Progress to Date
24 Oct 2022
Last week, we saw an increase of about 174,000 profiles in our county statistics. All counties saw an increase in numbers with the exception of Merseyside. (Several pre-1974 Merseyside profiles were amended to Lancashire or Cheshire in the week before the switch, so it was good to see this particular reduction).
My ‘rough and ready’ analysis of last week’s numbers suggests that the underlying profile total (i.e. counting on a like-for-like basis) would have increased the England counties total by about 11,000. This means that about 163,000 new profiles were identified and allocated to counties by the switch, an increase of about 4%.
We now have more visibility regarding the new county of England - Unknown Region. As I mentioned in an earlier note, there are about 330,000 profiles in this ‘county’. About 255,000 of these simply have ‘England’ (or a recognised variation of it) in the location field. The other 75,000 have a place name which ends with “, England” or one of the acceptable variations of “, England, United Kingdom”.
Phase 2
I have been looking at the database of the 75,000 profiles to establish what would give us the biggest gains in Phase 2. The new method of identifying profiles is more flexible than the old system, but there are criteria of which we need to be mindful when we submit our next list of requested additions to the Locations Table. The system reads the location field from the right, identifying strings of words rather than just the last word in the string. Commas are an important element in the identification process, as they define the start and end of a string.
As an example, “Brixton, London, England” would be identified as a London profile (as the term 'London, England' is in the table); however, “Brixton, South London, England” would not be recognised as ‘South London’ is not in the table. This presents particular challenges for Yorkshire; partly due to the existence of the Ridings, locations have been input in a variety of ways.
The table below shows the strings that appear before “, England” in the birth location of Unknown Region profiles. The terms are a mix of towns, cities, abbreviations and frequently used ways of referring to a county. They might appear simply as the place followed by England, or after a comma in a longer location. (e.g. “Liverpool, England” or “Everton, Liverpool, England”).
There are a number of locations that I have taken out of the list as they are not England profiles. For example, there are over 250 instances of "Channel Islands, England" and over 200 "Isle of Man, England" that should not appear on our reports. We could fix these manually but I suggest we ask Ales to allocate them out to their respective 'countries' via the location field. The Wales team have been fixing "Wales, England" and others; I will notify the Scotland Team of some Scottish locations that appear on our lists.
The locations with the highest numbers of profiles are at the top of the list. The list has been collated using birth locations only; the total will be higher than these numbers as births and marriages will also be identified by the new places that are added to the Location Table.
We need to submit the table to Ales with a county to which the place would be allocated. I have added a suggested county team to each place where at least 100 profiles have been identified. I have continued the table to places with at least 50 profiles so people can see which places are ‘missing out’.
Place names may appear twice on the list. 'Leicester, England' is in 12th place; but appears again in 80th position as there are 82 instances where people have input "Leicester., England" (with a full stop after the word Leicester).
I would propose sending the cleaned-up list below to Ales for consideration. He has so far given no indication of what he might be able to add, and there will be a level at which he wants us to fix poorly-formatted locations manually to allocate them to a county.
The table is sortable. It would be helpful for Working Party members to look at their counties and check that the places have been correctly allocated. Cumbria and Avon straddle historical counties; I have allocated them to the county which seems to have the majority of the profiles.
Rank | Location Name | County | Profiles | Cumulative |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Devonshire | Devon | 4311 | 4311 |
2 | Yorkshire East Riding | Yorkshire | 2599 | 6910 |
3 | Gloucester | Gloucestershire | 1966 | 8876 |
4 | York | Yorkshire | 1714 | 10590 |
5 | Liverpool | Lancashire | 1621 | 12211 |
6 | Nottingham | Nottinghamshire | 1387 | 13598 |
7 | Manchester | Lancashire | 1325 | 14923 |
8 | Cambridge | Cambridgeshire | 1323 | 16246 |
9 | Birmingham | Warwickshire | 1304 | 17550 |
10 | Somersetshire | Somerset | 1299 | 18849 |
11 | Lincoln | Lincolnshire | 1184 | 20033 |
12 | Leicester | Leicestershire | 979 | 21012 |
13 | Cumbria | Cumberland | 968 | 21980 |
14 | Worcester | Worcestershire | 932 | 22912 |
15 | Stafford | Staffordshire | 903 | 23815 |
16 | East Riding of Yorkshire | Yorkshire | 835 | 24650 |
