Family Historian User Group

I am polishing up my imported place names in FH7. In my previous program, a geocoded name might be something like; Somme-Tourbe, Département de la Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France. When I do auto-geocoding in FH7, it does not complete the 2nd to 4th parts of the place-name. Is there a switch I have to set to have it record more than just the Commune (1st element)?

As far as I’m aware, geo-coding simply adds the Lat & Long to a place record.

So if I have a place simply called “Machester, England”, I wouldn’t expect it to amend it to add the missing county, and to be honest, I wouln’t want it to.

"Gowermick";

I've seen programs use both approaches. MacFamilyTree 10 will look at a place and provide a list of all the possibilities from which a user can select the correct one. It then adds in the whole location and the coordinates.

I'm still new to FH7, so I'm playing on a test database. While waiting for a response, I unchecked the box that protects previously geocoded places and found that FH7 seems to return a more complete place name. I think that was my mistake. I had been preventing it from reevaluating the place names. Oddly; it sometimes messes up and supplies fewer terms than expected for a place. However; I can manually fix that.

I can see that the geocoding typically returns 3 columns of info plus the coordinates. Unfortunately; France typically uses 4 columns and FH7 is lumping the last two terms into the 3rd column. Do you know if there is a place to tell it that it should use 4 columns?

Gary,
I don’t understand your comment that FH7 offers a choice of alternatives for a place name when geo-coding. Are you confusing this with the auto-complete function when adding a place against a fact, which has nothing to do with geo-coding.

"Gowermick";

I actually said, "MacFamilyTree 10 will look at a place and provide a list of all the possibilities from which a user can select the correct one". I was just giving an example of another program that actually allows the user to choose amongst similar alternatives.

I took a deeper look at what FH7 does and I'm starting to doubt, as you said, that it does much beyond get the coordinates. It makes me a bit nervous, since France is notorious for having places of the same name in different parts of the country. So; I'm not sure how it selects the correct alternative.

In Tools> Work with Data > Places if you click columns you can specify how many columns you want your data to be displayed in. If a place name has more comma separated parts than the number of columns you have set, the excess parts will be 'lumped' in the final column.

When you sart to enter a place name FH will offer to auto-complete the name based on the names of place records already in your project. If you have several places which start with the same letters I think it offers the most recently used one first. If this is not the one you want you just need to keep typing to narrow the options until the right one comes up, or create a new one if the place is not already in your project. It's up to you to make sure you select the correct one. FH doesn't make the selection for you, it just makes suggestions based on what you have already used.

None of this has anything to do with geocoding, except that if you have not specified enough elements in the place name to start with then the co-ordinates may well be wrong because the program doesn't know which place you want. But the geocoding process only attempts to add coordinates, it doesn't do any auto-completion of place names.

Gary,
Another way to apply geo-coding manually is via the map window. If you want to geo-code a new place or correct a wrongly geo-coded place, find the correct place location on the map (expanding map gives greater accuracy), find the place in the lisst of placenames to the left of the map, and simply click and drag the name and drop it onto the map. The place will then be given the Lat & Long of where you dropped the name.

Lorna;

That does help a lot. Thank you.

"Gowermick";

Thank you. I may have a use for that technique of setting coordinates, since some places are not in the online geocoding database.

Gary - I would suggest that in all cases, you should check on the map where the Geocoding thinks your place is. The routines used by FH seem to basically do a text based search that might miss out on any logic implied by your place-names. I've had place-names in Victoria (Australia) end up in British Columbia because there's a Victoria there...

For my (non-existent) money, the Geocoding used by the "Map Life Facts" plug-in is better than the "native" Geocoder accessed by the FH Map Window.

AdrianBruce wrote: ↑

01 Apr 2023 11:38

For my (non-existent) money, the Geocoding used by the "Map Life Facts" plug-in is better than the "native" Geocoder accessed by the FH Map Window.

Was better, alas. I don't believe it works since Msoft withdrew support for IE -- at least, it doesn't work for me.

Map Life Facts works fine for me on Windows 10 Home 22H2 with the Web Page Map Options set for Leaflet Maps as stated on the Help page https://pluginstore.family-historian.co ... life-facts.

When I next update the plugin the Google Maps display Map Pane Mode option will be removed.
If chosen it produces a Script Error message as shown here https://pluginstore.family-historian.co ... -maps-mode.

However, the Google Maps geocoding still works fine and correctly plotted 'Somme-Tourbe, Département de la Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France' in exactly the correct location.

tatewise wrote: ↑

01 Apr 2023 12:43

However, the Google Maps geocoding still works fine and correctly plotted 'Somme-Tourbe, Département de la Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France' in exactly the correct location.

Which is excellent news, as I use the plugin in preference to the built in alternative.

