One problem with that system is that it may give future researchers a wrong location for additional searching. For example, if a person was born, married, and died in a certain county in Ohio, but the county boundary lines changed after his death so that the locations of his birth and burial place may be in the newly formed county, in many instances the records of his birth, marriage, and other events remain in the old county. Future researchers will be looking for copies of birth, marriage, and death certificates or evidence of other family members in the wrong county (sometimes in the wrong state). I know you said you include appropriate historical notes in the adjacent note field but these notes may not be present on every gedcom or other published record of your file. If you upload your family file to any one of the many genealogical web databases on the web, not all of them are so perfect as to include the users notes.
There is no perfect solution to this. So whatever method one chooses, they have to be happy with it and hope future readers of his information realize that land boundaries change all the time which also means that location names change all the time. I go crazy enough with many of my ancestors from either Prussia or Germany, depending on the year. Brian in CA From: Jerry [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2014 10:11 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Data Entry..... It's a hot topic and will continue to be so, but our preference is to use the modern name in the location field itself with appropriate historical notes in the adjacent note field. You get a much cleaner and "easier to use" master locations list in alphabetical order when everything is standardized. Jerry Boor, MerriamFamilyTree.org On 12/24/2014 10:59 AM, David Abernathy wrote: There is NO correct way. What works for you, but you need to be consistent. I try and used the location name at the time of the event. The location database will most likely show errors, but then it is not worth much anyway. None of the location databases with ANY family research program will have any of the History names. Without the correct name at the time of the event, then a lot of happenings just will not make sense. As stated before, it is your call Thanks, David C Abernathy Email disclaimers ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This message represents the official view of the voices in my head. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.SchmeckAbernathy.com == All outgoing and incoming mail is scanned by F-Prot Antivirus == -----Original Message----- From: singhals [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2014 7:40 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Data Entry..... W. Bruce Matson wrote: Hello, Is there a more “correct†way of entering data for a person living during American Colonial times? For example, a person living in York, Maine in 1661 wouldn’t technically be correct. Would it be better to enter, York, York County (even though the County probably didn’t exist then), Maine, British Colonial/ North America? Certainly, the USA hadn’t been formed that early. .Any suggestions how others of you might deal with this. Thanks for any advice/input. Bruce Matson Mount Vernon, WA IME, it depends on (a) what, exactly, you intend to do with the data, (b) who you wish to impress, (c) your personal feelings about picayune details. If I'm compiling a tree for a lineage society, I ask them what THEY want it to say -- because if I do it differently, they'll reject it and make me do it twice. If I'm keeping a database for family, there's NO profit/point to saying that x was in Virginia because everyone who looks at it will complain that it's really in Ohio (yeah, is now; at the time, that was Ohio county, Va, though). If I'm using the database for tracking something, I use whatever the source document says. Since I work mostly South of the Mason-Dixon Line, I've never seen British Colonial America or even British North America in an original document. Not saying there isn't one, just that I've never seen it. I've seen State of Virginia, Commonwealth of Virginia, Province of Maryland, Province of North Carolina, Proprietorship of Pennsylvania ... but never with "America" appended. Either way, I say in the NOTES either what the doc actually said or where the place is today, whichever I need to clarify. Worth what you paid for the opinion, however. Essentially, your call. Cheryl Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://support.legacyfamilytree.com Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
