Place Names

Place names are handled almost identically to Person names (see Personal Names) and so automatically support name variants and temporal dependencies. This sharing therefore includes the syntax of the <Names> element, Event/date range attributes, and the relaxed name-matching semantics.

The <PlaceName> element is provided as a much simplified alternative to the <Names> element for the case where there are no variations and the matched name is identical to just one canonical name. This is very useful, for instance, in the case of a simple house number or house name. A place-name specified by a <PlaceName> element is the equivalent of a ‘SemiFormal’ Canonical name provided by a <Names> element. When constructing a Place-hierarchy-path then it is this name-type (subject to From/To ranges) that is used for each of the terms. If not provided then the corresponding fall-back sequence is documented under PLACE_REF.

For instance:

<Place Key=’wNotts’>

<Title>Nottingham County</Title>

<Type>County</Type>

<Names>

<Sequences>

<Canonical>Nottinghamshire</Canonical>

<Sequence>

<Tokens>

<Token>Nottinghamshire</Token>

<Token>Notts</Token>

</Tokens>

</Sequence>

</Sequences>

</Names>

</Place>

<Place Key=’wNottm’>

<Title>Nottingham City</Title>

<Type>Town</Type>

<Names>

<Sequences>

<Canonical>Nottingham</Canonical>

<Sequence>

<Tokens>

<Token>Nottingham</Token>

<Token>Nottm</Token>

</Tokens>

</Sequence>

</Sequences>

</Names>

<ParentPlaceLnk Key=’wNotts’/>

</Place>

<Place Key=’wManningGrove’>

<Title>Manning Grove</Title>

<Type>Street</Type>

<Names>

<Sequences>

<Canonical>Manning Grove</Canonical>

<Sequence>

<Tokens>

<Token>Manning</Token>

</Tokens>

<Tokens>

<Token>Grove</Token>

<Token>Gr</Token>

</Tokens>

</Sequence>

</Sequences>

</Names>

<ParentPlaceLnk Key=’wNottm’/>

</Place>

<Place Key=’wManningGrove15’>

<Title> Family Home </Title>

<Type> Number </Type>

<PlaceName> 15 </PlaceName>

<ParentPlaceLnk Key=’wManningGrove’/>

</Place>

In this case, the Place-hierarchy-path reconstructed from the Place-hierarchy would be:

15, Manning Grove, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire

Note that the comma separator is culturally dependent and so is not prescribed by STEMMA. Nor is the ordering (big-to-small or small-to-big). It’s worth emphasising that a Place-hierarchy is not an address, and so issues such as the comma being dropped after the number, or the number appearing after the street in Netherlands, are not prescribed here.

Q: Do we need an optional no-show attribute to omit certain Places when generating a Place-hierarchy-path?