Location Suggestion Error Durham Ontario

Question

I have noticed that the location suggestion for two areas in Ontario, Canada have been merged here (and thus at Family Search).  All locations in Durham Region (all towns, cities) are now located in the town of Durham, West Grey, Grey, Ontario.  

Problem is the Durham Region (which is quite large; 25,000km2 and 650,000+ people in 2016) is approximately 2 hours and 200km away from the town of Durham (44 km2 and 2,500 people).

How would one go about changing every town, city in Durham Region back to Durham Region and out of the small town of Durham 2 hours away?

Answer 1

Our locations in the drop down Location field menu are optional.  I would continue to use the actual town or township name that is appropriate for the time period of the profile, if it is known.  They should not all be changed to Durham Region, as that location didn't exist historically.

Comments

Thanks Amy. Do you know, however, how the optional drop down locations could be updated to include Durham Region, as example?  Many users choose locations only shown in the drop down options resulting in location errors.  This is a general question and not specific to Durham Region.

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hi Morgan, the drop-down menu comes from FamilySearch, not sure if any changes we make go there also or not, I believe some of our members were working on fixing this list from FS.

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Thanks for this Danielle, I had no idea that's where they were from.

Answer 2

There are similar issues for what is now Peel Region, established 1974, there is no entry for Peel County the predecessor for the Region, Peel County was established in 1851 and existed until 1974.

Townships in the area include Caledon which currently defaults to the town of Caledon, plus there is a village of Caledon.

Yes I do enter locations as they were called at the time, not what the dropdown suggests

Comments

Wait a minute here! 

Durham Region does and has existed here in Canada! 

^{[note 1]} Ontario County, and portions of the United Counties of Northumberland and Durham were amalgamated in 1974 to form the regional municipality. The Durham portion of the United Counties of Northumberland and Durham was initially established as Durham County in 1792, before it was amalgamated with Northumberland County in 1850 to form the United Counties. Ontario County was formed from York County in 1852. The two counties operated until 1974 when they were dissolved, and Ontario County and the Durham portion of the United Counties were amalgamated to form the regional municipality.

I have done the same thing always. Even on Birth, Death, Marriage Certificates, they all say “ Peel County” or “Peel Region” .

There is a difference though, we don’t have any towns or cities named “Peel” for anyone to get confused with like Durham and Durham Region. 

 I don’t see why we shouldn’t use the correct legal location as stated on legal government documents? 

Perhaps the websites need to add these as locations?

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The best practice is to use the names used by the people that were born, lived, married and died in the locations at the time the people lived there. 

Using the Region of Durham as a name for the location for people who lived and died in the area before the creation of the region in 1974 is especially confusing for people who aren't familiar with the history of place names in Ontario.  If the place names don't match what is on the historical records it is much more complicated to find accurate sources.

In 1974 ' Ontario County, and portions of the United Counties of Northumberland and Durham ' were united to create the region of Durham. This does not help if the person lived in Ontario County from it's creation January 1,1854 to before 1974 when some areas of it became the Region of Durham and other areas became part of Simcoe County. 

Not all parts of Durham county were integrated into the Region of Durham, some of them became part of the Borough of Scarborough part of the city of Toronto. 

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My own birth Certificate says Peel Region and I was born before 1970?

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That I can't help you with, was the birth certificate issued or replaced after 1974?

What it all means is that if you look for your grt grandmother who may have been born in a county that no longer exists it will be easier to find records if you search for the name it was called when she was born.

Sometimes depending on what group indexed the records, Ancestry, or Family Search, or LAC in Canada they will be listed under the current name and or the original name, or FreeBMD in the UK.

If a person was born before about 1854 before Ontario had counties it can be very difficult to find records with the current place names.

Sometimes villages and towns completely disappear and don't have a current name.

On the help page for names it says 'Use their conventions instead of ours' and the same holds true for place names.

The place where I grew up has had 3 different county names since I was a child and it does complicate finding records for some of my ancestors.

Answer 3

Family Search:  How do I suggest a new place to FamilySearch Places?  https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-request-a-new-place-in-the-database-of-standardized-places