Genealogy Chat

Most sites have defaults

But - they usually get them right!!

Sydney is NOT in Western Australia!

The situation on Ancestry is a bit different. Their programme will offer options
( so far I have not come across any that don't actually exist)
These are just 3 of the many possibilities:
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Sydney, Ontario, Canada
Sydney, North Dakota, USA
With Ancestry, it is up to the user to choose the correct option from the list, but with GR, only one default option is available for Sydney, which is :
Sydney, Western Australia...... which does not exist.

It´s not just on Genes. If you don´t specify a county or country, Ancestry automatically defaults to a same name place in America.
I´ve lost count if the number of fellow researchers who have rellies of mine marrying & dying in America when I know for a fact they never got further from Birmingham than Wolverhampton in their entire lives.

Thankyou Anne!

I hope someone at GR reads this!

It's not a problem for me to type Sydney NSW, it's just bl**dy annoying that they got it wrong, and despite me telling them (first time at least two years ago) they still haven't fixed it.

The email from them (above) is just ridiculous. :-P

I wonder how many other places default to the wrong location in this system?

As I only ever upload trees to GR by gedcom, I tested this today directly via my GR tree
I removed a manually added place of birth ( Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) and re entered simply as Sydney....... GR offered a default setting which is indeed.. Sydney, Western Australia

I haven't checked my hotmail for a while, so this response from GR is a few days old (copied & pasted).

Thank you for your email, I have tested this in my tree and unfortunatly cannot recreate this problem. Please can you send me the name and year of birth of the person in your tree that this error is occuring under, so I can investigate this further for you. I look forward to hearing from you.

Re " I have tested this in my tree and unfortunatly cannot recreate this problem "

I don't understand why it cannot be recreated, because the GR system DEFAULTS TO SYDNEY WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

Do GR staff have a different tree? :-S

Seems to be a common problem
In geneology, sureley ALL places should be listed?
I was born in Liverpoo, Lancashire, now Merseyside.
If I look for relatives in "Messeyside" WILL i FIND THEM?http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.page/board/genealogy_chat/thread/1296001#

I'm not fretting. I am annoyed.

I get annoyed when things are wrong.

I get more annoyed when the people "in charge" are told what is correct, and they do NOTHING about it.

I'm getting more and more annoyed at the attitude of GR.

They seem to be ignoring members.

Why fret about it Scozz...you know where Sydney lies...just delete GR's interpretation and add your own.

To be honest having travelled the east coast of Aus many years ago I have far more insight of the states than the London Borough's where my husband's ancestors are deeply rooted. A nightmare for those who are born up north of England and having no sense of direction researching/visiting London...and that is only in a few mile radius :-D

Linda

but Sydney hasn't moved from one side of Australia to the other

When I worked, such a long time ago, there was a problem when the Post Office decided to change a district and make it into a town. We were told by our IT at the time that there was no way that the information could be changed in the system because that is how it was when it was bought .So for over ten years prior to my retirement the wrong postcode and the wrong town had to be entered.
The system gr bought in the beginning may well have come with these faults and they may not be in a position to do anything about it.-jl

lol - I had to find a list of the shortened codes for the USA. So many people just assume the rest of us know the US.

That reminds me - when I was first in the US (1986) I was compimented on my good English. Thought that a bit strange until I realised they thought I said Austria. Made a point of stressing the L after that.... which only helped a little bit. One woman said..... Australia, I've heard of that place, is it near Sydney? Yes, all around it.

But there's no excuse for the Sydney mixup on this site. I told GR about this at least two years ago.

At least they give you the same continent, unlike another well known website which frequently assumes the USA. :-|

I mostly ignore the offered choices. I have a lot of rellies from Westmorland, which hasn't existed since 1974, and it's places have been redistributed elsewhere. But I know where they are, and don't care whether they are now in Cumbria or Lancashire.

I just added a name to my tree.

This person died 1951 in SYDNEY NEW SOUTH WALES.

The GR system has not yet been fixed.

IT STILL DEFAULTS TO SYDNEY WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

I was assured back in April that this would be brought to the attention of the team and put right.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE A SIMPLE CHANGE???????

Oh, sorry, I forgot............. they're too busy working on other things, like the new tree, telling off people who have been RR'd etc

I have also sent an email to GR about this. AGAIN.

:-P

I guess Piglet Pals is talking about "North Woolwich", the latest London district to have been invented by estate agents. Oh those Chinese Laundry blues.

