The Main Window
The Main Window
The main window has a list of places, five settings for the run, and the buttons that start it. This table describes each part.
| Control | What it does |
| Places to process | The list of places that Preview and Apply will work on. The heading shows how many there are. The list starts with any places you had selected in Family Historian. Click a place to select it, or Ctrl-click or Shift-click to select several. Ctrl+A selects every place in the list |
| Select Places… (Ctrl+I) | Opens Family Historian’s own picker, including its filters and its Named Lists tab. The places you choose are added to the end of the list. A place that is already in the list is not added twice |
| Previous Selection (Ctrl+P) | Reloads the places from the last time you ran Preview or Apply in this project. If the list already has places in it, you are asked before they are replaced. Places that have been deleted since are left out, and the plugin tells you how many |
| Remove Selected (Del) | Removes the selected places from the list, after asking you to confirm. This only changes the list, not your project |
| Clear List (Ctrl+T) | Empties the list |
| Settings for this run | Five dropdowns: Address columns, Geocode, Standardised value, Notes and Media. They start from your defaults in Options. If you change them here, the change applies to this run only and is not remembered |
| Preview and Exit | Works out what would happen to each place and lists it in Family Historian’s Result Set. Writes nothing. Your list is remembered as the Previous Selection |
| Apply and Exit | Asks you to confirm (and reminds you about a backup), then makes the changes and lists what happened in the Result Set. Your list is remembered as the Previous Selection |
| Close (Esc) | Closes the window without changing anything |
The menu bar has four menus.
| Menu | Items |
| File | Preview and Exit, Apply and Exit, Exit |
| Places | Select Places…, Previous Selection, Remove Selected, Clear List. These do the same as the buttons, and show the same shortcut keys |
| Options | Opens the Options dialog, where you set your defaults |
| Help | Help (opens the quick start page) and About |
A few things to know:
- Pressing Enter does not start a run. There is no default button, so a batch edit can’t be set off by accident
- If the list is empty when you click Preview or Apply, you get a message and the window stays open
- For a larger run, a progress window appears with a Cancel button. If you cancel a Preview, nothing has changed. If you cancel an Apply, the places already done stay changed, and the Result Set lists the rest as ‘Not processed’. Use Undo Plugin Updates if you want to reverse them
- When you start the plugin, Family Historian offers to save any unsaved changes first, so that the plugin works on current data
Options
Options
Choose Options in the menu bar to set your defaults. They are remembered between runs. The five dropdowns in the main window start from these defaults each time the window opens, and again whenever you close the Options dialog. Any change you made in the main window dropdowns before opening Options is replaced.
The dialog’s File menu has Save, Reset All (back to the standard defaults) and Cancel. Its Help menu opens this page.
| Option | Choices | Default | Effect |
| Address columns | 1 to 9 | 3 | How many comma-separated columns, counting from the left, become the address. The rest stay as the place. See How places are split |
| Geocode | Move to address Leave on place |
Move to address | Where the old place’s map coordinates (and geocode status) go. Move to address puts them on the new address. Leave on place keeps them on the place. A split place that merges into an existing place always passes them to the address. See What happens to the old place’s data |
| Standardised value | Move to address Leave on place |
Move to address | Where the old place’s standardised value goes. It works in the same way as Geocode, including the exception for merges |
| Notes | Move to address Move to place |
Move to address | Where the old place’s own notes go: onto the new address, or onto the place. If the old place merges into an existing place, ‘the place’ means that existing place |
| Media | Move to address Move to place |
Move to address | Where the old place’s media links go. It works in the same way as Notes |
These options only matter for places that have an address. A place with nothing in its address columns has no address to move anything to. It is renamed, or merged into an existing place.
💡 Tip: Street-level coordinates belong to the address. If you leave the geocode on the place, the whole town is mapped to one street. That is why the default is to move it.
How Places Are Split
How Places Are Split
The plugin divides each place name on its commas. The first columns (as many as you set in Address columns) are the address. Everything after them is the place.
