Resolving place names in Family Tree Maker
Family Tree Maker checks every location you type against a database of more than three million place names. Anything it cannot match gets a question mark and waits for you. Most researchers either accept every suggestion without reading it, or ignore the whole workspace for years. Both cost you accuracy.
- Applies to
- FTM 2024 · 2019 · 2017
- Platform
- Windows & macOS
- Time
- ~30 min
What the question mark actually means
A question mark beside a place in the Places workspace means one of three things, and none of them means you made a mistake:
- A spelling the database does not hold. Historic parishes and small hamlets frequently fall outside it.
- Missing detail, most often an absent county or state.
- An entry that was never a place, such as a hospital name or the words "at home".
Places arriving from a GEDCOM import get checked the same way, which is why a tree imported from another program lights up with question marks on the first open.
Running Resolve All Place Names
The workspace hands you every unmatched place in one list, each with a suggested replacement.
Back up first. This process rewrites location data across the whole tree. See backing up a tree file.
Open the Places workspace from the top menu.
Run Resolve All Place Names. Each unrecognised place appears with its suggestion beside it.
Work down the list deliberately rather than accepting everything at once.
The five options, and when each is right
| Option | What it does | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Unrecognized Place Name | Keeps your wording exactly as typed | Your source names a parish the database lacks |
| Suggested Place Name | Replaces yours with the database version | The suggestion is a genuine correction, such as a spelling or a missing county |
| Other | Shows alternative matches | The suggestion is wrong but a correct match probably exists |
| Desc | Moves the text into the fact Description field | The entry was never a place: a hospital, a ship, or "at home" |
| Ignore | Marks the place as recognised permanently | Your wording is right and you want the query to stop |
Desc is the option almost nobody finds, and it solves a real problem. A birth recorded at a named hospital belongs in the description, not in the place hierarchy, and moving it there stops the entry polluting your location list forever.
Accepting every suggestion rewrites history. The database holds modern administrative places. Boundaries moved, counties merged, and parishes vanished. A suggestion that renames a nineteenth-century parish to its present-day county makes your tree disagree with the certificate it came from.
Merging duplicate spellings
Years of research produce the same town three ways. Family Tree Maker treats each spelling as a separate place, which splits your location reports and your map.
Back up. The publisher documentation does not state what happens to facts attached to the replaced place, so work from a copy you can return to.
Open the Places workspace and select the spelling you want to replace in the left panel.
Open the Place menu and choose Replace with other place name. Older editions label this Merge with other place.
Pick the correct place from the Index of Places and click OK.
Confirm, then check several people who used that location before merging the next one.
Where the database runs out
The database covers administrative places rather than every district within them. Large cities are commonly held at city level, so a district or suburb name gets flagged even though it is correct. London districts, for instance, sit below the level the hierarchy models.
Choose Ignore for these. Your wording is right, the database simply does not go that deep, and ignoring stops the same query returning at every review.
What travels to Ancestry, and what does not
Place names themselves sync. Two related things do not: short place names and GPS coordinates stay in your local file. Time spent adding coordinates for mapping is time invested in your own copy alone, so protect it with a local backup rather than relying on the online tree.
The same applies to several other kinds of data, which is covered in the notes guide.
Two things about places that never reach the online tree
Tidy your place names, sync, and some of that work stays on your own machine. It is by design rather than a fault, and it catches people who assume the two copies match once a sync finishes.
- Short place names. The abbreviated display name you set for a long place does not travel. The full name does.
- Map coordinates. Latitude and longitude you resolved or entered by hand stay in your file only.
While you are tidying places, two other reports pair naturally with this job. The Data Errors Report in the Publish workspace catches impossible dates and broken links, and Find Duplicate People on the Edit menu catches the records that unresolved places tend to hide. A file with hundreds of unresolved places is also the file that stalls uploads, so clearing them pays off twice.
Neither is lost. Both live in the file on your desk, which is another reason to back that file up rather than treat the online tree as the safe copy. It also explains why the Places workspace is the feature researchers most often name when asked what the desktop program does that the website does not: searching your whole tree by town or county is something the online tree has no equivalent for.
Frequently asked questions
What does the question mark next to a place name mean?
Family Tree Maker checked that place against its database of more than three million place names and found no match, a misspelling, or missing detail such as a county. The question mark marks it for review rather than reporting an error.
How do I resolve place names in Family Tree Maker?
Open the Places workspace and run Resolve All Place Names. Each unrecognised place appears with a suggested replacement, and you choose to keep yours, accept the suggestion, see other matches, move the text to the description field, or ignore it permanently.
What does the Desc button do when resolving places?
It moves the text out of the fact Place field and into the Description field. Use it when the entry was never a place, such as a hospital name or the phrase "at home".
How do I merge two spellings of the same place?
Open the Places workspace, select the place you want to replace, then choose Replace with other place name from the Place menu. Pick the correct place from the Index of Places and confirm. Back up first.
Should I accept every suggested place name?
No. The database holds modern place names, and historical boundaries moved. Accepting a suggestion that renames a nineteenth-century parish to its modern county changes what your source actually said.
Do place names sync to Ancestry?
The place names themselves sync. Short place names and GPS coordinates do not, so those exist only in your local file.
Why is my town missing from the place database?
The database covers administrative places rather than every suburb or district. Large cities are often held at city level, so a district name gets flagged. Choose Ignore to stop it being queried again.
Hundreds of places flagged after an import?
We work through the list with you and separate real corrections from suggestions that rewrite your sources.