Lancashire Team Challenges

Profile managers: W Robertson [send private message] and Steven Whitfield [send private message]

Lacks Birth Location / Locators Challenge

In April 2024 we focused on adding birth location for profiles of people born in the 1890s (we started with 573 profiles to sort). We sorted most, but not quite all. Siince that time due to location cleanup, more have appeared. Plus there is everything outside of an 1890s birth to try to find a location for.

See Locators Challenge if you want more informaiton about the Locators Challenge. See also Help:Uncertain Locations#Almost Any Location is Better than No Location

For an extra challenge, try these with Lancashire in category or template but not in a location field (post 1500) - 220 pre-1500 Lancashire in category or template but not in a location field - 53

Location Format

In March 2023 the team worked on correcting ‘poorly formatted’ at the time of the most recent data dump. These searches were used in that cleanup and some need to be run regularly

Lancashire not properly formatted

• Lancashire, Lancs, and Lancastershire problems - may include Lancs used for countires in the US that also need correction

1974 Border Changes

Because of border changes and new counties on 1 April 1974, these searches need to be used regularly. Note that the searches highlight all 'events' occuring in 1974 and later to pick up an event date of 1974 which might be before or after 1 April.

• False 'Merseyside' pre-1974 births
• False 'Merseyside' pre-1974 Marriages
• False 'Merseyside' pre-1974 deaths
• False 'Greater Manchester' pre-1974 births
• False 'Greater Manchester' pre-1974 marriages
• False 'Greater Manchester' pre-1974 deaths
• Lancashire birth locations post 1974 that should be Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire or Cumbria
• Lancashire death locations post 1974 that should be Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire or Cumbria
• Cheshire death locations post 1974 that should be Greater Manchester
• Lancashire marriage post 1974 that should be Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire or Cumbria
• Lancashire births that should be Yorkshire
• Lancashire marriages that should be Yorkshire
• Lancashire deaths that should be Yorkshire

Possible Location Problems

The searches for unknown regions in England and United Kingdom problems have been removed because they are now in maintenance mode for all of England.

These are unknown countries, which may be easy to fix OR may not be solvable (at least by us) and may simply be gaps in the table. These correspond to suggestions 615/645/675 but are for all profiles, not only orphaned profiles.

• Born in Unknown Country
• Died in Unknown Country
• Married in Unknown Country

Place Cleanup (Looks like Lancashire)

In 2023, we looked for specific places within England (births and deaths) that were not allocated to Lancashire. In 2024 we extended this to marriage locations and also looked for the places without a known country. The list of places was extended to the Lancashire places with the most profiles in Wikitree (based on birth locations with totals of 1200 or more, at the end of 2023, in descending order). Additional places likely to be Lancashire are being added. The England cleanup continued with June 2024 EP challenge and now these in are in maintenance mode acorss all of England. See England Locations Clean Up for those searches.

Note that marriage cleanup is complicated for multiple marriages; the marriage location field is a single field that may include a country that isn't set up for regional analysis. Profiles that are properly formatted have to be specifically excluded from the search, which I will do from time to time. Due to the way the searches have been set up, poorly formatted Lancashire locations may be missed; a location check interrogating an excel download can be an effective way of picking these up. Steve 19:09, 21 April 2024 (UTC)

Lancashire

Includes: Preston, Blackburn, Burnley, Darwen, Marton, Eccleston, Lancaster, Lytham, Chorley, Ormskirk, Garstang, Furness, Blackpool, Accrington, Banks, Colne, Pendleton, Barton (not Irwell), and Whalley. Reminder that Furness locations, Coniston, Hawkshead and Ulverston are now Cumbria.

Preston may be Virginia/West Virgina (many removed from search) and East Preston is in Sussex. Banks can pull in other places, often Canada. Pendleton coulld be Virginia, Kentucky, or South Carolina, Lancaster is a place in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, South Caroina, Canada and many other places - the largest of these have been removed from results. Barrow and Barton are both common names and far less to be in Lancashire so have not been included.

