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.

A One-Name Study or Surname Study is a project which investigates the incidences and geographical distribution of the same surname and variants of it, even though the people who bear that surname may not be related to each other. It is not the same as researching ancestors in a pedigree format, or pursuing the descendants of a person. Therefore defining a project is essential, just as it is for a One-Place Study because otherwise it can grow like weeds in summertime.

It may start innocuously as first. Many a family history researcher unwittingly starts a surname study during investigations into their personal family links. Consider all the red herrings, false trails and civil registration certificates that are completely wrong upon delivery. Sometimes people go beyond their comfort zone and pursue people bearing their chosen surname even if only to prove that there is no direct link, which is a result in itself. The remaining data just sits there in a box, waiting for someone to do something with it.

People may limit their enquiries to a geographical area which maybe where the surname originated or where there were prolific instances during a certain time frame. Some are interested in the etymology of the surname and try to pinpoint it to an exact location. Many One-Namers research their surname internationally and link it to a DNA project in an attempt to establish whether the genetic evidence matches the paperwork, often with surprising results.

What is certain is that the amount of data collected for the chosen surname can be tiny if an unusual, low incidence surname survives and massive in the case of the more substantial projects of a common surname such as Metcalfe.

Name and Place enables the One-Namer to record, analyse, map, report and share any amount of data in a fully sourced simplistic manner. Whilst not a family tree package, it can link families together where evidence is found.

When you feel your One-Name Study is like herding cats, call on Name & Place to help you pull it all together and keep it safe.