🧭 Managing Your Places Guide for LineagePress

The Places section in LineagePress is essential for maintaining, cleaning, and enhancing all location data in your genealogy database. It is structured into three primary tabs: All Places, Merge Duplicates, and Geocoding.

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1. All Places Tab

This is the comprehensive list of all location records, offering search, filtering, and manual editing capabilities.

Key Features and Use

Feature	Description	Use When
Search/Filter	Find places by name or use the Filter by Tree option to narrow results.	Locate a specific place or view locations associated with one family tree.
View Details	Displays coordinates, tree association, and a usage count for the place.	Checking the correct spelling, coordinates, or how often a location appears in your data.
Edit Places	Opens a form to manually modify the Place Name, Latitude, and Longitude.	Fixing typos, standardizing a single format, or correcting geocoding errors.

Edit vs. Merge

Action	When to Use	Key Impact
Edit	To fix a typo or correct coordinates for a single existing place record.	Updates the place name/coordinates across ALL events and all trees using that single record.
Merge	To combine multiple duplicate or varying entries (e.g., “NYC” and “New York City”) into one canonical record.	Eliminates redundant records, updating thousands of events to use the chosen canonical name.

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2. Merge Duplicates Tab

This tab identifies and consolidates redundant or identical place entries to improve data quality and consistency.

Key Functions and How Merging Works

Card	Description	Benefit
Merge Status	Shows total places, duplicate groups, and the number of places to merge.	Provides metrics on the consistency of your database.
Auto-Merge	Merge All Duplicates automatically processes exact, case-insensitive matches (25 groups/batch).	Fast data cleanup to reduce database size and improve consistency.
Manual Scan	Finds duplicates and allows you to manually select which to merge and which canonical name to keep.	Provides control for merging similar but not identical places where confirmation is needed.
Recent Activity	Logs timestamps and the specific place names that were merged.	Provides an audit trail for all consolidation changes.

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3. Geocoding Tab

This section integrates map functionality by adding Latitude/Longitude coordinates to your places using an external service.

Feature	Description	Best Practice
Geocoding Status	Tracks progress, the current status, and counts of places with and without coordinates.	Monitor the job status, especially for large databases.
Background Mode	Start/Resume runs the geocoding automatically via WordPress cron (1 place per minute).	Recommended for large databases (500+ places) to prevent timeouts and respect API rate limits.
Manual Mode	Geocode All processes places while the page is open (5 places every 10 seconds).	Suitable for small databases or after adding a few new places.
Merge Coordinates	Copies existing coordinates from a place with the same name to places currently missing coordinates.	Useful after a new import if the location already has geocoding data from a previous run.

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Best Practices and Recommended Workflow

⭐ CRITICAL RULE: Always merge duplicates BEFORE geocoding.

Merging first is crucial because it reduces the number of unique places, significantly saves API calls (which often cost money), and ensures accuracy by geocoding one canonical name instead of multiple duplicates.

Step	Action	Rationale
1. Merge	Merge Duplicates Tab: Run “Merge All Duplicates,” then review and run “Manual Scan” if needed.	Clean the data and establish canonical names.
2. Geocode	Geocoding Tab: Select Background Mode for large databases ( places) or Manual Mode for smaller ones.	Obtain coordinates for map display and site features.
3. Verify	All Places Tab: Spot-check coordinates and review the Recent Activity logs.	Ensure data integrity and correct any geocoding errors.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Topic	Question & Answer
Editing	Q: If I edit a place name, does it affect all trees? A: Yes. Places are a shared resource, so the name change updates across all events in all trees using that place record.
Undo	Q: Can I undo an edit or a merge? A: No automatic undo is available. Always backup your database before performing bulk changes.
Geocoding Speed	Q: Why is geocoding slow? A: It is rate-limited (e.g., 1 per minute in background) to comply with the geocoding service’s API limits and prevent server timeouts.
Troubleshooting	Q: What if a place gets wrong coordinates? A: Go to the All Places Tab, click Edit on the place, and manually enter the correct latitude/longitude.
Duplicates	Q: What if I have “Springfield, IL” and “Springfield, MA”? A: These will not auto-merge as the names are different. Auto-merge only handles exact, sanitized duplicates.