Clarification of "USA too early" errors

Question

Hello all,

I'm currently working on the 603 Data Errors: USA too early in birth location. I've come across several of them which have been "previously fixed", where people have replaced USA with United States.

As far as I am aware, the data error occurs because the United States did not exist. Whether the terms "USA", "United States", "United States of America", or "America" are used, the result is the same. The entity of the United States did not exist during the parameters which have been set for the error, which is why the error is occuring.

There is a fantastic spreadsheet of Colonial North American place names which shows what name the states went by previously. I've been using it as a guide for when I am correcting the errors, especially considering that I am not American, and I think it's a great resource for people working on these errors.

Just something I've noticed over the past couple of days which I thought I would point out. I'm not having a go, I promise :-D

Amy

Answer 1

Data Doctor Spreadsheet 'States' tab has that information

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jlRaiRtaMEpsPdeuRLS2ids4HAXJyGVCKiQyEMh4NNE/edit#gid=667189750

You are correct that the error is shown if any version of US is included in the location.

In the Error explanation page, one of the Action steps states 

• Remove the country name (USA or variation) since it did not exist during this time period.

Comments

I added a link to that spreadsheet in my question :) Thank you for adding the action steps!

Answer 2

Thanks Amy, this will be a great help for me when I clean the "USA too early" in the Cleanathon.