* Mapping - existing, Map Facts, and Google Earth

[tparkhill]

I think this may be the right location to post.
I want to plot births of my immigrant ancestors on both a current map of Europe and historic maps of 17th century Europe, especially the Holy Roman Empire.
I am trying to put something together to help my kids understand the differences between our Huguenot, Walloon, German Palatinate, Dutch, and English Pilgrim (who lived in Holland) ancestors. And all the running around Europe they did to escape persecution in the early 16th century. Its an interesting but complex story, and want to use maps to help it make sense.
And note that by the early 1600s, there are 700 to 900 depending on branch I select. So currently the symbols merge together on FH7 maps.

1) first am I correct that I can't import maps into FH7?

2) when I zoom out to get the whole family in, the FH7 symbols are too large. Am I correct the symbol size can't be adjusted? Seems like can only change symbol type.

3) I have seen there is a Map Facts Plugin that creates a Google Map.
Years ago, I created a of map in Google's "My Maps" from an XLS file. Playing around I can try to retrace my steps and imagine I can figure out how to do this again from exported csv, doing the Geocoding in Google. If I can still get this into the old Google "My Maps", it appears to allow me to export a kmz/kml, which I could then import into Google Earth.

But I see that there is a Map Facts Plugin that creates "Google Maps".
So I am wondering, if I figure out how to use the Map Facts Plugin, and it creates a Google Map, will I be able to export then a kmz/kml from that Google Map?

I ask this because if I can't resize symbols or import maps into FH7, then it seems my best option is to move the locations to Google Earth. In Google Earth, I can change symbol sizes and even if I can't find Holy Roman Empire or other 17th century Europe maps, I can always import map images into Google Earth of historic maps.

So, I guess I am asking for advice, is it worth me trying to figure out Map Facts plugin and will the Google Map it creates be exportable as kml/kmz? Or should I just create a xls and figure out again how to Geocode it in Google maps?

Thanks,
Trent

[tatewise]

That is an interesting and complex project, but not sure I can help much.

1) Correct. FH cannot import maps.

2) Correct. Symbol size is fixed.

3) Currently the Map Life Facts plugin does not support Google Maps for technical reasons.
Anyway, it maps single Places or the Facts of one person, so it cannot map the Birth Places of multiple people.
For those reasons it probably won't help you much.

The FH Project holds the lat/longitude of every mapped Place.
So it should be possible to use a Query to export a list of people each with the lat/longitude of their Birth Place.
Can you use that information to create plots in Google Maps or Google Earth?

[tparkhill]

Thanks for confirming my suspicions (adjustable symbol size would really be a nice feature for many people I would guess.)
And yes, if I can find the fields I should be able to export and use them. I do have work to do on Places. Still need to standardize and correct some.
And when I go to the Work With Data/Places, only about 1/4 have lat/long.
I tried to bring up map once with all people and I think it was struggling trying to Geocode .
Some of the place names have letters with the correct foreign accents (and it does not seem to like those). Not sure about others.
Probably a week of Place clean up. Started at one point, but I think I stopped like a deer in the headlights on the question of one standard proper formatting.

I have been mostly focusing on migration what was driving it for each of our national groups. Now able to plot number of people moving at a time. Will add wars, climate (the bad seasons in early 17th century), other economic factors. etc.

temp.JPG (34.37 KiB) Viewed 2383 times

Thanks

[tatewise]

Initially, if you ask FH to geocode a large number of Places, then it applies restrictions to avoid overloading the server.
So just select a batch of Place records to geocode at one time.

Obviously, nothing can create plot markers until most if not all Place records have lat/longitude values.
So you must concentrate on formatting Place names and establishing Standardized names to geocode those values.
The only alternative is for you to manually set the lat/longitude values.

Since it seems that plugins are unlikely to help with your objective, can I move this thread to the General Usage forum?

[tparkhill]

Yes thanks, I don't know how to move it.

I was about to post, below, with what is a certainly general question.

I have specific examples below, but basically I am looking for the location of general instructions on how to clean up thousands of place names. I am sure there is a very simple place to go to for explanation, but I have spent hours Googling, reading KB articles, experimenting with Place List and the Merge Places Plugin . . . trying to figure up how to clean up place names, and the more I read, the more confused I am getting.

