Family Historian User Group

Some check boxes in the attached screen shot are coloured orange. Does anyone know why this is, I an find nothing in the help. Thank you

From the Help file:

LornaCraig wrote: ↑

24 Apr 2023 21:20

From the Help file: ...

Having said that - I don't remember quite what "Tentative" actually means. That Help file goes on to say "By default, automatic geocoding will flag a geocode as tentative if it is partial or uncertain". I'm not sure how it decides - surely it either has a geocode or not? I know I don't appear to have any so can't reverse engineer the message. (I only use the Map Life Facts plug-in now for Geocoding)

It's tentative if there's only a partial match with the place name. More from the Help file:

However, as suggested, I specify in Preferences that all automatic geocodes are initially flagged as tentative. After I've checked them I make them non-tentative. I also use Preferences to Block Refresh for Non-tentative Geocodes, so that the ones I have checked don't get accidentally changed again.

LornaCraig wrote: ↑

24 Apr 2023 21:20

Thank you Lorna, I had missed that!

In daylight I see they are pink. I have now unmarked as tentative using map menu -> geocoding. I had already disabled auto-geocoding and blocked refresh for non-tentative geocodes.

Commenting in reverse order...

LornaCraig wrote: ↑

24 Apr 2023 22:28

... I also use Preferences to Block Refresh for Non-tentative Geocodes, so that the ones I have checked don't get accidentally changed again.

Absolutely crucial that one. Especially if I've handcrafted the exact co-ords, I don't want the mapping to "improve" (not) the values.

LornaCraig wrote: ↑

24 Apr 2023 22:28

... as suggested, I specify in Preferences that all automatic geocodes are initially flagged as tentative. After I've checked them I make them non-tentative.

I wish I'd read and followed that from the start. I didn't use Maps for a while, then tried a few (using the native Geocoder) and checked the results. All OK, so I did the lot. Only later did I find some Irish place-names in South America...

LornaCraig wrote: ↑

24 Apr 2023 22:28

It's tentative if there's only a partial match with the place name. ...

I've just been experimenting to see what the native Geocoder defines as a partial match. I input a couple of "proper" place-names, followed by some loopy values. They all Geocoded and not a single one got marked as Tentative.

• "Sandbach, Cheshire, England" was my control and geocodes correctly.
• "Sanback, Cheshire, England" codes to somewhere in the Runcorn area of what was Cheshire. Whether it's picking up a streetname, I can't tell for sure, but it's on Westfield Road there so that doesn't seem likely. And since the next deliberate mis-spelling also goes here, I don't think it is picking up a street-name.
• "Nuntwich, Cheshire, England" goes to the same place as "Sanback" whereas I was wondering if it might decide it was a mis-spelling of Nantwich and go there.
• "Cheshire, England" maps to its county town of Chester, rather than the centre of the county, but hey, there's some logic.
• "Deep Space 9" geocodes to somewhere in Nepal. Yep. That's where Star Trek's wormhole from the Gamma Quadrant comes out.

I tried a few others but, as I say, none come out as tentative. I expected things like "Sanback, Cheshire, England" would have counted as a partial match - but they don't.

So basically, I still don't understand what terms like "partial" and "tentative" mean, though clearly the software does because David got them!

Incidentally, I then used the Google-Geocoder driven "Map Life Facts" plug-in (after removing the existing geocodes) and it does identify Nuntwich as Nantwich and geocode it there. Ditto Sanback goes to Sandbach. "Deep Space 9" can't be geocoded so maybe the Google mapping people are all Star Wars fans...

David2416 wrote: ↑

24 Apr 2023 20:51

Some check boxes in the attached screen shot are coloured orange. Does anyone know why this is, I an find nothing in the help. Thank you

Screenshot 2023-04-24 214514.jpg

David,
May I make a suggestion. If you put house number AFTER street name, you’ll find they sort much better, so both Pine Street Addresses will appear next to each other, which I feel is more useful to you than having the two number 19s together.
I find this method much better for spotting individuals who lived in the same street, a fact you may not have noticed before

Gowermick wrote: ↑

25 Apr 2023 11:31

David2416 wrote: ↑

24 Apr 2023 20:51

Some check boxes in the attached screen shot are coloured orange. Does anyone know why this is, I an find nothing in the help. Thank you

Screenshot 2023-04-24 214514.jpg

David,
May I make a suggestion. If you put house number AFTER street name, you’ll find they sort much better, so both Pine Street Addresses will appear next to each other, which I feel is more useful to you than having the two number 19s together.
I find this method much better for spotting individuals who lived in the same street, a fact you may not have noticed before

Thank you Gowermick. That is something I have considered doing using, of course, MikeT's Rearrange Address and Place Parts Plugin. You might even have nudged me into doing it!

AdrianBruce wrote: ↑

25 Apr 2023 11:12

I've just been experimenting to see what the native Geocoder defines as a partial match.

Prompted by your post I have now experimented too. I changed my Preferences to Mark Auto-geocodes as Tentative if Partial/uncertain matches. Then I created four test places:

Nowhere Street, Evanston, Cook County, Illinois, USA
Someplace, Cook County, Illinois, USA
, Some County, Illinois, USA
,, Illinois, USA.

I thought the first three ought be marked as Tentative because it couldn’t find Nowhere Street or Someplace or Some County, but I assumed it would put the first in Evanston, the second in the middle of Cook County and the third in the middle of Illinois.

I also assumed the fourth would be Non-tentative and it would put the marker in the middle of Illinois.

Result:
It put the first two together at a small place called Kent in the west of Stephenson County.
It put Some County, Illinois, USA in Cook County
It put ,, Illinois, USA in the south of Kansas.

And alarmingly they were all marked as NON-tentative!
I'm definitely going back to setting all auto-geocoding as Tentative!