• Birth, unknown county
• Marriage (women only), unknown county
• Death, unknown county

Lancashire now Greater Manchester

Includes: Manchester, Bolton, Salford, Wigan, Oldham, Bury, Rochdale, Ashton under Lyne, Chorlton, Ashton in Makerfield, Leigh, Prestwich, Farnworth, Westhoughton, Pemberton, Atherton, Abram, Ancoats, Astley, Barton upon Irwell, Blackrod, Boothstown, Burnage, Chadderton, Crumpsall, Denton, Droylsden, Eccles, Failsworth, Flixton, Golborne, Halliwell, Heywood, Hindley, Horwich, Hulton, Kearsley, Lever, Littleborough, Lowton, Milnrow, Orrell [also a place in Merseyside], Partington, Reddish, Royton, Shevington, Standish, Stretford, Summerseat, Swinton, Tameside, Tottington, Trafford, Tyldesley, Urmston, Walkden, Whitefield, and Worsley.

Several of these places occur in other countries (especially Manchester). Note that Bury may be Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.

• Birth, unknown country
• Marriage (women only), unknown country
• Death, unknown country

Lancashire now Merseyside or Cheshire

Includes: Liverpool, Warrington, North Meols, St Helens, West Derby, Southport, Prescot, Toxteth Park, Birkdale, Ainsdale, Billinge, Bootle, Childwall, Crosby, Formby, Haydock, Huyton, Knowsley, Maghull, Rainhill, Sankey, Sefton, Walton on the Hill, Whiston, Widnes, Newton le Willows, and Lpool

They may not all be Lancashire (Liverpool could be Nova Scotia, Southport could be New York or Australia, Warrington might be Pennsylvania). Bootle might be Cumbria

• Birth unknown country
• Marriage (female only) unknown country
• Death unknown country

Manchester Cathedral

In 1481 a collegiate church was formed in Manchester; the Collegiate Church of St Mary, St Denys and St George, which in 1847 became Manchester Cathedral. See Wikitree Article The first two searches below identify profiles which have been given an incorrect marriage location. The second two searches are for multiple marriages which need reviewing carefully - they may or may not be correct.) Note that only female marriages are shown in these queries. A current last name should be entered on the profile.

1. No Manchester Cathedral before 1847 (single Marriages) Change to "Collegiate Church of St Mary, St Denys and St George, Manchester, Lancashire, England"
2. Single marriages recorded post 1847 as Collegiate Change to "Manchester Cathedral, Manchester, Lancashire, England"
3. Multiple marriages v1 check that any Manchester marriages have correct location
4. Multiple marriages v2 check that Manchester marriages have correct location

Checked Steve Whitfield 14 May 2024

2023 Location Cleanup

The easiest way of correcting an incorrect location is to open the profile and change the location using the drop-down location boxes, paying particular attention to the time periods.

As you work through the profiles, you may find some that are unsourced. For these, please either add a source or an unsourced sticker.

If you would like to 'adopt' a town or city on this list, please edit this page putting your name in the relevant cell on the table. If you clear the list, please mark 'Done' next to your name and add any notes you think might be helpful. New towns and links can be added on an ongoing basis. If you have a particular town you are interested in, please contact me.

Note that occasionally you might find that a location has already been corrected by someone else since the data dump. If the fields look OK, check the changes log. If the location hasn't been amended since the weekend, look again at the location field as there might be eg a full stop where there should be a comma.

If you have any questions, please contact me either by a direct message or on Discord and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Good luck and thanks for your contribution.

Steve

Update note - 17 Feb 2023

The tables hadn’t been updated since December. A few new poorly formatted locations have been added over the last 2 months, but the increases are minimal. The table below summarises the three larger tables and shows how many profiles we improved/

Note: pre 1500 column now includes profiles with disproven existence, and other profiles that have been ‘flagged’ but which don’t need sorting (eg post 1974 Cumbria). These profiles have been moved out of the ‘17 Feb 2023’ column to make it clearer which searches contain profiles we can work on. Whitfield-2424 09:18, 18 February 2023 (UTC)

A fantastic team effort - thanks to all who contributed!

Steve

Note: 6864 total includes peak figures all counts to show overall reduction.