For examples,
1) I can't seem to figure out how to clean up place names in the "Place List". I can see the obvious junk that needs cleaning up.
2) I see situations where Part 1 says <blank>, Part 2 is empty, Part 3 has several parts. When I go to Edit, I expect to see 3 columns, so I can put the right stuff in each column, I don't see that. I can Fix capitalization, add spaces after commas, etc., but can't move to other columns.
For example, I just went into ",,CT" and changed to ", , Connecticut, United States". I hit the Online Map, which shows the state, so I am Guessing Geocode Understands it.
3)I can see Places that look correct, that didn't Geocode,
4) in the Merge Places names Plugin, I tried merging, it says select the correct one first, but apparently I am not selecting correctly (tried click in one, then Shift-Click the second), but don't think that is correct as it wants to change to the wrong one.
5) I just had ",,King William, VA". In Place List Edit, I tried changing to ", King William, Virginia, United States" I must have the format correct, but it says that record already exists.
6) in the "Places" tab of the Records lists (and of course, Plugin etc.), I see things that are really notes, not places. I would love to be able to double-click and go to the records that use them, so I can delete the use. But Double clicking seems to bring up the Place Record, vs. Individual records that use them. I am guessing there must be a way to easily get to the Individual records with those places to delete the junk, but can't seem to figure it out. I am guessing I could create a custom query to do this. But then I think, "no", I am being stupid, I am just not understanding how to do the clean up process.

I really don't expect I need specific answers to all these, but is there some place anyone could point me to that gives a clear simple explanation of how to methodically and efficiently go about cleaning up places?

I have just ordered the V6 manual. Perhaps it will be in there. I am certain it must be in the Knowledge Base, and I am usually pretty good at searching, but for some reason, today, all I am finding are things that are making me more confused.
thanks
Trent

[Ron Melby]

where you do your king william, va and change it to king william, virginia and it already exists it means that you can merge them. one way -- still laborious, nevertheless is sorting by that column to get all the king william that occupy that column together, then it is click and ctrl click for each one, and you can merge them to the correct layout. (I assume you are on the ribbon, then tools>workwithdata>places. you can sort by column of interest going to the column header (it says Part n) and click on it to sort, alt click to sort reverse, sometimes it may be convenient to reverse columns, or to sort columns part n then part n-1 successively to get like things clumped together, so you can merge for the best format. Now some might be aghast but say you have a used of 0, you can merge it with any other used record to get rid of it

[tatewise]

Yes thanks, I don't know how to move it.

I think only moderators can move it and I have done so.

I have specific examples below, but basically I am looking for the location of general instructions on how to clean up thousands of place names. I am sure there is a very simple place to go to for explanation, but I have spent hours Googling, reading KB articles, experimenting with Place List and the Merge Places Plugin . . . trying to figure up how to clean up place names, and the more I read, the more confused I am getting.

There is no simple one-stop solution as it depends on what cleaning up is needed and every database will be different.
See FHUG Knowledge Base Working with Places and Addresses that may provide useful ideas and alternative ways of reorganising your Place and Address details.

1) I can't seem to figure out how to clean up place names in the "Place List". I can see the obvious junk that needs cleaning up.

in the Tools > Work with Data > Places dialogue, click the Help button for some tips on using the Merge... button, etc.

2) I see situations where Part 1 says <blank>, Part 2 is empty, Part 3 has several parts. When I go to Edit, I expect to see 3 columns, so I can put the right stuff in each column, I don't see that. I can Fix capitalization, add spaces after commas, etc., but can't move to other columns.

A key factor you have missed is that Place fields rely on a comma (,) to separate each Part and each Part is listed in a separate Column in the Tools > Work with Data > Places dialogue (it is NOT a Plugin). So to move Columns you must add or remove commas. Use the Columns... button to increase the number of Columns if you have more than two commas in Place names.

3) I can see Places that look correct, that didn't Geocode,

Please post specific examples so we can advise. The geocoder used by FH is not very good for some parts of the world.
The Map Life Facts plugin may resolve some of those problem Place names.

4) in the Merge Places names Plugin, I tried merging, it says select the correct one first, but apparently I am not selecting correctly (tried click in one, then Shift-Click the second), but don't think that is correct as it wants to change to the wrong one.

Click the Help button and there are some tips on using the Merge... button, etc.

5) I just had ",,King William, VA". In Place List Edit, I tried changing to ", King William, Virginia, United States" I must have the format correct, but it says that record already exists.

FH does not allow duplicate Place records for the same Place name, so you must use Merge... to incorporate the 'wrong' Place name into the 'correct' Place name.

