Name & Place at RootsTech, Salt Lake City, February 2020

Wednesday, 26th Feb 2020 saw the launch of Name & Place, the innovative cloud database and mapping software. It was perhaps befitting that the launch took place in Salt Lake City, Utah where RootsTech, the world’s largest family history event was meeting to celebrate its tenth anniversary.

Name & Place, developed by Paul Carter, meets a need to manage research projects with a scope outside of traditional family history; the One-Place Study , One-Name Study, Local History Project or House History.

In contrast to the key assumption shared by family tree software, that the research subjects are related through birth or marriage, Name & Place empowers the researcher to define the scope of their project, whether the people simply lived, worked or were buried in the same place or just shared a common surname. A spreadsheet, the typical alternative explored by such researchers, lends itself well to structured data entry but fails quickly when attempting to layer multiple datasets and analyse results.

Name & Place’s unique ability to integrate names, places and sources through record linkage opens up a world of examining research data at a holistic level before drilling down to each event or fact. Names and places interact, through the source record, the common glue of research. Each name, place, event and fact may be captured, and the individual records automatically updated.

By defining a location for each place within the project, powerful mapping analysis becomes possible, tracking migration patterns or population changes throughout your research. Layer photographs and documents, linked to a name, place or source, and your project comes to life with colour and context. As a cloud-based solution, each Name & Place project comes with a dedicated web page, enabling you to promote your project to the online world with the aim of interacting with interested parties.

Your project’s scope is constrained solely by your requirements. Research of a graveyard or war memorial is as managed equally as well as a ship history, a DNA study or a worldwide surname project. Whatever the focus of your project, you will find Name & Place intuitive, powerful and above all, specifically designed to fit your research needs.

See how Name & Place can help your research. A free two-week evaluation copy is available when you register at www.nameandplace.com.

Walk outside into the street where you live and really take notice of your surroundings.

Houses may have been built at different times where there were once fields. Consider why. Was there a local business who needed to attract a workforce? The establishment of ICI fibres in the Crimple Valley (Crimplene), Harrogate triggered an explosion of property development in less than a decade. More recently, housing estates were created to accommodate a growing and ageing population. The breakdown of traditional family units added to the need for more social housing.

Consider your neighbours, their occupations and how they currently contribute to local society. Are some involved as a volunteers say for the church, neighbourhood watch, scouts, playgroups and other community activities such as sports clubs?

Think about what is happening now in the local, national and international arena which is impacting today on daily life. Brexit, referenda, terrorism, traffic, food banks, immigration. How are politics and legislation impacting on our lives?

Cast your mind back a few hundred years and imagine how people must have been affected by the decisions of the manorial court and the vestry together with the impact of enclosures, railways, industrialisation, poverty, poor health and high death rates.

Look at your study through the eyes of a living person and wake up those dry and dusty records. Watch them spring to life.