Family Historian User Group

Version 2.3 is now available from the Plugin Store, and includes the enhancements below.
(N.B. Inadvertently, this version still displays V2.2 in its header.)
1. Revised GUI based on the Windows User Experience Guide http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... 11258.aspx that among other things suggests 'blue' should not be used except for hyperlinks.
2. Selecting a mapped Individual on the Create Web Page Maps tab now displays a multiple Marker map similar to the Web Page Map HTML file.
3. Clicking on an empty area of any map restores its original default view.
4. Zoom levels are adjusted on any Google Map but default levels are now only set on the Set Preference Options tab.
5. Other minor updates, code revisions, and bug fixes.

Thanks go to both Jane and Nick for all the help and advice.

ID:5888

Mike,

I have a couple of places that refuse to plot.  They come back as 'no plot'.

However, if I go to Google Maps and enter the same name, they plot just fine.  They are real towns in Minnesota.

Fosston, Polk County, Minnesota
North Branch, Chisago County, Minnesota

Any ideas why these won't plot in Map Life Facts?

Thanks,

Bill

When I enter those places into Google Maps I get plots, but none of them are for the towns themselves.
They are all for business or organisation addresses within the town, not the town itself.
You need to ask Google Maps why they do not recognise these towns.

If I replace Fosston with Fosston Golf Club or Fosston Airport, or add a street such as Columbia Road then it plots correctly in both Google Maps and Map Life Facts.

A similar scenario applies to North Branch, Chisago.

A solution that works, which I have to use with some of my places too, is to add a post code or zip code.

So Fosston, Polk County, Minnesota, MN 56542 and North Branch, Chisago County, Minnesota, MN 55056 plot correctly in both Google Maps and Map Life Facts.

You can either add these zip codes to your FH Place fields, or in Map Life Facts use Copy Location to Substitute and append the zip code to the Substitute field.
This type of solution becomes even more necessary for old place names that no longer exist.
See the Help & Advice for Geocode Location Plots for more details.

I have discovered, that plotting using Address+Place, that if the street name does not exist, then google maps chooses a place on the outskirts of Rugby, even if the city is somewhere like Manchester or Liverpool.
Although, conversely, it manages most locations on the Isle of Man correctly.

Wish for further Tweak:

Mike . any way to flag locations already checked and tweaked.
Otherwise when you go back to look at your plots, especially if you have a lot, you have to start all over again at the first address

I am unable to reproduce your first problem.
Can you provide some examples that Geocode erroneously to Rugby?

N.B. Just east of Rugby is the Google Maps plot for the centre of England.

Are you working through your Location tweaking alphabetically?
Had you noticed that Locations are listed alphabetically in the associated list?

If working alphabetically, just note the last Location tweaked and start from there next time.

this happened to me too. I had a marriage taking place at 'Bunyan Meeting House, Bedford, Bedfordshire' that was mapped as Rugby. I removed 'Bunyan Meeting House' from the place name and it then mapped correctly to Bedford.

If I try Bunyan Meeting House, Bedford, Bedfordshire then I get No Plot.

If I try Bunyan Meeting House, Bedford, Bedfordshire, England then I get a plot west of Rugby UK at 52.3555177 -1.1743197.

If I use 'Bunyan Meeting House', Bedford, Bedfordshire, England then I get near Bedford UK at 52.1479731 -0.4338963.
The use of string quotes to exclude place parts was requested by John and implemented in V2.2.
If I use 'Bunyan Meeting House', Bedford, England then I get exactly Bedford UK at 52.1408289 -0.462191.

If I use 'Bunyan Meeting House', Bedford, Bedfordshire then I incorrectly get Bedford USA at 32.849692 -97.141052.

That last one is strange as Google Maps should prefer Bedford UK to Bedford USA because the request comes the UK.

[EDIT]
There are reports on the Internet that suggest the Google Maps automatic Region Biasing to prefer your PC location does not always work.
I confirmed this by modifying my version of Map Life Facts to force the Region Biasing to UK whereupon it found Bedford in England instead of USA.

Mike,

Thanks for the explanation.  I had not noticed that what was being plotted were businesses, not the towns themselves.

I had already tried using substitutes.  

I tried 'Fosston, Polk County, Minnesota 56542' and 'North Branch, Chisago County, Minnesota 55056' and they would not plot either.  I also tried using MN instead of Minnesota and they still would not plot.

Are these plotting for you?

I finally got it to work by putting in an address as well as the city, county, and state, and zip into the substitute field.

I thought that in other cases when I put in a city, county, and state and the city didn't exist or couldn't be found, it plotted to the county, and state. An example is Norwich, Page County, Iowa. It plots to the same place as if you just enter Page County, Iowa. It is kind of strange that it didn't do it for these two places.

Bill

I agree it is sometimes odd the way Google works.
Geocoding is not a perfect science, and probably depends a lot on human data entry for all the place names.

Regarding zip codes, did you not spot how I formatted them?
You must add MN 12345 to the place names. The number alone will not do.
e.g. Fosston, Polk County, Minnesota, MN 56542 and North Branch, Chisago County, Minnesota, MN 55056.

For me Norwich, Page County, Iowa plots to 42.9416737 -90.0746767 at Dodgeville, Wisconsin.
Whereas Page County, Iowa plots to 40.7635099 -95.1432068 at Clarinda, Iowa.

Mike,

No... I missed that. Kind of redundant to have to spell out the state and put in the postal abbreviation. That does work though.

Thanks,

Bill

Mike,

For me, Norwich, Page County, Iowa plots to 40.7635099 and -95.1432068. This is exactly the same thing I get if I plot Page County, Iowa.

Very strange.

Bill

Bill, when I got different plots for Norwich, Page County, Iowa I had my version of Map Life Facts set with Region Biasing for the UK.
After restoring to the V2.3 you have, both plot to exactly the same Lat/Longitude.
I have no idea why biasing to the UK changes the USA plots.

Mike,

I too have seen strange results.  I am finding that I often have to go in and tweak the results to get it to plot where it really belongs.  Often it plots only to the middle of the county or the middle of the state for US locations.  For Norwegian locations I often get plots that are to the middle of the 'county' there as well.

Thanks for your help!

Bill

I get similar effects in the UK.
Google sometimes works better if the County is removed and only the Town and Country remain.

The earlier Bunyan Meeting House, Bedford, Bedfordshire is a good (or should that be 'bad') example.

With the Region Biasing set to uk the following is observed.
England on its own plots to 52.3555177 -1.1743197 east of Rugby.
Bedfordshire on its own plots to 52.0765833 -0.6480583 north-east of Milton Keynes.
Bedford on its own plots to 52.1408289 -0.462191 spot on Bedford.
But Bedford, Bedfordshire plots to 52.1479731 -0.4338963 east of Bedford!
Also Bunyan Meeting House, Bedford (without string quotes) plots in Bedford, but add Bedfordshire and it gives No Plot!

Mike,

I have run across the same types of results.  

I've started putting the actual City, County, State, Country into the place name which gets carried over to the location in the plugin.  Then if that doesn't plot to the correct spot on the map, I put that part of the place name into the substitute field that actually gets plotted correctly.  If that doesn't work, then I hard code a latitude and longitude.

All this points out how nice the plugin is.  Your implementation of substitutes, latitudes, and longitudes works great.

Thanks!

Bill