6) in the "Places" tab of the Records lists (and of course, Plugin etc.), I see things that are really notes, not places. I would love to be able to double-click and go to the records that use them, so I can delete the use. But Double clicking seems to bring up the Place Record, vs. Individual records that use them. I am guessing there must be a way to easily get to the Individual records with those places to delete the junk, but can't seem to figure it out. I am guessing I could create a custom query to do this. But then I think, "no", I am being stupid, I am just not understanding how to do the clean up process.

In the Tools > Work with Data > Places dialogue use the Where Used... button to get a comprehensive usage list.
See FHUG Knowledge Base Finding Where Records are Used for all the methods.
This is an example of why it is not easy to give a simple explanation of all the clean-up operations that may be needed.

I have just ordered the V6 manual. Perhaps it will be in there. I am certain it must be in the Knowledge Base, and I am usually pretty good at searching, but for some reason, today, all I am finding are things that are making me more confused.

I doubt if the V6 manual will help much as it does not go into such details.

[tparkhill]

Thanks. I have tried to read the Help . . . and this video helped a lot (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00VtjUTyNOc)
But I do see things in existing Places that confuse me. Perhaps these examples will help clarify.

Ex 1.
I assume/hope all of these were intended to be the state of New York. Looking at these, and which one Geocoded, I wonder . . .

a) are we supposed to (and required to) always have a space after a comma?
And so if City and County are missing, should the format be :
(1) “,,State,USA” or
(2) perhaps “, , State, USA”
b) and if spaces are required, is there a space before the first comma if you do not know the City?
c) I would have guessed the “best” format for NY state should be: “,,New York, USA” or “,,New York, United States”
But then why did “,,New York, United States” not Geocode when just "New York" did? Was this perhaps caused by the missing space before "New" ?
d) Interestingly, “,,New York” Geocodes as center of New York City. With these commas, I would have thought that
because commas show City and County is missing, it should have Geocoded in center of New York State ?

e) Why does the 1st column show <blank> and Part 2 is empty (rather than having <blank> ? Is this because there is another problem I should fix? Or is that just a quick of the Place List display

Ex1 image.JPG (46.44 KiB) Viewed 2274 times

Ex 2.
I have lots of cases where there are multiple entries that obviously need to merge. But once I know what the “best” format is, I notice that in these cases, the same County or State ended up with very different lat/long.

a) Should I check each Geocode location on map, and when Merging, select the one with correct lat/long?

b) Or should I merge to the correct comma/space/names format . . . And then try to find a way to delete the lat/long so it redoes the Geocoding?

c) And, is there a lesson I should take from how FH Geocoded the different formats?

Ex 2 image.JPG (70.89 KiB) Viewed 2274 times

Ex 3.
I have lots of situations where it would seem the easiest/best solution is to go into the Individuals Record and change the data there. e.g as shown below where someone input a cemetery (or a note) in the City and/or County spots. Of course, when I click “Where Used”, it wants to shut down the dialog (must be a Windows rule to not have 2 active dialog boxes open). Challenge is that it takes a bit of time to then go back to the Place List window.

a) Any thoughts about how to make this kind of effort easiest?

b) did some of these Geocode because putting “” around an entry is telling FH to ignore this information?

Ex 3 image.JPG (83.02 KiB) Viewed 2274 times

Ex 4.
This is perhaps a question about priorities (Geocoding and Genealogy) . . . It seems to me that the only reason to enter a County is if all that you know from the source is the County and State.
It would seem my default should be: “City,,State, Country Abbreviation” (once I know where to correctly put spaces). i.e. If Google can Geocode without the County, why add the formatting/Geocoding errors that seem more likely with another element.

Ex 5.
Now this question I did see discussed in the Help. But I want to make sure I understand.
. . . Its about old place names vs. current place names. The mapping element is big for me, and personally (thinking about my kids/grandkids using this in the future), old place names that have little meaning today seem only worth using If I do not know what the 21st century City is.

a) is there a reason one would regret correcting old place names (e.g. Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony” over to Boston, Massachusetts)?

b) and, am I understanding correctly, that if I keep old place names, that I should put today’s place name in “Standardized Version” field and it will Geocode to Standardized Version?

If I ever get to the place where I think I understand enough what I am doing, perhaps I will attempt a video series on cleaning up old data files. I am in a group that is perhaps unusual, probably (hopefully) growing in coming years. My father spent a couple of decades doing the genealogy, and entering it into a computer. I have "inherited" his database. So my goals/needs are more about cleaning up, dealing with issues that come up from moving a database through 4 different software companies as companies go out of business, and trying to put my father's hard work in a good state for the future. So challenges like "clean up" become bigger and different.

