In the past, FamilySearch Places contained separate entries for both U.S. states and the historic U.S. territories that shared their same names. For example, "Utah (state; 1896-today)" was one entry, and "Utah Territory (1850-1896)" was another. The distinction was accurate, but some users struggled to understand which place to select when documenting an ancestor's life.
In 2022, a project was initiated to simplify this scenario. Going forward, 2 similar place-names such as "Utah (state; 1896-Today)" and "Utah Territory (1850-1896)" will be combined into 1: Utah (state; 1850-today). Historical notes or alternate names for both places will appear in the new place's description.
The project is currently underway and should be completed sometime in March of 2022.
Why the change?
The purpose of the change is to make it easier to correctly select a place for your ancestor or family member's life event. Our naming practices are based on 3 guiding principles or standards, each of which supports this change:
- Meaningful. Does the name represent what most users know and understand?
- Useful. Will most users recognize the name and be able to distinguish it from other options?
- Accurate. Does the name represent any important historical changes that occurred?
We are most interested in small differences between place names when the differences are integral to the place's identity and researchers need them to find and share local records. On the other hand, we try to filter out large or trivial administrative differences that would only make the data more difficult or cumbersome to use.
How does the change affect your experience?
We don't expect very many users to notice this change, though we anticipate that thousands of users, over time, will benefit from the improved accuracy in our data. We apologize for any disappointment you may feel in not being able to select a historical territory to document your ancestor's life.
Rest assured that when two place-names are combined, the information attached to both places will be carefully preserved and appear in the description for the remaining place. Any place-name that was merged or deleted will be forwarded to the new or combined name, so that someone who searches for it will be directed to the best possible match.
Below is a list of U.S. states involved in the update:
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- Colorado
- Florida
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- New Mexico
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Utah
- Washington
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming