The question came from Bob Richardson.
It seems to me that nobody born on this side of the pond, prior to 1781, or perhaps 1776, should show the country as USA. It didn't even exist.
Note: "4-part location" refers to the genealogical practice of always providing 4 levels of jurisdiction for every location regardless of whether you know what to put in each jurisdiction at the time you enter the location in your database. The four jurisdictions are separated by commas. Basically the jurisdictions are: town/township/city, county/shire, state/province, country. What you enter should always reflect the information as it existed at the time of the incident. This format may vary in other parts of the world but the locality always starts with the smallest jurisdiction and each part is separated by commas.
Examples:
, , , USA
, , Washington, USA
, Island County, Washington, USA (note the use of the word County when the town/township/city is not known)
Coupeville, Island, Washington, USA
Saturday, January 17, 2009
5 comments:
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The intention of using the name that belonged to the place at the time is to be able to follow records, and to allow others to follow records. That is, if Chemung township was in Montgomery County, then Tioga County, then Chemung County, the records might well be in all three courthouses or some other repository for the county as it was in the period.
ReplyDeleteI work with this problem often in early Canada, since my people went to what is now Ontario in 1806. When they were first there, there were few people in large districts, which changed names, i.e. Home District, Upper Canada.
I show this as
Nelson Township, ,Home District, Upper Canada
and in my notes for that entry:
now Burlington, Halton, Ontario, Canada.
Later, it became the Gore District:
Nelson Township, , Gore District, Upper Canada
and in my notes for that entry:
now Burlington, Halton, Ontario, Canada
Then it became Halton County, then Canada West, etc. Over a period I have quite the combinations of names.
You might think that all the records for Plymouth are in the USA, so why not put USA? I have found, however, that there are records in the British Archives that have referred to the colonies when they had control. Would you want to exclude those? It would be easy to do if the political affiliations weren't clear -- which is why the British American Colonies, [or whatever] reminds us that another country was in control and might have our information.
It would depend on the year. Using the information on the First 13 colonies along with some additional information from “ask a librarian” I believe the correct answer to Bob’s question is:
ReplyDelete•from 1620 – 1690: Plymouth, , Plymouth Colony, British American Colonies
•1691 – 1774: Plymouth, , Province of Massachusetts Bay, British American Colonies
•1774 – 1787 ???? The Massachusetts State Library states that the Province of Mass. Bay ended in 1774. Massachusetts became a state in 1788 so I guess the period from 1774-1787 is still in question.
•1788 on: Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
Note: the “British American Colonies” could also be “North America” or “New England”.
To make this question more general and applicable to more situations: Is there a standardized way to indicate both the location at the time of the event and the name of the location now? This comes up quite a lot in my research with states and counties that have split and been renamed, and also with locations that have "moved" from one country to another in Europe as the result of a treaty or military action. I've indicated such in my records like this:
ReplyDeleteCabell County (now Logan County), Virginia (now West Virginia), USA
You need the original name to know where to find county records, but it seems incomplete without some acknowledgement that the name/jurisdiction has changed.
This also comes up with assigning events in years prior to 1752 (in England at least) when New Year's Day was changed from March to January. Is anyone aware of a standard way to record the duality of dates?
Beware of software differences with respect to locations!!
ReplyDeleteMost of this discussion has dealt with the way in which Legacy deals with locations. Other programs don't expect or require the 'comma' notation and some don't want the word 'county' as part of the location.
Just be aware that you need to be familiar with the requirements of the software you use!
With respect to 'odd' locations, you might want to create a new 'fact' like 'alternate location name' or something else descriptive. Another possibility might be 'Location Information'. In any case, make sure the information is somewhere in the 'Notes' area.
ReplyDelete