Thanks so much for everyone's patience and help!
Trent

Ex 2 image.JPG (70.89 KiB) Viewed 2274 times

[tatewise]

I can answer a few questions but the geocode plotting differences are very strange so let me investigate them.

There are clearly a great many different 'spellings' for the same Place name that need to be Merged.
Since most have no Lat/Longitude value, select all entries that should be the same Place and Merge them into one.
Select the one with most Used links or best Lat/Longitude value as the preferred final version.
After reducing to a set of unique Places the subsequent tidying gets easier because there are far fewer records.

Spaces before or after commas are essentially cosmetic and you can use whatever you like.
The TIDY option in FH will put a space after each comma and that is the recommended style.
However, spaces do matter in the Place names defined in the Place records.
i.e. ,,New York,USA is a different Place name than , , New York, USA
So it is important to be consistent when using spaces so that there is only one Place record for each actual place.

Nevertheless, the spaces should be irrelevant as far as geocoding is concerned.
FH does not know which column Parts represent Town, City, County or Country. Only you know that.
So the column Part positions do not significantly affect the geocoding.

The Places list only ever shows <blank> in the Part 1 column and never any other column.
I don't know why.

I suggest you use the Columns... button and increase the columns to 4 or 5 because your Places all have 4 or more Parts.

I suggest you leave the Places that contain non-place details as shown in your Ex 3 until the other problems are resolved.
Putting " " around names does not tell FH to ignore them. That only applies to the Map Life Facts plugin.
Do not edit the Place fields in Individual Facts as that simply creates yet another Place record to clean up later.

Ex 5 regarding the Standardized field.
The popular strategy is to put the old contemporary Place names as recorded on old documents in the primary field.
Then use the Standardized field when necessary to hold the modern-day equivalent Place so that it will geocode.
Yes, if the Standardized field exists then it is used instead of the Place name for geocoding.

Much of the above advice is in Working with Places and Addresses.

[Ron Melby]

having used blank a great deal between commas, it will show <blank> when the first field is ''. If you put an actual blank in there, it will show as all the others.

[AdrianBruce]

...
d) Interestingly, “,,New York” Geocodes as center of New York City. With these commas, I would have thought that
because commas show City and County is missing, it should have Geocoded in center of New York State ?
...

I wouldn't assume too much logic sits behind the Geocoding facilities, perhaps particularly not behind the native FH geocoder (i.e. not the one used by Mike's Plug-In). I would suggest that the Geocoder has decided that more people want to see New York City on a map than New York State, so it interprets "New York" on its own as the city, not the state.

I found that the native FH Geocoder gave some idiosyncratic results, which appeared to have changed over time in that I was getting massively different map positions for places with names in the same Australian(?) state when asking for new stuff.

Incidentally, as for your speculation about omitting the county, I would be worried about that tactic when it comes to places with the same name as their county - the classic one is "Los Angeles, California, USA". Is that LA City or LA County? I'd always enter both and I'd always add "Co" to the county's name to make it clear what was what. Thus "Los Angeles, Los Angeles Co, California, USA" and "Los Angeles Co, California, USA". Possibly more to type but it makes it clearer in my mind.

[Gowermick]

What no one has mentioned so far (unless I missed it ), is that when you display your places on the map, and find a marker is wrongly geo-coded and so in wrong position, you can easily correct it yourself

1. By clicking the move marker icon, and dragging the actual marker to the correct place.

2. Drag the name of the place in left hand column, and drop it onto the map at the correct location!.(better method if marker is miles out, like on another continent, where dragging marker is a bit more dificult.)

Both methods correct the Lat/Long for the place.

If you are someone that includes addresses in you place name (e.g. for churches or cemeteries) method 2 is ideal, as you can enlarge the map to maximum, and drop the name onto the actual Church or Cemetery!

NB Just don’t auto-refresh, or it may end up back in the wrong place

[ColeValleyGirl]

NB Just don’t auto-refresh, or it may end up back in the wrong place

Or right click on the place afterwards, select Geocoding and then Block (no auto-geocoding).

[LornaCraig]

NB Just don’t auto-refresh, or it may end up back in the wrong place

Or right click on the place afterwards, select Geocoding and then Block (no auto-geocoding).

...or use Tools > Preferences > Map Window and set Mark Auto-geocodes as Tentative if: Always, then select Block refresh for Non-tentative Geocodes. This means you don't have to keep remembering to Block the auto-geocoding on every place you code manually. They will be non-tentative, so blocked automatically.

