Ok it happened, and I did not discover it right away. One city stayed where it was, but it also took over another city, both in the same county. So now as I find the wrong city listed on a person, I have to edit it to the correct city. I can not go in and change the city, because then all the right places for that city would then change to the wrong city (by my hand now and not the program). The city is Watsonville, it is in Santa Cruz County, California. The city that it took over about 90% of the errors I have discovered so far, was Santa Cruz, in Santa Cruz County, California. So it had been correct with in 1970 they had a residence in Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California. At 1315 Rodriguez Street. Then it changed by itself to the incorrect; in 1970 they had a residence at Watsonville, Santa Cruz, California. At 1315 Rodriguez Street. I find them both listed correctly in the place listings. It is on about 90% of the people I know that have Santa Cruz entries, like homes, place of birth, death, burial, etc. I have looked at many of the Watsonville city entries and they are all correct with Watsonville still in the field. It is the Santa Cruz city entries that I am finding for some unknown strange reason having Watsonville put in the place of Santa Cruz. The county and state stay correct, it is only the city that has changed. ANYONE HAVE THIS PROBLEM? ANYONE KNOW OF A EASY FIX? I can not figure it out.
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Did you merge any places in the Place List?
The only way that can happen is an incorrect merge of places. You’ll need to restore a backup before you began merging the place list.
As far as I know, it changed by itself. I did not notice it for a while, as most all of these profiles that have those two cites, are local and have most all family that I have done detailed work on already, so I did not need to return to them. I know that there was at least one update in the middle of all this. And I never did any place editing that would have changed those two cities. When I first spotted it, it was when I went to add a cemetery entry for one of my mothers siblings, and saw that the city for the cemetery that was in Santa Cruz was changed to Watsonville. That is when I started to look further and discovered it was on alot of the profiles. The one thing my wife asked, was if I had recalled falling asleep and either my hands or head hitting the keyboard and making it happen. I really thought about that one, and really do not think I did, and then looking at what you need to do to edit a place name, I really do not see how that could have happened. I am at a loss, and today I just found two more Santa Cruz places that had been changed to Watsonville.
And as far as editing places, I have not had the need to edit either of these two places, one is Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California and the other is Watsonville, Santa Cruz, California. I have not needed to edit them. And when I first discovered this, my first thought was to go in and edit Watsonville to Santa Cruz … BUT that would changed all the Watsonville places to Santa Cruz. (As I said in my question about this problem.
And I do do a back up save daily if I had been doing alot of work, and if it had been a slow week without alot of work I do a save at least once a week. I have alot of saves on my computer! And I have no idea what save to go back too, and if I do that anyway, I am going to loose alot of newer data and profiles that I would have entered since this problem started. So unless I am completely missing an editing tool in RM8, how do I make a list of all the new profiles and data I have done, so that I can put it back in after I go back to a saved backup that does not have the two cities messed up. (That is if I find a backup that is the correct one without the cities messed up?)
I thank you all for your help thus far, but I am still at a loss how to fix it, other than as I come across them, I edit them to the correct location. And I am having to dig into many of my hard copy files on some of them to double check which city is correct, as I have now been doing this since 1982, I am not remembering them all anymore and have to look up to confirm.
The program by itself is incapable of the place change you describe. Another way the info could get there is via import (GEDCOM/online)… where such alternate places were already incorrectly attributed. In those cases, You likely would not notice (until later). An innocent human way might be if Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California is followed immediately (alphabetically) by Watsonville, Santa Cruz, California in your Place List. That would encompass a speed/touchiness issue (if using autofill dropdown) of the mouse or keyboard during input. My first thought is for you to Publish->Place List-> Reverse Place Names. You can then get a list and check all events for California>Santa Cruz County>All Cities. Do the same for any backup you try (looking for any changes). Place List even lets you narrow printed output to just places close to Santa Cruz County by choosing the Place List option Print dropdown and selecting Print events near a place.
Thank you Kevin, I will try the printout you refer too, I have not used those with RM7 or RM8. And as for the program being incapable of what it did … I am in total agreement, but when you click on a place and see it changed, after your jaw drops, it does make you wonder what the heck happened. I have not done a GEDCOM with RM8, done it a few times years ago with RM7 to send files to relatives.
And in re-reading what you just wrote, no Santa Cruz is not followed by Watsonville, there are many cites, towns, etc., between the two.
Thanks again