- Blank columns are kept. Many people leave a column blank so that their places line up. The plugin respects that, in the address and in the place
- Blank columns at the end of the address are dropped. A trailing blank column adds nothing, so
158, Cole Valley Road,becomes158, Cole Valley Road - Blank columns at the start of the address stay. Spaces straight after the split are removed from the start of the place, but nothing else is tidied
- A blank address or a blank place is never created. If every address column is blank, the place loses them (a Tidy). If nothing is left for the place, the place is skipped
Here are some examples, using 3 address columns unless it says otherwise.
| Old place | Result |
158, Cole Valley Road, , Hall Green, Birmingham, England |
Split. Address 158, Cole Valley Road. Place Hall Green, Birmingham, England |
Morlais Chapel, , , Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, Wales |
Split. Address Morlais Chapel. Place Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, Wales |
, Upper Ann Street, , Bath, Somerset, England |
Split. Address , Upper Ann Street (the blank first column is kept). Place Bath, Somerset, England |
, , , Acocks Green, Birmingham, England |
Tidy. No address. Place Acocks Green, Birmingham, England |
Hall Green, Birmingham, England |
Skip. It has only 3 columns, and the place needs at least one more than the number of address columns |
158, Cole Valley Road, , , , |
Skip. Nothing is left for the place after the address columns |
48, Iron Street, Youngstown, Mahoning, Ohio, USA |
With 3 columns: address 48, Iron Street, Youngstown and place Mahoning, Ohio, USA. That is wrong. With 2 columns: address 48, Iron Street and place Youngstown, Mahoning, Ohio, USA. That is right |
Why batches? The plugin can’t tell where the address ends and the place begins, so you tell it with the number of columns. Places from different countries often need different numbers, and a place that is laid out differently from the rest needs its own run. Preview helps in two ways:
- The Country column shows the last column of each place, so places from different countries are easy to spot and sort
- A place with a different number of columns from most of the places you chose is flagged Check split in Notes / Warnings. If the numbers are tied, the larger count is treated as the usual one
A column count can’t catch everything. The Youngstown example above has the usual six columns, but still needs a different setting. Look at the Country column and at the New Place and Address columns, not only at the warnings.
Tidy places are handled before split places within a run, whatever order they are in your list. That way a tidied place such as Acocks Green, Birmingham, England exists first, and the places that split to the same name merge into it.
Rename Or Merge
Rename Or Merge
Once the place has been worked out, one of two things happens.
| Outcome | When | What happens |
| Rename | No place with the new name exists yet | The old place record is renamed, and keeps its record ID. Everything that refers to it follows automatically |
| Merge | A place with the new name already exists | Every reference to the old place is re-pointed at the existing place. The old place is then deleted, once nothing refers to it and it holds nothing that hasn’t been moved |
Family Historian matches place names without regard to case, so Hall Green, Birmingham, England and Hall green, birmingham, England are the same place. Preview tells you when a merge target differs from the new name only in case. The existing place keeps its own spelling.
A merge can be into a place that was in your project already, or into a place renamed earlier in the same run. The same old place name can therefore be a rename in your first batch and a merge in a later one.
What Happens To Each Kind Of Reference
What Happens To Each Kind Of Reference
The References column of the Result Set counts what refers to each old place, in these groups: facts, source places, second places, template fields, existing addresses, note links and other links. This table says what the plugin does with each.