[ColeValleyGirl]

Thanks, Lorna -- there's always something I forget.

[tatewise]

IMO based on the screenshots, it seems best to focus initially on merging the multiple Place records for a single location, so there is just one Place record for each distinct location.
Don't worry too much about how Place names are formatted but consistently use the City, County, State, Country column Parts.
Leave geocoding to a later stage.

[tatewise]

I have experimented with a variety of ways of entering New York, USA with very odd FH geocoding results as below.
The top entry is nowhere near New York and only two entries have the same Lat/Longitude!
Do others get these same strange plots?

Code: Select all

 Latitude, 	Longitude	 Place
43°27'51.84"N, 76°30'58.32"W	 New York,  USA
43°9'22.21"N,  75°50'41.98"W	 New York State, USA
40°46'53.35"N, 73°57'32.6"W	 New York County, USA
40°45'31.67"N, 73°57'44.43"W	 New York, NY, United States
40°43'50.16"N, 73°59'11.76"W	 New York, United States
40°43'50.16"N, 73°59'11.76"W	 New York, NY
40°42'51.37"N, 74°0'21.49"W	 New York
40°42'45.99"N, 74°0'21.5"W	 New York City
40°42'45.82"N, 74°0'21.65"W	 New York, NY, USA
40°34'42.6"N,  74°8'2.4"W	 New York, New York, USA

I then geocoded them using the Map Life Facts plugin which uses Google Maps with the following rational results:

Code: Select all

 Latitude, 	Longitude	 Place
43°17'57.94"N, 74°13'4.56"W	 New York State, USA
40°46'59.02"N, 73°58'16.5"W	 New York County, USA
40°42'45.99"N, 74°0'21.5"W	 New York, New York, USA
40°42'45.99"N, 74°0'21.5"W	 New York, NY
40°42'45.99"N, 74°0'21.5"W	 New York City
40°42'45.99"N, 74°0'21.5"W	 New York, NY, United States
40°42'45.99"N, 74°0'21.5"W	 New York, NY, USA
40°42'45.99"N, 74°0'21.5"W	 New York,  USA
40°42'45.99"N, 74°0'21.5"W	 New York, United States
40°42'45.99"N, 74°0'21.5"W	 New York

[AdrianBruce]

Yes, without trying them all, that's basically what I get with the native FH Geocoder.

• New York, USA matches yours - it's pretty much mapped to Oswego (New York State) on the American shore of Lake Ontario.
• New York State, USA matches yours and is on the shore of Lake Oneida. Quite how anyone decides the co-ordinates of something as big as a State, I've no idea, though, so I'm not complaining too much on this one.
• New York County, New York State, USA matches your New York County, USA, and seems to be in the middle of Manhattan, which seems fair enough to me, given that the county was renamed to Manhattan.
• New York City - oh. Mine is like your New York, United States not your New York City. It's about halfway between Central park and the southern tip of Manhattan.
• New York, New York State, USA matches your New York, NY, USA, is further south again along Manhattan and actually in the middle of the "New York" name on the map!

[tparkhill]

Thanks so much to all of you!!
It really helps to understand these things, to make sure my clean up does not need to be done twice.

Apologies, a couple of other Location questions:

1) European question:
About 40% of my family was chased around the Holy Roman Empire before heading to the colonies, the rest all from 16th Century UK, mostly England. So I have a lot of European places, many of which may be "old places".
I have been trying to Google and let Wikipedia help me figure out a present day name. But I can't even tell if a name is "old" or present day. Since I have not been fortunate enough to even visit Great Britain (hope to correct this in a year or two), its not easy for an American to know what places are " old" and to get the Places right

I don't suppose there is:
a) an on-line translator/convertor that can convert these Old Place Names into reliably Geocodable New Place Names ?, or
b) a place where I can copy in a name and get a very quick check to see if it Geocodes (and perhaps "looks correct") ?

2) perhaps too "American" of a question
The US Census had a "Beat" designation for location of people in southern states, and others have included this in Part 1 of Place Name. (https://english.stackexchange.com/quest ... s-division)
I am guessing that the Geocoders are not that sophisticated, and I should delete it.

3) I had also concluded consolidate first, then Geocode. When I do get to Geocoding, I think I remember reading there were two options. One seemed suggested if you have a lot of locations, which I do. But given the funky Geocoding behavior, guess the jury is still out on what method might be best. Is this the kind of question I should go to FH Help on, or stay with FUG as best opinion?

