name recognized from the search request:
Geocoding places
Once you have the latitude and longitude values entered, you can change the standardized place name supplied to your own local version of what you need as a standardized place name. Since latitude and longitude values will be entered, GeoCode will not search for these places again.
Alternately, you can determine the exact latitude and longitude values, and enter the values and your own standardized place name, in which case GeoCode will ignore the place name thereafter.
I don’t use current location geocodes at all for places long past. The geocenter of a settlement or village in the 1500s could be miles from the geocenter of the same named place as a metropolitan city of today.
I use AI apps to describe the place name as it existed in that far past year, and look for geometry of the borders, if known. From that, the AI is able to determine geocodes for that place in that time…