Standardising place names without those pesky error messages?

This post refers to FamilySearch and it's love for pushing us to use Standardised Place Names. If you don't use FamilySearch then this may not be of interest to you ... but ... despite it's little hiccups, FamilyTree in FamilySearch is still a GREAT research tool so google it and grab yourself a free account!

Back to Place Names. I had an issue with how to add things to the front of the "standard" place name without ending up clicking on OTHER and this incurring all those error messages (place name not standard). I my situation it was a street address from a Birth Certificate I wanted to put in as place of birth. So the solution was actually not that difficult despite not being intuitive:

1. You need to click on the place-name and then click on the edit button. This will open the edit box.
2. Now click on the current empty place name field or whatever place name is there already.
3. Go to the start of the field and type the details you wish to add e.g. Cemetery Name or as in my case Street Address.
4. Then add the city/town etc and as you start hitting standard names the drop down list will appear. DO NOT SELECT by clicking on them. However find the one that is closest to what you want and keep typing in the same box as the Street Address, adding the place name EXACTLY as it appears in the drop down list. Do not hit enter or save or anything at this stage. Once you have finished typing click on somewhere OUTSIDE the edit box and the system will accept your typed in name and not report it as an error.

More information is available at the following link.

adding standardise place names and dates