There are even smaller areas that received nicknames over the years. My mom-in-law always referred to one area as the Patch. On a census I found, on the left-hand column, a reference to Groves Patch. I'm now using that as in ...Area, Township, County, State, Country. It pinpoints exactly where they lived.
I've also started using defining words in names. Such as: Benjamin "Magnolia" Wallick. There are quite a few Benjamin Wallicks in my line and by inserting the city, "Magnolia", where he lived, I know immediately which one he is. Sally Miller Hindley In a message dated 8/2/2010 11:20:25 AM Eastern Daylight Time, seh0...@gmail.com writes: Brian: This is an excellent system I think I'll adopt. I notice Slawson's "Getting it Right" is silent on this point, but provides examples that use descriptors such as "City" or "County", especially when the city / town and county share the same name. I adopted the "four comma" approach when I switched to Legacy, principally because I got better verification from the GeoDB. I'm now of the opinion that the GeoDB be damned, adding "County" or "Township" helps avoid ambiguity. I think the four comma approach is still a good alternative, but the "straw" that pushes me to modify it to an approach similar to yours is that I find it too common that the "city" is not often known, and in many cases may be the town or township. For example, a record for one of my ancestors may indicate an event that took place in Muncy, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. Is that Muncy Borough or Muncy Township? How would you record it if you did not know? The trick in getting this right is knowing each state's govermental entity hierarchy. Having grown up in New York State, I am used to the Village inside a Town inside a County system. For example, I grew up just outside of Shortsville, a small incorporated village in the town of Manchester, which is located in Ontario County. Despite having a Shortsville mailing address and attedning the Manchester-Shortsville school system, I actually lived inside the neighboring town of Hopewell, within no incorporated village. So, if one were listing where I spend my childhood, it would be: Town of Hopewell, Ontario County, New York, USA While I could just say "Hopewell" and leave off town, it would become ambigous if I were referring to Manchester, the neighboring town where I went to school, as the Town of Manchester has within it a village also named Manchester. So, like the Muncy example, clarity come from listing like this: Village of Manchester (or just Manchester), Town of Manchester, Ontario County, New York, USA But here is the $64,000 question.... the "four comma" approach says city OR town, county, state, country. Is it then overkill to consistently use a five comma approach? A month ago I might of said yes, but now I say no. What do you think? In Massachusetts, where I live now, the system is similar, except there are no incorporated villages or any incorporated government below the town level. There are plenty of unincorporated villages and places, but the lowest level of government is the town. As with New York, towns are within counties, although some Massachusetts counties have been disbanded and exist only for historical geographic purposes (such as Hampden County). I currently live within the Town of Grafton, located in Worcester County. Thus the listing could be: Grafton, Worcester County, Massachusetts, USA Beacuse there is nothing lower than Grafton, it is probably not necessary to say "Town of Grafton". But now we have state-by-state variation, and that could get confusing. While Massachusetts is similar to Pennsylvania in that the town (MA) or township / borough (PA) is the lowest form of government, its different from that of NY, where villages are smaller that towns. So, although obvious, perhaps its better to say: Town of Grafton, Worcester County, Massachusetts, USA which would align the method with that of New York. Thoughts? Scott Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyusers.com/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergr...@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