| Reference | What happens |
| A fact’s place | The fact gets the new place. If the place was split and the fact has no address, the fact is given the address too. A tidied place gives no address |
| A fact that already has an address | The plugin only goes ahead when the result is clear. An existing address is fine if it is blank (it is given the split-off address), if it already reads the same as the split-off address (ignoring case), or if it is just the split-off address followed by the start of the new place (for example Alexandra Rd-61, Gateshead, Co.Durham, England for the new place Gateshead, Co.Durham, England). That last kind is shortened to Alexandra Rd-61, so the old place’s geocode and notes go onto the address your facts already use. If the shortened text matches another address at the same place, the two addresses are merged, and the data on the old one moves across. If any existing address is anything else (for example Back bedroom, or Alexandra Rd-61, Front room), the whole place is skipped and nothing about it is changed, so you can tidy it by hand. The Result Set says which address stopped it |
| A source’s Events Recorded place | Some sources say which event they record, with a date and a place. Family Historian keeps these under Data > Events Recorded on the source’s All tab in the Property Box (Date Period and Place). That place has no address field, so it gets the new place, and an ‘Address: …’ note is added to the source’s Data section so the street isn’t lost |
| The second place on a fact | Emigration and immigration facts have a second place that can’t hold an address either. It gets the new place, and an ‘Address: …’ note is added to the fact |
| Source template Place fields | Place fields on a source, and on a citation, are re-pointed at the new place. An ‘Address: …’ note is added to the source or citation. Footnotes and bibliography entries built from such a field will no longer include the address. Preview warns you when this will happen |
| Source template Address fields | Left alone. See Limitations |
| Links inside notes | Notes can contain links to a place. These are re-pointed to the address (if the place was split and an address exists), otherwise to the place. A link that showed the place’s own name is changed to fixed text showing the old wording, so the note still reads as it did before. Without that, ‘married at Morlais Chapel’ would turn into ‘married at Merthyr Tydfil’. Links to a tidied place stay automatic |
| Anything else | A link of a kind the plugin doesn’t recognise isn’t changed. If the old place was to be merged, it is kept. See When an old place is kept |
💡 Research Notes: a Research Note linked to the old place moves with its notes, following the Notes option: to the address, or to the place. If the address or place already links to that Research Note, the link isn’t duplicated. (Family Historian doesn’t let places link to shared Note records, so there are none to move.)
What Happens To The Old Place’s Data
What Happens To The Old Place’s Data
An old place can hold a geocode, a standardised value, notes and media. None of it is thrown away. Your options say where it goes. If the data has to go on an address and no fact has created one, the plugin creates the address record for it.
- Geocode: the latitude and longitude move to the address, or stay on the place, as the Geocode option says. An address has nowhere to keep a geocode status (such as ‘Tentative’), so when the geocode moves to the address, the status is written into the address’s note and removed from the place
- Standardised value: as for the geocode
- Notes: each note is copied to the address or the place as a new note, headed ‘Note from former place’ and the old name. The original is deleted only after the copy has been saved. Notes already there are never touched. Citations and links in the note go with it
- Media: each media link is copied with its captions and other details, then the original is removed
- Anything else the place holds: in a merge, it is copied to the existing place for you to review, and the old place is kept
Two rules apply in a merge:
- A split place that merges always sends its geocode and standardised value to the address, whatever the options say. The street-level coordinates belong to the address, and the old place is about to be deleted. The existing place is a town or district, and mustn’t be given the coordinates of one street. Preview says when it is overriding your option
- Coordinates are never overwritten. If the destination already has a different geocode or standardised value, it keeps its own. The former one is written into a note on the destination, for example ‘Former geocode of “158, Cole Valley Road, , Hall Green, Birmingham, England”‘. Notes are added to, never replaced
A tidied place has no address. If it is renamed, its data stays where it is. If it merges, its data moves to the existing place under the same rules, including the conflict rule.
When An Old Place Is Kept
When An Old Place Is Kept
When an old place merges into another, the plugin deletes it only when nothing refers to it any more and it holds nothing that hasn’t been moved. Otherwise the old place is kept, and the Notes / Warnings column says why.
| Reason | What to do |
| It is in a named list | Plugins can read named lists but can’t change them. Deleting the place would silently drop it from the list, so it is kept. Update the list yourself, then delete the old place if you wish |
| Links remain (a link of a kind the plugin doesn’t recognise) | Open the place and see what still refers to it. Re-point it yourself, then delete the old place |
| It still holds a field the plugin doesn’t recognise | The field has been copied to the existing place for review. Check it there, then delete the old place |
| The named lists could not be read | The plugin can’t be sure the place isn’t in a list, so it plays safe. Check your named lists yourself |
| Something could not be moved | A message says what was left behind on the old place. Deal with that, then delete the old place |
A place that was renamed is not an old place in this sense. It continues as the new place.