I have always found it odd for places such as Catford, Lewisham, Croydon and Bromley or to be described as "South London" or even Plumstead. Bri'un (glottal stop no "t" sound aka Brighton) and Sarfend (Southend-on-Sea) I suppose are fair enough. Even Margit.

In such places as St Johns Wood "Sarf Lunnun" is a terra incognita, lair of Arfer Daly, Jack Reegan and Dell Boy Trotter, a place where the tube don't go unless u fancy slumming it down Brixton way. It is not part of "the knowledge". Those without the ackers for Islington or a deal with Islington/Tower Hamlets housing dept. tend to opt for Clapham, esp the gridiron. It is def. part of south London as was discovered last summer...

True the post has little to do with Australian maps but judging by the number of Australians born in Sydney before 1600 according to many GRU and Ay trees Australian FH problems go well beyond drop down place names... or maybe it is just Australians but that can't be right 'cos so many can find Earls Court and anyway I have a lot of rellies there, esp in NSW & Victoria. GRU thinks Perth is nr Dundee but then it would.

In any case the geography of Greater London is more interesting and relevant to many more members. As PP has said GRU and Ay make an even bigger mess of London geography than for Australia (*) - it is fairly easy to realise that Sydney is quite a step from Perth, WA. OTOH Bromley by Bow and Bromley, Kent have a rather different look n feel...

"The East End regularly gets parts of South London chucked over the river.
And ALL of London south of the Thames is called South London, when there are 2 distinctive areas of South East and South West. [ only two ? ] No one would ever say that the East End is North London, but by using the geographical ignorance of tv etc., that is what they should call all of London north of the river"

// indeed "East Enders" is mostly filmed in Walthamstow. If they used the real east end there would be no beer and they'd need sub-titles.

as its a nice day lets all go out and

Lambeth you've never seen,
The skies ain't blue, the grass ain't green.
It hasn't got the Mayfair touch,
But that don't matter very much.
We play the Lambeth way,
Not like you but a bit more gay
And when we have a bit of fun
Oh, Boy.

Anytime you're Lambeth way
Any evening, any day,
You'll find us all doin' the Lambeth walk.

Ev'ry little Lambeth gal
With her little Lambeth pal,
You'll find 'em all doin' the Lambeth walk.

Ev'rything's free and easy,
Do as you darn well pleasey,
Why don't you make your way there,
Go there, stay there,

Once you get down Lambeth way,
Ev'ry evening, ev'ry day,
You'll find yourself doin' the Lambeth walk.

Anytime you're Lambeth way
Any evening, any day,
You'll find us all doin' the Lambeth walk.

Ev'ry little Lambeth gal
With her little Lambeth pal,
You'll find 'em all doin' the Lambeth walk.

Ev'rything's free and easy,
Do as you darn well pleasey,
Why don't you make your way there,
Go there, stay there,

Once you get down Lambeth way,
Ev'ry evening, ev'ry day,
You'll find yourself doin' the Lambeth walk.

Anytime you're Lambeth way
Any evening, any day,
You'll find us all doin' the Lambeth walk.

Ev'ry little Lambeth gal
With her little Lambeth pal,
You'll find 'em all doin' the Lambeth walk.

Ev'rything's free and easy,
Do as you darn well pleasey,
Why don't you make your way there,
Go there, stay there,

Once you get down Lambeth way,
Ev'ry evening, ev'ry day,
You'll find yourself
Doin' the Lambeth-
Doin' the Lambeth-
Doin' the Lambeth walk!

(*) Up until 1889 the only admin "London" for BMD purposes was the square mile of the city of London. Most of London north of the river was in "Middlesex" inc Westminster, Chelsea and Fulham. Some bits were in Hertfordshire eg Edmonton and others in Essex (East and West Ham, Ilford, Beckton etc). South of the river Woolwich, Plumstead, Milwall, Bromley were in Kent. Bermondsey, Lambeth, Southwark etc were in Surrey. That's why Surrey CCC HQ is at the Oval.

Reggie - I have notified GR about this by email - at least twice.

I'll give it a try, but do you really think it will make any difference? :-|

Have you followed the advice to post this on Suggestions?

I understand your point Piglet, but can't figure out what it has to do with GR getting the location of Sydney wrong. As I said, the system did it automatically. Sydney is in New South Wales on the east, the GR system automatically came up with SYDNEY Western Australia.

And I do have a reasonable idea of the geographical layout of London.

??
:-S