17 | Warwick | Warwickshire | 760 | 25410 |
18 | Northampton | Northamptonshire | 752 | 26162 |
19 | Yorkshire West Riding | Yorkshire | 710 | 26872 |
20 | Bedford | Bedfordshire | 680 | 27552 |
21 | Yorkshire (West Riding) | Yorkshire | 611 | 28163 |
22 | East Yorkshire | Yorkshire | 481 | 28644 |
23 | Newcastle Upon Tyne | Northumberland | 479 | 29123 |
24 | Westmoreland | Westmorland | 469 | 29592 |
25 | Derby | Derbyshire | 457 | 30049 |
26 | Lancaster | Lancashire | 421 | 30470 |
27 | Hereford | Herefordshire | 417 | 30887 |
28 | Buckingham | Buckinghamshire | 379 | 31266 |
29 | Hertford | Hertfordshire | 368 | 31634 |
30 | North Riding of Yorkshire | Yorkshire | 366 | 32000 |
31 | Dorsetshire | Dorset | 347 | 32347 |
32 | Borough of Calderdale | Yorkshire | 340 | 32687 |
33 | Oxford | Oxfordshire | 278 | 32965 |
34 | Peterborough | Northamptonshire | 264 | 33229 |
35 | Huntingdon | Huntingdonshire | 262 | 33491 |
36 | Wolverhampton | Staffordshire | 244 | 33735 |
37 | Leeds | Yorkshire | 243 | 33978 |
38 | E.Yorkshire | Yorkshire | 235 | 34213 |
39 | Sheffield | Yorkshire | 225 | 34438 |
40 | Staffs | Staffordshire | 224 | 34662 |
41 | Yorkshire North Riding | Yorkshire | 220 | 34882 |
42 | Norwich | Norfolk | 204 | 35086 |
43 | Southampton | Hampshire | 191 | 35277 |
44 | ERY | Yorkshire | 188 | 35465 |
45 | Yorkshire (North Riding) | Yorkshire | 188 | 35653 |
46 | E. Yorkshire | Yorkshire | 187 | 35840 |
47 | Westminster | London | 181 | 36021 |
48 | Plymouth | Devon | 178 | 36199 |
49 | Sunderland | Durham | 175 | 36374 |
50 | Yorks | Yorkshire | 172 | 36546 |
51 | Chester | Cheshire | 171 | 36717 |
52 | Coventry | Warwickshire | 157 | 36874 |
53 | Kent County | Kent | 139 | 37013 |
54 | Portsmouth | Hampshire | 139 | 37152 |
55 | Avon | Gloucestershire | 131 | 37283 |
56 | Bath | Somerset | 130 | 37413 |
57 | Middlesex County | Middlesex | 129 | 37542 |
58 | Bradford | Yorkshire | 128 | 37670 |
59 | Newcastle | Northumberland | 127 | 37797 |
60 | Cambs. | Cambridgeshire | 123 | 37920 |
61 | Herts | Hertfordshire | 123 | 38043 |
62 | Hull | Yorkshire | 123 | 38166 |
63 | Suffolk County | Suffolk | 111 | 38277 |
64 | North Riding Yorkshire | Yorkshire | 110 | 38387 |
65 | Cleveland | Yorkshire | 104 | 38491 |
66 | South London | London | 101 | 38592 |
67 | Wessex | 99 | 38691 | |
68 | Norfolkshire | 98 | 38789 | |
69 | Stockport | 97 | 38886 | |
70 | Southwark | 93 | 38979 | |
71 | Bucks | 91 | 39070 | |
72 | Worchester | 90 | 39160 | |
73 | Greenwich | 89 | 39249 | |
74 | Gloustershire | 88 | 39337 | |
75 | Yorkshire (East Riding) | 88 | 39425 | |
76 | East London | 86 | 39511 | |
77 | Essex County | 86 | 39597 | |
78 | Newcastle on Tyne | 86 | 39683 | |
79 | Norfolk County | 85 | 39768 | |
80 | Leicester. | 82 | 39850 | |
81 | Salford | 78 | 39928 | |
82 | Brighton | 77 | 40005 | |
83 | Great Bardsfield | 77 | 40082 | |
84 | Central London | 75 | 40157 | |
85 | Devonshire. | 75 | 40232 | |
86 | West Riding | 74 | 40306 | |
87 | Cambs | 72 | 40378 | |
88 | Worcester. | 72 | 40450 | |
89 | Hants | 71 | 40521 | |
90 | Yorkshire East | 71 | 40592 | |
91 | Somerset County | 70 | 40662 | |
92 | Woolwich | 70 | 40732 | |
93 | Islington | 69 | 40801 | |
94 | Lambeth | 68 | 40869 | |
95 | Birmingham. | 67 | 40936 | |
96 | Dover | 65 | 41001 | |
97 | Exeter | 64 | 41065 | |
98 | West Riding Yorkshire | 64 | 41129 | |
99 | East Riding Yorkshire | 62 | 41191 | |
100 | Reading | 62 | 41253 | |
101 | Northumbria | 61 | 41314 | |
102 | West London | 60 | 41374 | |
103 | Salop | 59 | 41433 | |
104 | Durham County | 58 | 41491 | |
105 | South Shields | 58 | 41549 | |
106 | Carlisle | 57 | 41606 | |
107 | Middx | 57 | 41663 | |
108 | Hackney | 56 | 41719 | |
109 | N.Yorkshire | 56 | 41775 | |
110 | County Kent | 53 | 41828 | |
111 | County Yorkshire | 53 | 41881 | |
112 | Clerkenwell | 51 | 41932 | |
113 | Marylebone | 51 | 41983 | |
114 | Yorkshire County | 51 | 42034 | |
115 | Colerne | 50 | 42084 | |
116 | Dudley | 50 | 42134 |
- Login to request to the join the Trusted List so that you can edit and add images.
- Private Messages: Send a private message to the Profile Manager. (Best when privacy is an issue.)
- Public Comments: Login to post. (Best for messages specifically directed to those editing this profile. Limit 20 per day.)
- Public Q&A: These will appear above and in the Genealogist-to-Genealogist (G2G) Forum. (Best for anything directed to the wider genealogy community.)
Althou there is a problem in case the Location Name is actually a place. By just adding to the region group, I would loose precision in geolocating a profile. For instance Liverpool, England is only part of Lancashire, but it would hide, that the place is Liverpool.
Those locations would need to be done like a separate location for a place. Like it is done for England, Gloucestershire, Bristol in https://wikitree.sdms.si/function/WTShowTable/Table.htm?table=Countries&filter=ENG
For "Channel Islands, England" and "Isle of Man, England" I would rather see that you remove England from the locations, since it shouldn't be there.