However, it currently only works if the Map Pane Mode is set for Leaflet Maps. If it isn't, the plugin starts up with the script error you describe and all tabs inaccessible for a prolonged period (hence me believing it didn't work at all).

I've never used the Create Web Page Maps functionality, so have never touched the Web Page Map Options. It seems counterintuitive that a feature I don't use and don't care about affects other functionality, but I realise the issue will be going away when you next update it.

If you're not going to update if for a while, you may want to amend the version history for 5.1 to reflect the changes around Google Maps and make more prominent the necessary adjustments. Yes, it's buried in the FAQs, but as the Google Maps issue wasn't mentioned in the Version history, I didn't go looking further.

Incidentally, when you do update it, will you remove the NLS Historic UK maps option?

Helen, thank you for prompting me to update the plugin. It was on my hit list, and I started looking at Bing Maps as an alternative to Google Maps, but then got distracted by more pressing matters and it got pushed down the list.
An updated Map Life Facts plugin Version 5.2 Date 03 Apr 2023 is now in the Plugin Store and the Help & Advice pages have been revised. The plugin now forces the maps to use the Leaflet Maps option and Google Maps are deprecated.
If you notice anything that could be improved further then let me know.

Mike;
If I remember correctly, Google maps wanted a Credit Card number (even though it didn't use it) to get a code.
Does the substitute, Bing Maps, do the same?
Hopefully it doesn't.

tatewise wrote: ↑

04 Apr 2023 13:08

Helen, thank you for prompting me to update the plugin.

Thank you for updating -- in a quick check everything looks fine.

Gary, yes, Google Maps needs a credit card.
It looks like Bing Maps just needs a Microsoft Account and Bing Maps API Key to use a range of free services, but I got distracted before getting very far.

Thanks, Mike. It was the option to use Bing that interests me.
I already have the required account.
Hopefully it is as good or better than the Google service.
Will give it a try.

tatewise wrote: ↑

04 Apr 2023 14:33

Gary, yes, Google Maps needs a credit card.

Eh? I use google maps as a gazeteer all the time, and apart from logging in to my account, I don't have to subscribe or pay.
And as far as I'm aware I have never given it my credit card details - I'd draw the line at that!

tatewise wrote: ↑

04 Apr 2023 14:33

Gary, yes, Google Maps needs a credit card.
It looks like Bing Maps just needs a Microsoft Account and Bing Maps API Key to use a range of free services, but I got distracted before getting very far.

I've never got round to any kind of mapping or geocoding in FH, and I don't know when I ever will, but if it needed me to give credit card details to Google I'd almost certainly never bother.

However, if the alternative is Bing Maps in the way you describe, then as things are at present I still wouldn't do it. I run my PC (Windows 10) with a local account rather than an online Microsoft one, and intend to stick with that for as long as possible, so presumably that would rule me out.

But I'm also not convinced about the accuracy of Bing Maps: search for Keighley (Yorkshire, England), then click the black 'X' in the side panel to unhighlight it. 'Keighley' on the map is replaced by 'Queensbury', which is an entirely different place about 10 miles away. I've reported this (fairly recently, admittedly), but there doesn't seem to be any rush to correct it.

I mention this particular error because it's an area I'm familiar with, but who knows what others there might be?

Gowermick wrote: ↑

04 Apr 2023 15:41

tatewise wrote: ↑

04 Apr 2023 14:33

Gary, yes, Google Maps needs a credit card.

Eh? I use google maps as a gazeteer all the time, and apart from logging in to my account, I don't have to subscribe or pay.
And as far as I'm aware I have never given it my credit card details - I'd draw the line at that!

The credit card is needed to use the Geocoding API via the plugin.

Gowermick wrote: ↑

04 Apr 2023 15:41

... And as far as I'm aware I have never given it my credit card details - I'd draw the line at that!

So you've never paid for an Android app? I need my CAMRA Good Beer Guide subs!

Even free Android apps it nags you for a card when you try to download them (you can skip over that) - if you don't see that you've given them a card.

AdrianBruce wrote: ↑

04 Apr 2023 20:29

Gowermick wrote: ↑

04 Apr 2023 15:41

... And as far as I'm aware I have never given it my credit card details - I'd draw the line at that!

So you've never paid for an Android app? I need my CAMRA Good Beer Guide subs!

No, they don’t work on an iPhone or iPad

Getting back to the earlier topic...
(I wish users would read the whole thread before jumping to conclusions and going off on a tangent.)

I have knocked together a version of the plugin that uses Bing Maps for both plot geocoding and map pane display.
The Bing geocoding seems to work quite well and the Bing map pane is supported in the old IE shell used in the plugin.
Bing Maps needs you to sign in to a Microsoft Account and obtain a unique Bing Maps API Key but you do not need to remain signed in and no credit card is required. So it looks promising.
However, there is still a lot of Java script coding and testing required before the plugin is suitable for public trials...