Location 'estimates' - how to record

Question

I have done a quick search for an answer to my question, without results.

When estimating locations, what is the preferred format?  When someone has a family and future generations have family in the same area, it might be an assumption that the original person was born there.

Do you enter the name of the town, the name of the county, the name of the country? Or leave it blank?

Previously I have entered it as 'Probably Surrey, England', omitting the town.  This has been corrected on a few recently to 'Surrey, England',  This may be incorrect as the person may have originated from Kent, England, just next door, or from even further afield, say Devon or Cornwall.

If leaving it blank, the only reference point is the children's births, but this is more accurate than saying the person was born in Surrey, England.

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere.

Margaret

Answer 1

I would put Surrey, England, tick the uncertain box and make a comment on the profile about how you estimated the location.

Comments

Thanks for that, Fiona (and J Crook).  Is there an easy way to identify any that I have added previously, so that I can correct them?

Margaret

---

Margaret, if you go to your Suggestions report, it may show as an error.

Answer 2

Instead of using the word probably, which the suggestion report flags, just put the probable or expected location and mark it uncertain.

Comments

The only downside of correcting this is that it is not easy to see in the watchlist which locations need your attention, which is the reason for putting this in the first place. I've had well meaning people tell me I should not be entering profiles if I don't have a robust source for place of birth but the fact is that when all you have on earlier profiles is a christening/baptism, you cannot be sure they were born where they were christened/baptised. I know that some people in the area I am researching had to use a different church for a while when theirs was in a state of disrepair, for instance. The insistence on correction is therefore somewhat self-defeating, in the absence of a traffic light on the watchlist column with the birthplace in.

---

I have no problem with your reasoning, and I dislike almost everything about the newly renamed error list.  I was just explaining *their* reasoning.  I don't use my Watchlist this way, but I can see why you would.  I spend a lot of my time trying to keep the error report out of my life, so to me getting rid of the word probably or probable is a small price to pay.