<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> </head> <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff"> John:<br> <big>I might suggest that Dr Melinda Kashuba has written an excellent book on this subject: "Walking with your ancestors: a genealogists guide to using maps and geography,"  Cincinatti, OH: Family Tree Books, 2005.<br> </big><span style=""><big>The US Dept of Interior Geographic Names Information System GNIS website at <cite><span style="font-style: normal;">geonames.usgs.gov/pls/<span style="">gnis</span>public/ is extremely useful and I use it often to locate cemeteries and towns. It provides names as well as coordinates.<br> Everett Ireland</span></cite></big></span><br> <br> Stephen Danko wrote:<br> <blockquote type="cite" cite="mid252755.1122.qm@web503.biz.mail.mud.yahoo.com"> <style type="text/css"></style> <div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div> <div>John,</div> <div> </div> <div>I agree with the points you make.  Someone else wrote to me off list with the same concerns.  I haven't thought this problem completely through.  For now, as a general rule, I plan to use coordinates to one decimal place to specify a town or village.  If I have an exact address (or location of a tombstone), I'll use four or five decimal places.  Even these plans have their faults.  In any case, if I write a narrative that includes coordinates, I will take your advice and explain my intent.  Perhaps something as simple as "Coordinates expressed to one decimal place denote a general area.  Coordinates expressed to four decimal places denote an exact location" might be sufficient.</div> <div> </div> <div>By the way, where the heck is our esteemed colleague Randy Seaver?  His background and expertise is just what is needed for this discussion!</div> <div> </div> <div>Stephen J. Danko</div> <div><a href="http://www.stephendanko.com/">http://www.stephendanko.com/</a></div> <div> </div> </div> <div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><font size="2" face="Tahoma"> <hr size="1"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> John <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:john@jytangledweb.org"><john@jytangledweb.org></a><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:apgpubliclist@apgen.org">apgpubliclist@apgen.org</a><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Tue, October 26, 2010 9:42:50 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [APG Public List] [APG Members] place names<br> </font><br> Stephen,<br> <br> What you say has truth in it, but in practice one might not<br> make the leap that the number of significant figures presented<br> means that the uncertainty is in the next decimal place.<br> In scientific publications one always attempts a computation<br> of RMSD (root mean square deviation) and write it with a +/-<br> to prevent confusion. Like 37.79507 +/-0.00005</div> </div> </div> </blockquote> <br> <pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">-- Everett B. Ireland, CG CG, Certified Genealogist, is a service mark of the Board for Certification of Genealogists used under license by board certificants after periodic evaluation. </pre> </body> </html>