How do you handle London/Middlesex Places?

[Kewtonia]

I recently got back into research, & changed from PAF to RootsMagic
I decided to merge both my parents trees, as I couldn't think of a good reason to keep them separate anymore, & decided to take the opportunity for a major tidy up.
Merging duplicate sources was pretty easy.

RM wants you to separate street address/hospital/cemetery etc from the location, which is fair enough,
I hadn't realised what a mess many of my places were.
Missing counties, Country, or commas were all pretty easy, to sort, except that RM wants to add United Kingdom after England, or Scotland & I don't, & I haven't found an easy way to handle that.

Then you get to London/Middlesex 
for a start RM's gazetteer seems to think nearly everywhere in London, is in Middlesex, regardless of date, so there is no easy solution there, I have to check each record to see if it's listed as Middlesex or London.

But even that isn't as straightforward as you'd think
for instance
1853 death certificate,
Shoreditch, Haggerstone West, Middlesex

2 Hertford Street, Shoreditch

1855 birth certificate,
Shoreditch, Haggerstone West, Middlesex

2 Hertford Street, Haggerstone, Shoreditch

1857 birth certificate,
Shoreditch, Haggerstone West, Middlesex

2 Hertford Street, Shoreditch

1859 birth certificate,
Shoreditch, Haggerstone West, Middlesex

2 Hertford Street, Shoreditch


1867 death certificate,
Shoreditch, Haggerstone West, Middlesex

11 Hertford Street, Haggerstone

I've got the same sort of problem with
numerous other places in London/Middlesex, & I'm not really sure,
what the correct address form would be.

How do you handle entries like this?

[KGarrad]

I think you are looking at 2 distinct things here!

The certificates are from the county of Middlesex, Registration District of Shoreditch, Sub-Distict of Haggerston West.

The street address is stated as Hertford Street, Shoreditch.


And what have you got against the United Kingdom?!

[Kewtonia]

I think you are looking at 2 distinct things here!

The certificates are from the county of Middlesex, Registration District of Shoreditch, Sub-Distict of Haggerston West.

The street address is stated as Hertford Street, Shoreditch.


And what have you got against the United Kingdom?!

Nothing against the United Kingdom, just don't feel it's necessary to use it, it makes it all so clunky.

It's the addresses that are different although for the same street,  & I wasn't sure if there is a correct form, & what others would use, would they standardise, or use each one as in the certificate.


2 Hertford Street, Shoreditch
2 Hertford Street, Haggerstone, Shoreditch
2 Hertford Street, Shoreditch
2 Hertford Street, Shoreditch
11 Hertford Street, Haggerstone

[dawnsh]

If you've got a reference library close to you, have a look to see if they have a copy of Phillimores Atlas & Index of Parish Registers. The book is divided up into counties and has clear maps of where places are.

If you can't get hold of that then Genuki has loads of information.

In a nutshell....

Historically, 'London' is considered to be the Ancient Parishes within what is now the 'Square Mile' or City of London.

Middlesex is everthing outside of that to the West, North & East.

South of the River Thames you are into Surrey.

It's hard to remember that until about 250 years ago, the area was made up of villages.

Have a look at Mapco (or other sites) to see historic maps and see how the area has grown & spread.

(There could also have been an element of snobbery describing where you live, there is even now)

[KGarrad]

I don't think that, in the 1850's, there was such a thing as a "correct form" for an address?!

If a postman could deliver a letter, then the address was correct!


The same can even be said of some addresses today?
I live in a terrace of 25 houses.
The name of the terrace is sufficient for letters to arrive here - the street name is not needed.
But sometimes (particularly online shopping!) the street name is required!

[StevieSteve]

I'm certainly no expert but this is how I would do it

Place: Shoreditch, London, England
Address: 2 Hertford Street, Haggerstone

My thoughts are that when you display your info then you may just see so-and-so was born in {place field}. If you enter that as Haggerstone then people are just going to go 'Where's that?'

While it may be correct that Shoreditch is in Middlesex, to me, it doesn't sound right   

[JohninSussex]

If it was me I would ignore the gazetteer provided and just decide on a consistent way of presenting each place.  It is a good idea, though, to separate the church/hospital/house from the place.

Without knowing your software I don't know how easy it is to ignore the inbuilt gazetteer but it will make the problem you described go away.