Gazetteer
Quote from Michael Henry on 2026-08-29, 9:36 amSorry, this is not a SQLite question...
Looking at some of the posts on the RootsMagic forum it appears that the Gazetteer was acquired from a third party and has never been updated. (The data for Vietnam uses adminstrative divisions that were changed in 1997, so the data is at least 30 years old - which is not such a big deal for a historical database, but there are many updates that could be made). I've been working on reverse-engineering the file format and I was wondering if anyone else has already done this? Is anyone aware of any documentation relating to the PlacesDB.dat file?
Sorry, this is not a SQLite question...
Looking at some of the posts on the RootsMagic forum it appears that the Gazetteer was acquired from a third party and has never been updated. (The data for Vietnam uses adminstrative divisions that were changed in 1997, so the data is at least 30 years old - which is not such a big deal for a historical database, but there are many updates that could be made). I've been working on reverse-engineering the file format and I was wondering if anyone else has already done this? Is anyone aware of any documentation relating to the PlacesDB.dat file?
Quote from Richard Otter on 2026-08-29, 11:50 amI can't address the RM gazetteer issue directly, but I've decided to use FamilySearch place database standard names.
As far as I know, it's quite up to date and has an open API that can be queried from the software I'm writing to update the RM database directly.
Not nearly as my convenient as having everything integrated into RM, but I'm not willing to wait for for the gazetteer to be updated.
Richard Otter
I can't address the RM gazetteer issue directly, but I've decided to use FamilySearch place database standard names.
As far as I know, it's quite up to date and has an open API that can be queried from the software I'm writing to update the RM database directly.
Not nearly as my convenient as having everything integrated into RM, but I'm not willing to wait for for the gazetteer to be updated.
Richard Otter
Quote from Tom Holden on 2026-09-01, 5:06 pmHere's a link to an 8-years old enhancement request to make the RM Gazetteer editable. Both Michael's and Richard's approaches to improving support for Places in RootsMagic would be welcome as there is no sign that the developers are going to do anything about it.
It may be slow to load. My chromebook says the Wayback Machine takes too long to respond and displays nada.
Scroll down to the end and you will see a couple of other posts from that era about the Gazetteer. I have a memory of some discussion about its source but I've not been able to find it.
Here's a link to an 8-years old enhancement request to make the RM Gazetteer editable. Both Michael's and Richard's approaches to improving support for Places in RootsMagic would be welcome as there is no sign that the developers are going to do anything about it.
It may be slow to load. My chromebook says the Wayback Machine takes too long to respond and displays nada.
Scroll down to the end and you will see a couple of other posts from that era about the Gazetteer. I have a memory of some discussion about its source but I've not been able to find it.
Quote from kevync on 2026-09-01, 6:33 pmOn FamilySearch Why are some place names very "dirty" ?
I wonder if the place.dat file is editbable with something like MS access or such?
On FamilySearch Why are some place names very "dirty" ?
I wonder if the place.dat file is editbable with something like MS access or such?