Dear FISHers

Having followed this for the past week or so may I put forward my tuppence
worth? The genealogy and local history world, I thought had cracked this one by
adopting the historic counties and parishes for most of the UK. See  for
example
http://www.ex.ac.uk/geography/research/boundaries.html
for background info and details.

Paul Sandford

"Pringle, Mike" wrote:

> Folks,
>
> seems to me that much of this discussion is about what the actual counties
> (or geographical areas) should be called in the real world, but the issue,
> as I understand it, is that we are looking for a useful list of terms that
> divide the 'virtual country' up in a way that means we can sensibly index
> and retrieve records.
>
> As Martin said, we are doing this, essentially, so that users can find
> information. Presumably, therefore, we need a nice, clear, high-level list
> of counties that offers the closest fit to how our users, as a whole, view
> or understand the county structure. This may be a difficult task, if
> politics and/or too much personal opinion take the fore, but it is not
> insurmountable if the job it needs to do is always the primary concern.
>
> The many lists of counties that exist, that mostly appear/change/evolve for
> political reasons, are a fiasco - there needs to be one single list that we
> can all use but, rather than us all theorising about what it could contain,
> perhaps an ordered evaluation of our needs, a survey of our users and a
> structured analysis of the results would provide such a list.
>
> Mike
>
> Dr Mike Pringle
> Technical Manager (Internet & New Media)
>
> English Heritage
> NMRC, Kemble Drive, Swindon SN2 2GZ
> Telephone: +44 (0) 1793 414841
> Mobile: 07768 917 466
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