Thanks again for the great advice.
Trent

[tparkhill]

Sorry, I should have added this example for question 1:
I found something with Google I thought would allow a check on Geocoding (https://developers.google.com/maps/docu ... ing/?csw=1)

But I tried the variants I have for Sudeley:
Sudeley, Gloucester, England
Sudeley, Gloucestershire, England
Sudley, Gloucester, England
. . . and a few others that had Sudeley Manor in Place 1.
But Google did not seem to find it.
But then I experimented with various options of Boston, MA and my home address and it did not seem to find it.
I guess I am hoping to find some "easy" way to check places to see if they are old?, to see if Geocodable?, to see if they Geocode correctly?
and if lucky, to convert old names to new.

[tparkhill]

And to the challenge of problem Geocoding . . . I just found the "Find" feature on the Place List, which makes it easy to bring same places near each other. So I typed in Sudbury (for Sudbury, Massachusetts). And I get the following . . .

Sudbury FUG example.JPG (80.94 KiB) Viewed 2006 times

Interestingly (and VERY troubling), when I Google search "Sudbury , MA Lat Long", it tells me the correct lat/long matches the one for: "Sudbury, ?, Mass" which suggests I should combine and select this "bad" place name, to make sure it Geocodes correctly (assuming Google Geocoding matches what FH7 i doing) .

My gut says I should use a Modern standard name, Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States (or perhaps USA) . . . but this Geocodes 31 miles away from Sudbury MA.

So, It seems like when I combine, I need to check which address is Geocoding correctly and use that address, even if it is "goofy" . . . but this just feels wrong.

Is this challenge something that needs to go to someone at FH?
Trent

[Ron Melby]

you can certainly merge on that one, if you like...
then you can also edit it to:

Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States or whatever after it is all merged.

[AdrianBruce]

...
I guess I am hoping to find some "easy" way to check places to see if they are old?, to see if Geocodable?, to see if they Geocode correctly?
and if lucky, to convert old names to new.

Personally, I'd suggest that it'll be faster to just try to Geocode it in FH, and see what happens when you zoom the map in. Cross check in Wikipedia and / or Google Maps if you like - many places have co-ordinates in Wikipedia but I wouldn't care to say how many.

In the case of Sudeley, Gloucester, England, I found that Google maps went there and Wikipedia has co-ordinates for Sudeley. The Maps Life Facts plug-in gets there but the native FH Geocoder doesn't - at first glance it's in the middle of the Gloucester suburbs (possibly the result of the middle name???) but when you zoom right in, it's on Sudeley Way in the suburbs of Gloucester. So it's not totally incorrect. Just useless!

Which brings me to another suggestion - rather than use a goofy place name, you could get the right co-ordinates from Wikipedia and manually update the co-ordinates of the "correctly named" place. You then need to ensure that you've blocked the refresh of non-tentative Geocodes (see earlier in this thread, I think?) to stop the FH native geocoder messing up your careful manually input value.

This may seem like a lot of work but believe me the only sensible thing is to review the output of the FH native geocoder on the map each time you geocode somewhere. (Incidentally, I call it the FH native geocoder but it's a service provided by an outside body and Calico Pie don't control its oddities.) It's either that or you settle down with several cups of coffee and work out how to use the Maps Life Facts plug-in, which seems far more solid in its output. Usually.

Re Sudbury - I'd merge your entries first, probably to:
Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA
and maybe
Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony which should have a standardised name of Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA
Then either use the Map Life Facts plug-in (which codes it correctly) or cut and paste the co-ordinates from Wikipedia into both place records. (IIRC using the FH native geocoder gave me a place in the middle of nowhere, which I suspect may simply be the co-ordinates of "USA".)

This may seem a pain - because it is, if you use the FH native geocoder. (Anything else would have cost Calico Pie more money than was possible for them to licence it). Even with the Map Life Facts plug-in, it's not a piece of cake.

Either way, I suggest that merging your places to date-appropriate values is the priority.

[Ron Melby]

Mike may tell me I am wrong, but as far as place goes, wouldnt one be better off to make all the standardization first, never mind the lat long stuff, and then run map life facts place fields only, and that would be the most accurate, and then wouldn't fh map use those?

[tatewise]

Yes, Ron is reiterating what I said earlier. Postpone geocoding until later.
(However, I suspect he does not mean standardizing but means rationalising/merging.)
The first step is to reduce the number of Place records so there is only one Place record per location.
i.e. Just one for Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA and maybe one for Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony,
It does not really matter whether you use an old name or a new name as that one Place record can be easily edited when resolving the geocoding later.