Find Data Problems with the The Family Nexus iPhone App

http://thefamilynexus.com/2017/04/19/find-data-problems-using-the-family-nexus-app/

One of my recurring themes is the importance of determining the exact location of events in our ancestors' lives. I have also previously mentioned The Family Nexus, an iPhone app for mapping. This very useful app has an additional use way beyond simply finding ancestral events as we are traveling around. Here is a description from The Family Nexus Blog post entitled, "Visualizing Tree Data Problems."

Open Google Maps and search for “PA.” Although a common abbreviation for “Pennsylvania,” without context Google Maps shows you Panama! The Family Nexus iPhone app automatically maps birth, marriage, death, and burial locations of 6+ generations of your FamilySearch family tree. It uses the “standardized” place associated with locations of life events stored in FamilySearch. Seeing these locations instantly plotted on a map is awesome. It can also be a very convenient way to spot data problems in your Tree. Let’s review 2 ways you can find data problems using The Family Nexus App.

The post goes on to explain a lot about how the FamilySearch.org Family Tree utilizes dates and places. Here is an example.

FamilySearch stores each date and each place for each event in two different locations. First, it stores it in the white box where you enter the information (the “display” value). Second, it stores a “standard” date or place in the green (or yellow) bar below that. This “standard” is what helps you and others find matching records and individuals. It is a “behind-the-scenes” value the computer uses to match to a specific date in history and a specific location on the globe.

I am not going to reproduce the entire post, but I suggest that even if you do not own an iPhone, you will find the information about the way the Family Tree stores and uses geographic information informative and interesting.

One of the data points for my maternal grandmother from the Family Tree keeps coming up in Japan. Since she never traveled outside of the United States, I have often been puzzled by this. So far, I haven't been able to identify the reason for the erratic location. My strange Japanese connection didn't show up, but I did find a cousin who died in Korea during the Korean War.