* Places with Latitude and Longitude data

[SabineS]

Hi,

I would like to find a possibility to create and update a map with, for example, all places that show events with a certain surname.

I store my places in the form of 'Town, Countrycode-Zipcode', for example, 'Wildeshausen, D-27793'. I know that is non-standard, but it works best for me, especially because territories in German history are extremely unreliable, and zip codes are a pretty good way to get a general idea of where a place is located (Works for Italy and the US, too, for example.)

The problem, of course, is that no program understands this format.

Gedcom 5.5.1 supports Latitude and Longitude as parts of the Place tag, but FH doesn't, and it would be far too much work to include these sub-tags manually each time the map is to be updated (the file has about 10000 individuals, and is still growing fast).

I could also export to some other software (FamilyTreeMaker is supposed to be able to draw maps), but then I would have to add the Lat-Long-data each time I update the map.

I've thought about Tatewise's way of using the Repository fields for that, however I don't think this would really work automatically. Or have I overlooked something?

I could, of course, change my habit to using a place structure like this: 'Town, Country-Zip, Latitude, Longitude', which would have the charming advantage that one would have to change that just once for each place. But I wouldn't want the Lat-Long-data every time I print a report or draw a chart.

Can anybody think of an efficient way to do this?

Is there, talking of that, a way to split up the places for a table? Like, generating a query which shows 'Wildeshausen', 'D-27793', the latitude and the longitude each in a separate column? One might, for example, want to have the place list sorted according to zip codes.

Sabine

ID:5459

[SabineS]

Uh, well ... I can use the 'medium' place format in the queries, which would hide the Lat/Long data. But I wouldn't want the Lat/Long data in the FamilyGroupSheet, for example, and I don't see how to use the medium place format there.

Sabine

[tatewise]

I think my Repository technique may be worth investigating.
Firstly, it avoids the problem of unwanted Zipcode/Lat/Long in the Place field.
You are correct that Reports cannot show SHORT or MEDIUM Places.
Secondly, it should be possible to create Queries that have columns to associate Individuals and Facts and Repository fields.
Probably a Fact Query with a filter on the Individual Owner Surname.
The tricky bit is associating each Fact with the Source of Type = Location (say) when there may be multiple Sources.