Where in the world is RD?

Question

I stumbled upon a bunch of profiles for people whose profile data show that their life events occurred in a place called RD. Example: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Neagle-163 -- born and died in "West Derby RD." I do not recognize RD as the name of any country or major subdivision of a country, so where is this place?

I have answered my own question: RD is Registration District.  I happen to know that civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths in the United Kingdom occurs in Registration Districts. So now I ask my English, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh cousins on WikiTree to avoid using this abbreviation -- it is not a universally recognized term. And whether you abbreviate it RD or spell out the two words, please expand the location entry to include the rest of the name (for example, include "England, United Kingdom").

Thanks.

Answer 1

It could also mean "West Derby Rd, Liverpool, UK

Comments

In the context where I saw it, it was West Derby Registration District.

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It should not be used in location fields.

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I've added citations for her birth, and death, and added categories.  I also changed the  RD in the location fields.

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So now I have to cite https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Neagle-139 or https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Neagle-162 or https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Griffiths-3935 as an example of what I was seeing.

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Sorry, Ellen.

Screencap it, so the errors can be corrected.

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see https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Neagle-170

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Here is a screencap of what Ellen is referring to, but with blanked-out data fields so nothing appears to be calling out any other person.

Answer 2

If you ask: Where in the world?

In Germany it is the abbreviation for the county of Rendsburg-Eckernförde in Schleswig-Holstein.

For this reason I always ask not to use abbreviations, because everyone can subsume something else under it.

Answer 3

I would have to agree with this. Writing the codes out in full.

 I have seen the code SOM used for both Somerset County, England and the country of Somalia.

It was confusing to be reading records that named a town such as Taunton, Wells, or Wellington, and then SOMALIA after that name.