Reading The Result Set
Reading The Result Set
Both Preview and Apply list every place in Family Historian’s Result Set, one row each. The title says which you are looking at. Preview wording is in the future tense (‘will merge’); Apply wording is in the past tense (‘merged’).
| Column | Shows |
| Old Place | The place as it was |
| Old Place Id | The record id the old place had, so you can find a kept place, or check which record was which after a rename |
| Action | What happens or happened. See below |
| New Place | The place it becomes, or the existing place it merges into. After Apply, this links to the record |
| Address | The address split off. After Apply, this links to the Address record |
| Country | The last column of the place. Sort by it to spot places that need a different number of address columns |
| References | What refers to the old place, for example ‘3 facts, 1 source place’ |
| Notes / Warnings | Everything else worth knowing about that place |
The Action column says one of these:
| Action | Meaning |
| Split – renamed place | The old place was split into an address and a place, and the place record was renamed (Preview: ‘will rename place’) |
| Split – merged into existing place | The old place was split, and its references moved to a place that already existed (Preview: ‘will merge into existing place’) |
| Tidy – renamed place or Tidy – merged into existing place | The address columns were all blank, so the place lost them and no address was made |
| …; old place KEPT | Added to a merge row (Preview: ‘; old place will be KEPT’). The merge happened and every reference moved, but the old place record was kept. Notes / Warnings says why, for example that it is in a named list, which a plugin cannot change. Once you are happy, remove it from the list and delete it yourself |
| Skipped | The place was left alone. Notes / Warnings gives the reason: too few columns, nothing left for the place, the place no longer exists, or a fact under the place already has an address that the plugin can’t safely combine with the split |
| Error | Something went wrong with this place. The message says what. Other places are still processed |
| Not processed | You cancelled the run before this place was reached |
Typical messages in Notes / Warnings:
| Message | Meaning |
| Check split: 5 columns; most selected places have 6 | This place has a different number of columns from most of the places you chose. Check that it has been split in the right place |
| an address will be added to 3 facts / address added to 3 fact(s) | Facts that had no address are given one |
| 1 existing address will be shortened to “Alexandra Rd-61” | An address that repeated the whole old place name is cut back to the split-off address |
| skipped: this place already has the address “Back bedroom”, which the plugin can’t safely combine with the split; tidy this place by hand | A fact under this place already has a different address, so the place was left exactly as it was. If there is more than one such address the message says how many, and names the first. Change that address (or the place) yourself in Family Historian |
| 2 ‘Address:’ notes will be added | Source places and second places that can’t hold an address are given a note instead |
| 1 source-template place field(s) will change; footnotes built from them will no longer include the address | A source or citation uses this place in a template field. The address is in the note, but not in the footnote |
| the geocode will move to the address | Where the old place’s data goes. The wording changes for the standardised value, notes and media |
| geocode conflict: the existing place will keep its own coordinates; the former ones will go in a note | The destination has different coordinates. Its own are kept, and the old ones are written to a note |
| old place will be deleted / old place deleted | A merged place has been cleared out and removed |
| old place will be KEPT: … / old place KEPT: … | See When an old place is kept |
| 3 note(s) with links retargeted | Notes that linked to the old place now link to the new address (or to the place, if there is no address), keeping their old wording |
Undoing A Run
Undoing A Run
Choose Edit > Undo Plugin Updates in Family Historian. It reverses the whole run, as long as you haven’t closed Family Historian since. Preview never needs undoing, because it changes nothing.
If you have already closed Family Historian, restore your backup instead.
Limitations
Limitations
- Family Historian 8 only: earlier versions have no Address records
- Source template Address fields: by design, Family Historian keeps source and repository addresses as plain text, separate from fact addresses, and only fact addresses are Address records. The plugin leaves those fields alone
- Named lists: plugins can’t change them, so a place in a named list is kept when it would otherwise be deleted
- Footnotes: a source template Place field that is re-pointed no longer gives the address in the footnote. The address is kept in a note on the source or citation
- The split is by column count: the plugin can’t tell what a column contains, so a batch with mixed layouts needs more than one run
- Up to nine address columns: the dropdown offers 1 to 9
- Places only: the plugin changes Place records and what refers to them. It doesn’t look for street names in other fields
Questions And Troubleshooting
Questions And Troubleshooting
Getting help: if something isn’t covered here, ask on the FHUG forums, saying how many address columns you used and what the Result Set showed.
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